In 2023, the Nobel Prize in Economics will be awarded to a woman, Claudia Goldin, for their contributions to understanding the existing wage gap between men and women, estimated at a percentage that, according to the IDB, reaches 23%. This is not a comparison that averages dissimilar positions, but a measurement that takes equal functions, responsibilities and homogeneous training.
For several years now, with varying degrees of success or effectiveness, governments, companies and international organizations have put the problem of the wage gap on the agenda, at least to stay within what is politically correct. Clearly, the existence of the aforementioned gap shows that much remains to be done in this regard, and that progress is slower than desirable. It is always easier to preach than to do.
Now, salary is a flow variable. It is dynamic. TEvery month, to the extent that you are busy, you receive compensation. The focus is on this variable today. But there is a stock variable, which can reach significant amounts, whose management is, for various reasons (historical, legal, cultural, psychological, etc.) generally in the hands of men. This is heritage, understood as the set of financial, real estate (urban and rural), artistic, tangible and intangible assets owned, as well as the rights and obligations linked to them (e.g., a mortgage). Let us be clear that this is not a problem that concerns only the most favored. Women at the base of the pyramid suffer much more, in relation to their ceiling or their minimum savings.
A quick tour of history shows that women’s property rights also suffered ups and downs.
In the Etruscan civilization between the 8th and 3rd centuries BC, the woman, upon the death of her husband, assumed the task of ensuring the administration of wealth, the continuity of the family and the transmission of inheritance. All of these personal freedoms were clearly linked to the ability to own and manage wealth in one’s own right. Roman domination took away these rights. In Rome during the Republican era, women were dedicated exclusively to the home.
Already in Imperial Rome, women acquired personal and property rights, although not political ones. After the death of her father, every Roman woman (single or married) became legally independent, that is, she fully owned her properties, having the freedom to manage all types of sales operations, loans, businesses, etc. He also paid taxes, and declared his properties in the census, a registration of all Roman citizens that was carried out every five years in the center of Rome and which constituted one of the most relevant civic rituals.
Making a gross simplification, we can consider the Middle Ages (476 -1492) as a period in which women’s family, legal and economic rights were greatly restricted. Tutoring was instituted, exercised by the man, which even limited his freedom to choose and dispose. If the husband died, the closest male member of the paternal family assumed guardianship. And in addition to taking charge of her judicial representation, he had disposal and enjoyment of her assets, and could punish her and give her in marriage.
There were exceptions at this time, such as that of Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204), mother of two kings, and recognized by history as a rebellious woman, with enormous political, economic and cultural power. The discovery of America, a moment that history defines as the end of the Middle Ages, occurred due to the determination of a woman. It was Queen Isabella the Catholic (1451-1504) who decided to finance Columbus’ campaign to the Indies.
Other notable women, such as Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603) or Catherine the Great of Russia (1684-1727) marked their own time and showed power and political and economic determination. But they were exceptional.
The ideals of the French Revolution that proclaimed freedom and equality did not immediately translate into any changes in women’s rights. Napoleon, passionate about women, was very ungenerous when it came to recognizing their rights.. His Napoleonic Code (1804) gave fathers and husbands supreme power over their daughters and wives. It wasn’t until 1965 (160 years later!) that the law was passed allowing women to work and sign checks without requiring their husband’s permission. And only a couple of years after 1968, the year in which Paris erupted with the cry of “imagination to power”, married women stopped socially adopting not only the surname but also the name of their husband (e.g.: Mme. Paul Cézanne). Is there any heritage more unique than our name?
Thus, for long periods, marriage meant for women the impossibility of continuing to manage their personal assets.
Although this is no longer the case for the legislation of most Western countries, there remains an explicit or implicit delegation of administration, management and disposition of assets from women to the men of the family. Not only towards the husband, but also towards the brothers, cousins or nephews.
This proposal should not be understood as a feminist claim. It is rather an appeal to the training and involvement of women in the administration of their own family assets, and those that are acquired throughout their working life, especially when the woman is married or in a relationship. We mothers have to educate our daughters to also assume that role.
In this complex and changing world, in which multiple knowledge is required to capture reality, the contribution of different perspectives is desirable to achieve better results. Additionally, it is advisable not to be defenseless in the face of life’s vicissitudes. Knowledge saves. Knowledge protects us from falling into the hands of unscrupulous people, whether they are family members or not.
Throughout my professional life I have witnessed many situations (both in industrial or agricultural family businesses, as well as in financial or real estate assets) in which the women of the family found out, at the time of signing a certain document, what their husbands or brothers had decided. At the time of a sale or creation of a mortgage, the legal obligation of the spouse’s signature was the only reason why they were present.
Sometimes it is more comfortable to let someone else take care of it, analyze risks and returns and decide. Sometimes it is easier for someone else to make a mistake and blame them for the mistake. It is known that he who does nothing is never wrong and can criticize his entire life. But this behavior consolidates inequalities as significant or more significant than salary inequalities.. History reveals how different cultures and times conferred on women dissimilar degrees of qualification for the disposal and administration of assets.
The best antidote to these inequities is knowledge. Understand what we sign and why we sign. Understand the consequences of decisions and the implicit risks. Know the value of what we have. Discern whether what they are offering us in exchange for our participation in the family heritage is what corresponds to us or is perhaps a little or much less. Discern and adequately reward the different factors that make up production: land, work, capital, entrepreneurship and knowledge.
In short, the conquest of rights, to be consolidated, requires the responsible exercise of them. And that exercise is fruitful and constructive when it is based on knowledge.
So, as we continue to try to reduce the wage gap, let us not lose sight of the possibility and the right to manage and dispose of our assets.
A tree can be the beginning of a forest, or a part of it. But let us never forget that, if we only take care of our tree, we may find ourselves with a decimated forest tomorrow.
*Alicia Caballero is a Doctor in Economics, former director of the BNA, former Dean of the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the UCA and former president of the National Agency for the Promotion of Research, Technological Development and Innovation.
by Alicia Caballero
