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End of Equality
Among liberal thinkers, there is an optimistic belief that men and women are on a cultural journey toward equality—in the workplace, on the street, and in the home. But observation and evidence both tell us that in many ways this progress has stopped and in some cases, even reversed.
In The End of Equality , renowned feminist Beatrix Campbell argues that even as the patriarchy has lost some of its legitimacy, new inequalities are emerging in our culture. We are living, Campbell writes, in an era of neo-patriarchy in which violence has proliferated; body anxiety and self-hatred have flourished; rape is committed with impunity; sex trafficking thrives, and the struggle for equal pay is at an end. After four decades observing society, Campbell still speaks of the long-sought goal of gender equality. But now she calls for a new revolution.
In The End of Equality , renowned feminist Beatrix Campbell argues that even as the patriarchy has lost some of its legitimacy, new inequalities are emerging in our culture. We are living, Campbell writes, in an era of neo-patriarchy in which violence has proliferated; body anxiety and self-hatred have flourished; rape is committed with impunity; sex trafficking thrives, and the struggle for equal pay is at an end. After four decades observing society, Campbell still speaks of the long-sought goal of gender equality. But now she calls for a new revolution.
134 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 11, 2021
Another great book, short but sweet. I have read a lot of it before but it is greatly written with a variety of references. My favourite part was about time. The inequality of time worked.
April 5, 2019
A short, brief look at the status of women in the world. It is a depressing and horrifying account of how women continue to be oppressed and abused - economically, socially, culturally and violently. Beatrix Campbell calls for a new women's revolution to overcome the neopatriarchal and neoliberal matrix.
June 4, 2014
Equality is a perplexing thing, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to decipher what equality actually looks like, it just seems like a corporate term that makes companies look good – ‘an equal opportunities employer‘ they put on their job ads. The title of award winning writer Beatrix Campbell’s latest book ‘The End of Equality’ (note the title is posed as a missive rather than a question) drew me in. It’s not the first time I’ve come across her work outside of her columns for the Guardian, a few years ago I was engrossed in ‘Goliath’, a book that chronicled the link between hyper masculinity and economic recession.
End of Equality chronicles the link between increasing gender inequality in the age of rampant Capitalism looking at the examples of the burgeoning economies of India, China and Latin America and with dogmatic research (the book has 198 notes at the back) shows that with a rising GDP comes more inequality between the sexes, more violence, more oppression than ever before, or as Campbell posits:-
‘…with Neo-liberalism comes Neo-Patriarchy…’
I was in a short conversation with an acquaintance about this book, and she said ‘it’s a bit depressing, isn’t it?’ Yes, that we have to keep outlining what’s happening to Woman all over the world in 2014 when there’s absolutely no excuse for it. The tragic proof of that is with the slaughtering of Women in America and the hashtag #YesAllWomen that arose with tens of thousands of Women’s truths being aired. But this is in the mist of a tragedy, second wave feminism rose on the truths of Women being aired publicly after centuries of tragedy, it was supposed to be over with equal pay acts, sexual discrimination laws supposedly cemented in law. Campbell outlines some of these victories: the ones that didn’t get a hashtag, like that of the unions taking councils to court over not paying compensation to Women workers who were unlawfully paid less than their male counterparts; the unions won, the only headline was that of the councils having to sell the ‘silverware’ to give women workers what was legally theirs.That’s what’s depressing, victories don’t warrant a hashtag only tragedy does.
End of Equality is a quick, jargon free read. It outlines the way that hyper capitalism does not empower but exploits. Sometimes it’s hard to look to the future for what it could be, there’s always so much going on right now; I’ll leave the final word to Beatrix:-
‘Imagine men without violence. Imagine sex without violence. Imagine that men stop stealing our stuff-our time, our money, our bodies; imagine societies that share the cost of care, that share the costs of everything… it is do-able, reasonable and revolutionary.’
