ABSTRACT
Here is a puzzle: Over the past quarter-century, throughout most of the world, liberal democracy has flourished and the status of women has improved. The percentage of us who live within liberal democracies has doubled since 1975 (Ward et al. 1999). Gaps between men and women on a whole host of measures including income and access to jobs have decreased in almost all countries (UNDP 1995), and they have decreased the most rapidly in the places where once they were the greatest (Tzannatos 1998). Yet, during the same period income inequality among occupational classes and among different regions of the world has increased more rapidly than in any period about which we have reliable knowledge (Murphy 1999; UNDP 1995; World Bank 1995). Today, much more than ever before, "The rich get both richer and fewer" (Pritchett 1995; 12-13). In the North the most privileged classes in all societies have gotten relatively wealthier while the incomes of the South and those of the least-privileged social classes have stayed the same.
