Gender Inequalities in Markets

Various forms of inequality, such as the gender, race, and class systems of inequality, operate and intersect in societies and markets. In this review, I discuss specifically the gender system of inequality. I focus on market interactions, conceptualizing them as the building blocks for gender inequalities in markets. My objective is to give an account of the complex interplay between the unequal distributions of resources, stereotypes and cultural beliefs about gender, and the law. I start by describing the persistence of gender inequality in markets. Building on studies in social psychology, I then identify the ways in which stereotypes and cultural beliefs about gender constantly, and unconsciously, frame our market interactions. Lastly, I discuss the limits of the law in altering the ways in which we interact in markets and the potential of the law to bring about lasting change.