John Stuart Mill on Wage Inequalities Between Men and Women

Virginie Gouverneur

Working Papers of BETA from Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg

Abstract: A section of Mill’s Principles (1848) is about women’s low wages. Contemporary commentators who have studied it minimize its normative content. According to them, Mill’s belief in the naturalness of the traditional sexual division of roles prevent him from proposing efficient remedies to male-female wage differentials and occupational segregation by sex. We propose another reading of Mill’s analysis, as a protest against power relations which, pervading Victorian society, cause wage differences unjustified by differences in efficiency. Its focus is not occupational segregation by sex. Mill addresses the issue elsewhere, then identifying distinct causes of women’s limited entry into skilled occupations.

Keywords: John Stuart Mill; gender pay gap; discrimination; occupational segregation by sex. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hpe and nep-pke
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Related works:
Working Paper: John Stuart Mill on wage inequalities between men and women (2020)
Journal Article: John Stuart Mill on wage inequalities between men and women (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2018-43

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