Gendering the elites: an ethnographic approach to elite women's lives and the re-production of inequality

Abstract

Transfers between generations are a key driver of social and economic inequalities, ensuring that wealth is not redistributed, but accumulated instead in the hands of a small elite, sometimes described as 'the super-rich'. It is crucial to understand how this accumulated capital is socialized and passed down the generations through a labour that I argue is gendered in nature, heavily reliant on women, and currently under-researched. In this paper I address this gap ethnographically, focusing on the gendered labour that women perform to sustain and reproduce the dynastic projects of elite families. I compare and contrast the symbolically distant categories of mothers/wives (Ostrander 1984) and "girls" -young women who socialize on the VIP scene, as defined by Mears (2015). Both groups involve biologically female bodies deeply involved in the reproduction of elites but the categories they inhabit, the selves that are both ascribed to them and which they choose to present could not be any more different. In light of this data, elite London emerges as a social space structured around strong hierarchies not just of class but also gender. I therefore argue that it is essential to understand more about the interplay of these two structuring principles within elite spaces, focusing on the 'invisible' labour performed by elite women.

Upper-class romance: homogamy at the apex of the class structure

“…However, studies of economically rewarding elite careers in Norway suggest that within this segment of the labour market, women are comparatively more likely than men to reduce their commitment to work or drop out of the labour market entirely after childbirth (Halrynjo and Lyng 2010). Moreover, ethnographic research indicates that traditional gender norms are practised in very wealthy families, partly due to collective strategies to preserve dynastic lineage (Aarseth 2016;Glucksberg 2018). Wives in such families tend to opt out of their own careers to take part in the emotional and social sides of domestic duties, ensuring social reproduction as 'housewives', while freeing their husbands to invest their time in continuing to accumulate wealth, ensuring economic reproduction.…”

The Spatial Dimension of Income Inequality: An Analysis at Municipal Level

“…From a spatial perspective, the analysis of inequalities must disarticulate considering the different forms related not only to economic disparities but also to social and recognition ones. Economic disparities concern the differences in income, private wealth, and working conditions and in the consequent material conditions of life, social differences [52,53], and gender differences [54]. Furthermore, inequality affects disparity in access and in the quality of essential services; in accessibility to knowledge [55], to cultural services, and to places of socialization; and in the possibility of accessing and enjoying common goods and natural resources.…”

Writing Class In and Out: Constructions of Class in Elite Businesswomen’s Autobiographies

“…Gender analyses in the sociology of elites are scarce. A few notable contributions are Yanagisako (2002) whose study of the Italian silk industry details the misrecognised contributions of women to family businesses, and Glucksberg (2018) who sheds light on how elite wives and girlfriends are instrumental to maintaining family wealth reproduction. However, there has been little analysis of women who are business elites themselves, not least because out of the overall population of the super-rich only 11.4% of wealth is controlled by women (Glucksberg, 2018: 229).…”