End of Equality chronicles the link between increasing gender inequality in the age of rampant Capitalism looking at the examples of the burgeoning economies of India, China and Latin America and with dogmatic research (the book has 198 notes at the back) shows that with a rising GDP comes more inequality between the sexes, more violence, more oppression than ever before, or as Campbell posits:-
‘…with Neo-liberalism comes Neo-Patriarchy…’
I was in a short conversation with an acquaintance about this book, and she said ‘it’s a bit depressing, isn’t it?’ Yes, that we have to keep outlining what’s happening to Woman all over the world in 2014 when there’s absolutely no excuse for it. The tragic proof of that is with the slaughtering of Women in America and the hashtag #YesAllWomen that arose with tens of thousands of Women’s truths being aired. But this is in the mist of a tragedy, second wave feminism rose on the truths of Women being aired publicly after centuries of tragedy, it was supposed to be over with equal pay acts, sexual discrimination laws supposedly cemented in law. Campbell outlines some of these victories: the ones that didn’t get a hashtag, like that of the unions taking councils to court over not paying compensation to Women workers who were unlawfully paid less than their male counterparts; the unions won, the only headline was that of the councils having to sell the ‘silverware’ to give women workers what was legally theirs.That’s what’s depressing, victories don’t warrant a hashtag only tragedy does.
End of Equality is a quick, jargon free read. It outlines the way that hyper capitalism does not empower but exploits. Sometimes it’s hard to look to the future for what it could be, there’s always so much going on right now; I’ll leave the final word to Beatrix:-
‘Imagine men without violence. Imagine sex without violence. Imagine that men stop stealing our stuff-our time, our money, our bodies; imagine societies that share the cost of care, that share the costs of everything… it is do-able, reasonable and revolutionary.’
November 7, 2024
3.5
““'Gender justice' is impossible in an 'inherently male' economy that does not integrate paid and unpaid domestic work or men's and women's differential bargaining power in public and private, says the ILO, women should not be forced to fit a masculine economy, we need a 'new gender approach,' a 'broader paradigm.”
Well articulated and explained unfortunately nothing new with a small Eurocentric bias (but small enough to ignore I suppose)
““'Gender justice' is impossible in an 'inherently male' economy that does not integrate paid and unpaid domestic work or men's and women's differential bargaining power in public and private, says the ILO, women should not be forced to fit a masculine economy, we need a 'new gender approach,' a 'broader paradigm.”
Well articulated and explained unfortunately nothing new with a small Eurocentric bias (but small enough to ignore I suppose)
June 6, 2015
Reads like it was written in a rush, but that just adds to the sense of energy of this far reaching overview, which draws in everything from The Wire's mythology of modern capitalism to the equal pay protocols in the 1919 Treaty of Versailles as part of its argument that increased market liberalisation has been built on the manipulation of women's "traditional" (i.e. patriarchally prescribed)roles.
As Campbell put it when I saw her giving a talk on this subject in September 2014, for all the rhetoric of freedom through (consumer) choice, "the labours of love and care are still gendered" worldwide. End of Equality goes significantly further than this in exploring the different modes of exploitation that are built into global capitalism, and as such its hurried, glancing overview is every bit as urgent as its tone would suggest.
As Campbell put it when I saw her giving a talk on this subject in September 2014, for all the rhetoric of freedom through (consumer) choice, "the labours of love and care are still gendered" worldwide. End of Equality goes significantly further than this in exploring the different modes of exploitation that are built into global capitalism, and as such its hurried, glancing overview is every bit as urgent as its tone would suggest.
August 24, 2015
Disappointingly, I learned nothing new from reading this.
June 8, 2023
Never once should someone ask: “Does the world hate women?” Because the answer is an irrefutable yes with a follow up of “What rock were you living under and can I go there now?”
Beatrix does a considerable job providing snippets to provide proof of this, and its a great read for people wanting to explore women’s (hopeful) rights, and basic back bone to feminism. She doesn’t spend an awfully long time on every topic but it’s so resourceful and quotable. If only this could be a mandated read.
