A review of “The Sex Factor”

Bateman, V. (2019).  The Sex Factor: How Women Made the West Rich.  Polity Books.  243 pages.

Overview

Victoria Bateman, a fellow and lecturer in economics at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University, argues that the West grew rich because of women’s freedom, which includes their bodily autonomy, in her 2019 book “The Sex Factor: How Women Made the West Rich.” Women’s freedom was not merely a “by-product of growth,” as is often claimed.  Women’s freedom helps answer questions such as: why poverty persists, why inequality has increased, and how economics can develop democratic states (p. 3). 

Bateman relies heavily on historical data and information to support her thesis and presents it in a simple, concise way for anyone to understand, regardless of any existing knowledge on economics, politics, and history.  Throughout the book, the author engages the reader by sharing personal anecdotes and familial stories of Manchester, England, a post-industrial town once envied for its cotton mills.  In doing so, Bateman makes the rather daunting subject of economics and its seemingly impenetrable mathematical theories more palatable, tame, and captivating.

“The Sex Factor” is a valuable contribution to economics since it explores the oft-ignored role of sex and economic growth.  It is evident to everyone with common sense that a healthy amount of freedom is essential for markets and democratic institutions to function well.  However, the specific role that women play in modern states does not receive the necessary academic attention it deserves.  Bateman supplements the economic literature by providing additional explanations for the causes of the Industrial Revolution, a period in which workers’ wages in the West precipitously increased compared to workers elsewhere, and how feminism started much earlier than previously thought, and in the privacy of the home since women were “active agents” in the rise of economic and political prosperity (p. 13).

“The Sex Factor” is an essential text to add to your economic history collection.

Key takeaways

Like many other books on this website, there were too many valuable takeaways to include.  Below I have outlined several insights that help us understand why some societies are more successful than others.

Women’s freedom in the West led to its prosperity; it was not a “by-product” of economic prosperity. 

But what were the roots of women’s freedom in the West?  Critical junctures, like the Black Plague, in Medieval Europe dramatically reduced the size of the labour market, which meant women were able to and needed to participate more frequently and intensely, resulting in the birth of the nuclear family structure (p. 64).  Additionally, in the ninth century AD, the Catholic Church’s adoption of “mutual consent,” whereby two individuals had to consent to marriage, meant even more bargaining power for women (p. 46). 

According to Bateman, these advancements allowed women to save more money and marry later in life, usually in their mid-twenties, which improved fertility rates such that they rose in tandem with economic growth (p. 49).

More money meant more investment in skills development and education for children in nuclear households.  It also helped those nuclear families were generally smaller than extended kin-based ones (p. 50), which are more common in other parts of the world, mainly authoritarian regions.

Aside from their clear financial benefits, nuclear families are also more democratic than traditional, large kin-based ones because they do not force people to “shut up,” but to “speak up,” explains Bateman.  Authoritarian values in the household are reflected in authoritarian and undemocratic political institutions.  Similarly, relatively democratic values in the home are reflected in democratic institutions (p. 51; 131).  Contrary to what economists have believed for too long, the family unit is necessarily altruistic since members do not always act altruistically towards one another.  Bateman writes that “inequalities are propagated and poverty is passed on from generation to generation” (p. 167) depending on their dynamics.  Reading passages like this, one cannot help but wonder if social conservatives are correct in claiming that prosperous societies begin with good family policy.  

It’s no surprise that with more women working, demands to increase state capacity and social welfare programs became popular.

Over several centuries, this female empowerment eventually birthed the most capable modern states in multiple ways.  These states were more democratic, prioritized social welfare (which does not “crowd out” private actors in the market), and eventually gave women the vote, emancipation, greater participation in the labour force, and divorce rights (p. 131-134). 

Despite all this, the author is careful to note that Europe, and England in particular, were not wholly egalitarian since the Black Plague, through the Industrial Revolution, and up to today (p. 64).  Bateman’s main point is that these societies were relatively more egalitarian than other parts of the world. 

Other significant contributions of “The Sex Factor” include:

• The five history lessons explaining the West’s rise:

  • why markets are essential though not sufficient; markets have existed since Babylonia, but they can’t function well if half the population (i.e., women) are excluded or restricted (p. 19),

  • why institutions matter; more egalitarian households (not “extended family kinship arrangements) mean more egalitarian societies (p. 20),

  • the importance of freedom within and outside the market (p. 23),

  • high wages, because they encourage businesses to adopt mechanization and innovation (p. 26), and

  • why growth stops: population (p. 29), environment (p. 31), and politics (34).

