The state and the egalitarian, ecclesiastical and liberal regimes of gender relations.

Abstract

In this paper I attempt to construct a comparative analytical framework for the study of the state as a social relation and the regulation of gender relations. The first part of my analytical framework involves an analysis of the women's movement as an agent of political change. In the second part of my analytical framework, three typologies of regimes of gender relations are developed in order to capture the essential features of gender relations in different countries. These typologies are the egalitarian regime of gender relations, the ecclesiastical regime of gender relations and the liberal regime of gender relations. The final part of the comparative analytical framework involves an analysis of the dynamics of transformation of regimes and transition to new regimes. The main contribution of my typologies is that they analyse, on the one hand, how gender relations are regulated by the state in different parts of the economy (social reproduction included) that are relatively autonomous and identify, on the other hand, how social forces influence the nature of the state as a regulator of gender relations.