Some quotes that will stick with me forever, down below:
“Sex work only exists insofar as sexism exists.”
“A priority for militarism, is how violent masculinities are made and maintained”
“Millions of women live in societies where violence or death is the penalty for answering back, loving another man, loving a woman, giving birth, going to school. Two women die every week in England because some man whom some woman doesn't love anymore simply wants to kill her. More than hundred million women are missing worldwide, dead from neglect.”
“But evolution towards equality is a fiction anda fraud. Women are not evolutionary failures.
Men seized the means of organization, men made the world's political systems and parties in their own interests and men still speak to women with forked tongue.”
Beatrix does a considerable job providing snippets to provide proof of this, and its a great read for people wanting to explore women’s (hopeful) rights, and basic back bone to feminism. She doesn’t spend an awfully long time on every topic but it’s so resourceful and quotable. If only this could be a mandated read.
Some quotes that will stick with me forever, down below:
“Sex work only exists insofar as sexism exists.”
“A priority for militarism, is how violent masculinities are made and maintained”
“Millions of women live in societies where violence or death is the penalty for answering back, loving another man, loving a woman, giving birth, going to school. Two women die every week in England because some man whom some woman doesn't love anymore simply wants to kill her. More than hundred million women are missing worldwide, dead from neglect.”
“But evolution towards equality is a fiction anda fraud. Women are not evolutionary failures.
Men seized the means of organization, men made the world's political systems and parties in their own interests and men still speak to women with forked tongue.”
October 23, 2023
Never once should someone ask: “Does the world hate women?” Because the answer is an irrefutable yes with a follow up of “What rock were you living under and can I go there now?”
Beatrix does a considerable job providing snippets to provide proof of this, and it is a great read for people wanting to explore women’s (hopeful) rights, and basic back bone to feminism. She doesn’t spend an awfully long time on every topic but it’s so resourceful and quotable. If only this could be a mandated read.
Some quotes that will stick with me forever, down below:
“Sex work only exists insofar as sexism exists.”
“A priority for militarism, is how violent masculinities are made and maintained”
“Millions of women live in societies where violence or death is the penalty for answering back, loving another man, loving a woman, giving birth, going to school. Two women die every week in England because some man whom some woman doesn't love anymore simply wants to kill her. More than hundred million women are missing worldwide, dead from neglect.”
“But evolution towards equality is a fiction and a fraud. Women are not evolutionary failures.
Men seized the means of organization, men made the world's political systems and parties in their own interests and men still speak to women with forked tongue.”
Beatrix does a considerable job providing snippets to provide proof of this, and it is a great read for people wanting to explore women’s (hopeful) rights, and basic back bone to feminism. She doesn’t spend an awfully long time on every topic but it’s so resourceful and quotable. If only this could be a mandated read.
Some quotes that will stick with me forever, down below:
“Sex work only exists insofar as sexism exists.”
“A priority for militarism, is how violent masculinities are made and maintained”
“Millions of women live in societies where violence or death is the penalty for answering back, loving another man, loving a woman, giving birth, going to school. Two women die every week in England because some man whom some woman doesn't love anymore simply wants to kill her. More than hundred million women are missing worldwide, dead from neglect.”
“But evolution towards equality is a fiction and a fraud. Women are not evolutionary failures.
Men seized the means of organization, men made the world's political systems and parties in their own interests and men still speak to women with forked tongue.”
March 17, 2022
Some insights into U.K. policy and politics that I hadn’t come across before, however the book opens and closes on Marx quotes without acknowledging Black Marxist Feminism. Also contains carceral feminist arguments, is anti sex work, and I have since looked up the author who has “legitimate concerns” about trans women and is pro JKR. Pretty cover though.
November 10, 2015
A necessarily scathing screed implicating all of us in the objectification and commoditization of women and girls.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews