Evolutionary game theory studies the repetition of strategies and choices over time, such that some strategies emerge as more successful in a society than others. It can also explain how cultural norms and beliefs evolve when players — society members — pick certain strategies again and again. Cailin O’ Connor is here this week to discuss her work on evolutionary game theory and the origins of inequity, specifically in the context of the gendered division of household labor.

We primarily talk about her book The Origins of Unfairness (2019), which uses game theory to explain the use of social categories – in particular, the social category of gender – in complementary coordination games, and how inequity then builds on these social categories.

Cailin is the Chancellor’s Professor in the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science at UC Irvine, and a philosopher of biology and behavioral science, philosopher of science, and evolutionary game theorist. You can learn more about her and her work on her website here: <https://cailinoconnor.com/>.

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction

00:04:35 Complementary Coordination Problems: Salsa Dancing and the Division of Labor by Gender

00:07:45 Why We Specialise in Different Kinds of Household Labor

00:10:10 The Unsettling of Gendered Conventions in Developed Societies

00:11:04 The Efficiency of Gender as a Symmetry-Breaker

00:14:31 The Very Existence of Social Types Allows for Inequity

00:19:27 Household Bargaining, and How Inequity Compounds Over Time

00:22:28 The Efficiency of Division of Labor by Social Categories

00:24:46 Rational Choice Models vs. Evolutionary Models: Repetition and Cultural Evolution

00:29:58 Why Do Women (Usually) Stay at Home, and Why Do Men (Usually) Work Outside the Home?

00:33:38 How Monetary Gains from Market Labor Empower Players in Household Bargaining

00:34:52 The Murky Waters of Personal Preferences: Models, Empirical Reality, Ideologies that Perpetuate Inequity

00:38:42 Why Equal Pay Doesn’t Shift the Equilibrium in Which Women Do More Household Labor, and Men Do Less (or Why Household Inequity Persists Even with Equal Pay for Men and Women)

00:41:08 The Logic of Strikes

00:42:45 Reducing One Player’s Labor in One Round to Get the Other Player to Increase Their Labor in the Next Round

00:44:45 Two Players — Man and Woman — Could Have Different Ideas of the Sufficient Amount of Labor Required for a Household

00:45:09 Men and Women Have Different Estimations and Perceptions of How Much Work They Are Each Doing (please keep time diaries and spreadsheets guys)

00:47:09 The Solution to Inequity Based on Social Categories: Messing Up Social Categories, and Reducing Their Power Over Us

00:52:08 Processes Driving Towards Inequity Happen Naturally, So We Need to Be Constantly Active to Prevent Their Taking Hold

References

O’Connor, Cailin. The Origins of Unfairness: Social Categories and Cultural Evolution. Oxford University Press, 2019. OUP Link: <https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-origins-of-unfairness-9780198789970?cc=us&lang=en&>.

Cailin also mentions the work of Susan Moller Okin, whose work you can read about here, and of Mihaela Pope Wyatt, whose work you can find here.

Cover art by Cato Benschop (IG: @catobenschop).

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