Measuring the Invisible: The Economics of Patriarchy

The episode features a conversation between Dr. Marcella Corsi and Dr. Mikolaj Szoltysek on how to measure patriarchy, rather, how to measure something long considered to be impossible to measure.The scholars discuss how they have wrestled with historical and regional available data to make these hidden structures visible, measurable, and comparable across time and place. They approach the discussion from different disciplines and methodologies, as Dr. Szoltysek is a historian and Dr. Corsi is a feminist economists. Their discussion focuses on how they approach measuring patriarchy differently, how their measures and work help and expand on the other’s, and why it is so important to tackle these questions alongside other disciplines.IAFFE brings together a global community of scholars, activists, and practitioners, and this podcast reflects that diversity of thought. The views shared by our guests and hosts are their own, and do not necessarily represent the views of IAFFE.Organization Links:IAFFE website: https://www.iaffe.org/Minerva Laboratory on Diversity and Gender Inequality: https://labminerva.web.uniroma1.it/enDr. Marcella Corsi’s Papers:The Gendered Nature of Poverty in the EU: Individualized versus Collective Poverty Measures (Corsi, Botti, & D’Ippoliti): https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2016.1146408Measuring Patriarchy in Italy (Aloè, Corsi, & Zacchia): https://doi.org/10.1080/09538259.2024.2360503Dr. Corsi’s Recommendations:Padre padrone (by Fratelli Taviani) trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8z-iv2URAcC'è ancora domani (by Paola Cortellesi) trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpMdbJlSFGcDr. Mikolaj Szoltysek’s Papers: The patriarchy index: a comparative study of power relations across historical Europe (Gruber & Szoltysek): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1081602X.2014.1001769The Patriarchy Index for Asia: A new tool for subnational analysis of gender inequalities (Szoltysek et al.): https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0339587Historical Europe in the Asian “mirror”: challenges and prospects of comparing the Patriarchy Index across space and time (Szoltysek et al): https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11698-025-00317-7European Family Patriarchy in Past and Contemporary Developmental Inequalities (Szoltysek & Poniat): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10693971241246584