Gender segregation in work is higher in egalitarian societies than in misogynist ones.

Separate spheres ideology from industrialization still shapes gender roles and marriages today.

Overcoming unconscious biases requires recognizing the legacy of separate gender spheres.

If you read one book this year about the state of marriage today, make it Stephanie Coontz’s new one, For Better and Worse (Viking, 2026).

It is an engaging romp through the history of human mating, from stone age marriage to the contradictory consequences of democracy for heterosexual coupling, to the possibilities of creating satisfying marriages in today’s heteropessimistic world. Rather than provide you with a summary of this monograph, I’m going to suggest you actually read it. Your investment of time will be well rewarded with the delight of enjoying a well-told, important, and historically accurate story.

In this blog, where I write about Gender Questions, I want to highlight just how well Professor Coontz shows us that gender, indeed, has always mattered, and still continues to do so today. Despite having read all of Coontz’s earlier books, there were totally new gems of knowledge in this one that helped me to better understand gender inequality. I want to share one of them with you here.

Gender Segregation in Egalitarian vs. Misogynist Societies

I have always been challenged by a paradox in contemporary research about gender inequality: gender segregation in the labor force is more exaggerated in egalitarian societies than in far more misogynist societies. For example, Coontz writes that the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index shows........

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