#inequality

It was a fact generally acknowledged by all but the most contumacious spirits at the beginning of the seventeenth century that woman was the weaker vessel; weaker than man, that is. ... That was the way God had arranged Creation, sanctified in the words of the Apostle. ... Under the common law of England at the accession of King James I, no female had any rights at all (if some were allowed by custom). As an unmarried woman her rights were swallowed up in her father's, and she was his to dispose of in marriage at will. Once she was married her property became absolutely that of her husband. What of those who did not marry? Common law met that problem blandly by not recognizing it. In the words of The Lawes Resolutions [the leading 17th century compendium on women's legal status]: 'All of them are understood either married or to be married.' In 1603 England, in short, still lived in a world governed by feudal law, where a wife passed from the guardianship of her father to her husband; her husband also stood in relation to her as a feudal lord. ↗

— Antonia Fraser

#common-law #empowerment #fathers #feminism #feudalism

America’s education system has become less a ladder of opportunity than a structure to transmit inequity from one generation to the next. ↗

— Nicholas Kristof

#generations #inequality #inequity #opportunity #united-states

The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house ↗

— Audre Lorde

#inequality #power #feminism

Those who plead their cause in the absence of an opponent can invent to their heart's content, can pontificate without taking into account the opposite point of view and keep the best arguments for themselves, for aggressors are always quick to attack those who have no means of defence. ↗

— Christine de Pizan

#deceit #defenselessness #double-standards #falsehood #hypocrisy

Rural communities in Africa, South Asia and Latin America are where the majority of hungry people are and the inequality that exists between women and men in these communities is holding back progress. ↗

— Dionne Warwick

#america #asia #back #between #communities

Rural communities in Africa, South Asia and Latin America are where the majority of hungry people are and the inequality that exists between women and men in these communities is holding back progress. These women have a very tough time, so much is expected of them. ↗

— Dionne Warwick

#america #asia #back #between #communities

The ability of the 1 percent to buy politicians and regulators is nothing new in American politics - just as inequality has been a permanent part of our economic system. This is true of virtually all political and economic systems. ↗

— Eric Alterman

#american #american politics #been #buy #economic

Increasing inequality in income distribution in this country has broader policy implications, and there is also the growing problem of perverse incentives that result from executives receiving grossly disproportionate compensation based on decisions they themselves take. ↗

— Barney Frank

#based #broader #compensation #country #decisions

But it is also clear that left entirely untouched by public policy, the capitalist system will produce more inequality than is socially healthy or than is necessary for maximum efficiency. ↗

— Barney Frank

#capitalist #clear #efficiency #entirely #healthy

It is a wise man who said that there is no greater inequality than the equal treatment of unequals. ↗

— Felix Frankfurter

#greater #inequality #man #said #than