Does social capital improve gender equality?

Abstract

The relationship between social capital and gender equality has been studied predominantly at the micro-level with mixed but often negative results. Both mixed-gender social capital and women’s social capital do not seem to benefit women as much as men. After developing a theoretical framework based on Bourdieu and a literature review of micro-level studies, we analyse the relationships between social capital and gender equality at the cross-country level for a 30-year period. We compare three forms of social capital: bonding social capital, bridging social capital and women’s social capital, and we add patriarchy. The results indicate that social capital does not improve gender equality in the presence of patriarchal values. Moreover, over time, patriarchy shows a statistically significant negative relationship with gender equality. Gender inequality seems deeply entrenched in societies with patriarchal values and is not easily overcome by social capital, which may be strongly patriarchal itself.