• The role of polygamy, dowries, and bride prices have in modern state creation across different societies, such as England, continental Europe, and Asia (p. 41-43).

• How and why women’s equality is not linear and perpetually improving but can fluctuate (p. 66-67).

• Why women’s equality and bodily empowerment can help address today’s rising income and wealth inequality (Chapter 4, and particularly pages 76 to 81).

• A meaningful discussion on state capacity (p. 121-125).

Minor issues

I enjoyed reading this book, but there are a few things I would like to bring to all readers’ attention.

Readers will find “The Sex Factor” a bit repetitive.  Bateman discusses how Medieval European labour markets, marriage customs, and democratic households significantly influenced society throughout the book.  These subjects were discussed early in the book, but they were mentioned again in Chapters 6 (p. 111) and 7 (p. 131).  I found myself simply skimming the pages.  I would have preferred a more in-depth discussion about how women helped build more capable, modern states, perhaps giving each of the three reasons presented in Chapter 7 with their own chapter.  For example, when discussing voting rights for women and state priorities (p. 133), it would have helped if Bateman mentioned the specific countries or provided more economic data on wages, women’s labour force participation rates, the growth of government (as a % of GDP), and the types of laws passed that improved women’s suffrage.  I found it to be too general and vague.

Additionally, some chapters do not directly address or support the thesis but appear as filler.  Chapter 5, for instance, on inequality between women who choose to monetize their body over their brain, does not directly help answer the question of why women made the West rich.  Bateman’s perspectives and arguments on the subject are fascinating, all of which I agree with.  It could be argued that this chapter is necessary because it’s ultimately about freedom, especially freedom to engage in sex work safely.  But this is a more modern subject, and exploring sex work’s effects on society (and vice versa) may be better reserved for more dedicated reading. 

In some cases, the arguments are exaggerated, or, at least, the author relies on exaggerated beliefs.  According to Bateman, one of the reasons for why growth “stops” is the environment.  She cites Bina Agarwal, who argues there are close connections between environmental exploitation and female domination.  How so?  They’re both undervalued, ignored in national accounting (which, personally, I do not believe is true, given that governments can estimate and determine the value of natural resources and public areas), and taken for granted.  She writes, “Both are inevitably at risk of depletion, reducing our ability to sustain life on earth” (p. 31).  These arguments are exaggerated, but I could be wrong since the assertion is unclear.  It’s unlikely that humanity will subjugate women to the point where births will cease, if that’s what’s being said (truthfully, I’m uncertain, it was unclear to me).  Despite this, Bateman is correct in that more work needs to be done to better capture the value of assets and activities such as non-market work, and that alternative measures to GDP should continue to be explored.

Overall impression

Bateman convincingly illustrates why gender needs to be part of the analysis when explaining a society’s success in “The Sex Factor.”

Some might be troubled by Bateman’s controversial protest tactics to demonstrate the small presence of women in economics.  But, despite her critics’ squeamishness, Bateman’s thesis in “The Sex Factor” is likely correct.  Women clearly played a fundamental role in the West’s rise over the rest in the past few centuries.  And, finally, an academic has chosen to write about it.

When reading this book, I couldn’t help but immediately think of the dysfunctional, impoverished Muslim societies throughout the world, where female subjugation is justified for religious and cultural reasons.  The Muslim world’s anti-female values clearly manifest into political and economic institutions that thwart women’s development, resulting in the dearth of science, technology, commerce, and effective political organization.  It’s impossible to build a sustainable, well-functioning society while stymying fifty percent of the population.

Who should “The Sex Factor”?

Anyone interested in different interpretations of economic history and answering why the West grew rich should read “The Sex Factor.”  However, note that readers who are already familiar with foundational political and economic philosophy theories may find parts of the book under-stimulating.  The contributions and ideas of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and William Stanley Jevons are discussed, and subjects like rationality, the Enlightenment, and the individual are well summarized in Chapter 8 for anyone needing a review.  The same goes for those already familiar with behavioural economics literature from scholars like Danial Kahneman, Richard Thaler, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Edlar Shafir in Chapter 9.