An innovative approach is identity economics. Developed by George Akerlof
and Rachel Kranton, two US economists, it has brought occupational segregation
home to economic theory. In the past, economists have ignored identity, treating
it, like tastes and preferences, as individual characteristics. By contrast, identity
economics relates personality traits to identities (gender, ethnic, racial). Identity,
norms, and social categories together define people’s social position and
influence their decisions. People see themselves as belonging to social categories
—a mother at home, a professional at work, a foreigner at a Parent Teacher
Association meeting—and adjust their behaviour to the norms pertaining to
them.
Identity economics reckons with identities and the norms associated with them
as factors of (economic) decision making, i.e. calculating individual gains and
losses from different decisions. It can help to explain the fact that occupational
gender segregation is diminishing in some countries (national economies), but
persists in others, to different degrees, in different cultures, and at different
levels of development.
Redefining gender identities
The feminist struggle for equality is not just about jobs and equal pay. It also
challenges male dominance in other domains ranging from the division of
household chores to political participation and linguistic representation.
Because we all use language all the time, and because language seems so close
to our identity, the gender-neutral language debate gained much attention.
Gender identity relates to language in two ways. On the one hand, it is about
male and female speech styles, and on the other, about how women and men are
represented in written texts and everyday language. This debate originated in the
Anglo-Saxon world, where it has led to real changes in the English language.
For instance, the use of he as a pronoun embracing both genders (generic
masculine, like ‘the lawyer, ...he’), which was normal through the 1970s, has all
but disappeared from written English where singular they (‘someone left their
coat in the cloakroom’) has become fashionable. (If you think that ‘fashionable’
is too frivolous a word in this context, think again.)
Proponents of gender-neutral language regulation believe that language does not
just consist of arbitrary words and expressions that allow us to say what we want