The Political Economy of Patriarchy in the Global South by Ece Kocabicak (review)

Despite the growth of feminist movements and organizations across the globe and the adoption by many states of gender-equality policies, feminist scholars note the patriarchal institutions and norms that privilege men in politics and labor markets. Modern expressions of patriarchy—the public patriarchy of the state, nonstate actors, and labor markets—are distinguished from premodern forms (the private patriarchy of household production and control of women by kin relations). They are defined andmeasured by gender gaps and forms of gender inequality in the economy, polity, and family, along with vulnerability to violence. A growing list of indices, developed by scholars and international organizations, has evolved to measure such gender-based gaps and inequalities and to rank countries on scales of women’s empowerment or lack thereof. Most JMEWS readers will be aware that countries of the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) typically do not score well. Acknowledging patriarchy’s persistence but theorizing its historical evolution and more recent changing forms, the British sociologist Sylvia Walby (2004) defines a gender regime as a configuration of varying institutional domains into a nationally recognizable approach to managing gender relations and women’s participation and rights. She identifies two distinct forms of gender regime—the domestic and the public. She further identifies two ideal-typical contemporary public gender regimes—the social democratic and the neoliberal—with their distinct implications for women’s socioeconomic security and empowerment. These ideal types pertain to the advanced capitalist countries. But to what extent are they applicable to other regions in the capitalist worldsystem, notably MENA countries? In The Political Economy of Patriarchy in the Global South, the sociologist Ece Kocabicak builds on and contributes to the “varieties of gender regime” literature through