Thank you to @economist.com for publishing my essay on "what people get wrong about women's rights"!
www.economist.com/by-invitatio...
06.03.2026 16:47
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Thank you to @economist.com for publishing my essay on "what people get wrong about women's rights"!
www.economist.com/by-invitatio...
The absolutely crucial lesson from world history is that male violence runs rampant unless it is constrained by strong states with effective deterrents
My essay 👇
www.ggd.world/p/broken-sku...
For a brief sliver of human history, modern economies generated mass demand for skills.
But for most of our past, power and prestige flowed to those who could command organised violence and achieve military might.
www.ggd.world/p/broken-sku...
In 1400, Oxford had a population of 6,000 and about 6 killings a year. Triple that of London and York.
Why was it so violent?
Students got off with impunity, as they had clerical privileges!
Nice evidence on institutions
Very cool stuff here.
Especially for an institutionalist, governance nerd like myself.
Thank you Andrew!!
Broken Skulls and the State!
My latest essay discusses 4 fantastic new datasets on skeletons, cranial trauma, and coroners' records - from Prehistory, the Middle East, Andes, and Medieval England
When did violence spike? And why?
www.ggd.world/p/broken-sku...
The under-rated subplot in Bridgerton is that it’s as recent as 1813, but girls from elite families are still not sent to school like their brothers, yet kept at home.
Cue a very bored Hyacinth, who is desperate to make her debut, then finds boys are actually disappointing
Within the humanities there’s been a tendency to focus on marginal dynamics
But this can skew our attention from major drivers of human history
If you look back at early writing, it was often to celebrate imperial conquests
Our history is fundamentally about armed struggle between warlords.
Crudely, we can cluster societies into 3 kinds:
- Male supremacy, impunity and female seclusion (Afhganistan)
- Male supremacy, impunity, but women work (Russia, China, South Korea, Thailand)
- Women organise politically and constrain male violence (Canada)
My essay www.ggd.world/p/can-women-...
Crudely, we can distinguish between 3 broad clusters
- The most patriarchal societies safeguard male status via female seclusion
- Others let women move freely, but men exercise impunity
- In outliers, like Singapore, women have escaped family control and enjoy public safety
Can Women Walk Home Safely?
My latest essay is on male violence in Guatemala, Haiti, Nigeria and Europe
www.ggd.world/p/can-women-...
in hindsight,
one could have imagined that COVID would only lead to a temporary downturn in demand for labour
but a coordinated and sustained rise in technologies and entertainment that increase the appeal of solitude.
Pre-state societies were never feminist utopias, overflowing with milk and gender harmony.
They were often violent and coercive.
State control and pacification are crucial precursors to gender equality.
My essay, www.ggd.world/p/male-viole...
we may have cultures that are matrilocal, or matrilineal, or that celebrate female freedom, or sexual agency, or have lots of little goddess-statues...
but we must also ask "what about the violence." is violence or the threat of violence used to extract reproductive labor from women.
This is a historical quirk. We also used to pronounce the K in knave or knife.
But things change...
Britain achieved significant economic and cultural progress until about 20 years ago, when the Spice Girls stopped touring....
I saw your new colleague Hahrie Han this weekend, she heads up Agora. A brilliant mind!
Trykker lidt på nogle etableret forestillinger
"Economists may suggest that property ownership raises women’s bargaining power, but this surely breaks down if one can be captured and enslaved. Likewise, sexual permissiveness does not mean female agency when women may be abducted by male predators."
Stories about 'kick-ass' women from the past are often fun and exciting!
One little problem:
They neglect a wider context of male violence, aggressive and rape.
www.ggd.world/p/male-viole...
Our conventional indicators of gender equality for pre-state societies are grossly misleading.
By focusing on whether women could choose their own partners or own property, scholars have omitted a wider context of pervasive violence
www.ggd.world/p/male-viole...
how do we "measure" patriarchy? this is especially thorny because of how much people are invested in mystifying and defending it--so e.g. "this culture LOVED women! therefore it can't be patriarchal!" evans, like myself, circles back to what we can measure:
violence.
thank you pal!!
Congratulations MC!!! BRAVO!
Male Violence and the Myth of Female Freedom
www.ggd.world/p/male-viole...
If Turkey’s young women continue to culturally leapfrog, but men remain more conservative, then this will have major implications for coupling and fertility
www.ggd.world/p/cultural-l...
‘Gaslighting’, ‘love-bombing’ and ‘toxic relationships’ have surged in online searches across Turkey.
I call this "CULTURAL LEAPFROGGING"
www.ggd.world/p/cultural-l...
Sexual abuse persists because humans repeatedly prioritise institutional self-preservation.
Children - the most vulnerable members of our society - are then dismissed, disregarded and violated.
www.ggd.world/p/what-do-ep...
Child sexual abuse persists because humans repeatedly prioritise institutional self-protection - whether that's elite networks, catholics cardinals, or progressives.
P.s. you may not like this message, but nevertheless recognise it to be true.
www.ggd.world/p/what-do-ep...
How can we prevent sexual abuse in the 21st century?
My new blog
open.substack.com/pub/dralicee...
