The Gender of Capital

An important intervention…The authors effortlessly interweave qualitative and quantitative data; they elucidate statistics through engaging prose, and balance this by including personal narratives and interviews with a variety of people. * LSE Review of Books *
This book was enjoyable and thought-provoking…It brought together a wealth of different kinds of evidence in a methodologically-rigorous and theoretically-rich exploration of an important topic that deserves more attention. I highly recommend it to all those interested in wealth inequality. -- Karen Rowlingson * British Journal of Sociology *
Because the distribution of wealth rather than income plays a dominant role in determining inequality, more attention will need to be paid to the gender distribution of wealth. This book shines a light on this under-researched area. -- Ian Bright * Society of Professional Economics *
Bessière and Gollac manage to prove their point without diminishing the importance of class. Sensitive to the plight of women from different social classes, they do not falsely treat all women as equal…a fascinating read. -- Anna Romanowicz * H-Net Reviews *
A fantastic, must-read book. If you want to know why gender inequality in wealth remains enormously high, and even has risen in recent decades, this work should be at the top of your reading list. Bessière and Gollac deftly disentangle the complex processes of estate planning, divorce proceedings, and marital arrangements that have brought us to this point. -- Thomas Piketty, author of A Brief History of Equality
The Gender of Capital is a rare gem. Illuminating entrenched social and legal practices, Bessière and Gollac expertly demonstrate the grip of gender inequality in shaping the transmission of wealth. Their discoveries deserve a broad audience, and undoubtedly will shape the direction of future research. -- Viviana A. Zelizer, author of Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy
Richly documented and incisively argued, this book offers new insight into how unequal relations between women and men are reproduced over many generations. For those of us who have been doing feminist work for a long time, it offers welcome confirmation that gender is an important determinant of inequality, both within and across divisions of class. -- Joan Wallach Scott, author of Sex and Secularism
An important new chapter in the history of wealth inequality. In a fascinating account of legal and family practices surrounding bequests and divorce, Bessière and Gollac reveal the mechanisms through which wealth accumulates mostly in the hands of men. -- Jens Beckert, author of Imagined Futures: Fictional Expectations and Capitalist Dynamics
At last, a book that addresses the notable omission of gender from the conversation about wealth inequality. Taking seriously the contributions of 1970s and 1980s socialist feminists, Bessière and Gollac show how the practice of family and inheritance law drives the gender wealth gap. One can only hope that scholars in the United States will pursue future work following this model. -- Cynthia Grant Bowman, author of Living Apart Together: Legal Protections for a New Form of Family