The 2026 Noel Butlin Lecture

Professor Pauline Grosjean

University of New South Wales

The Noel Butlin Lecture is a free event and open to the general public.

Location: Building (TBA), Adelaide University 

Date & Time:  4:30 - 6 PM on 5 February 2026

Professor Grosjean will present an overview of the major themes from her forthcoming book with Cambridge University Press.

Patriarcapitalism: 

Institutions, culture, and the roots of gender inequality

Le Seuil, 2021 (in French) 

Minumsa, 2023 (in Korean)

Cambridge University Press, Forthcoming (in English)

Book summary 

The 1980s marked a period of extraordinary economic progress for women. By the decade's end, women were achieving, on average, higher education levels than men and had gained entry into many previously male-dominated occupations. However, contrary to expectations, this wave of progress toward gender equality did not prove unstoppable. Since then, gender economic parity has stagnated in Western economies.

Compared to men, women continue to face a confluence of challenges: worse working conditions, lower pay, fewer promotion opportunities, and an increased risk of workplace bullying and sexual harassment. These professional hurdles are compounded by a disproportionate burden of domestic work that has eased little over the years. Women remain firmly under the glass ceiling, especially in the highest-paid industries and most prestigious occupations. Moreover, breaking this glass ceiling often comes at a high personal cost. Women in high-status roles face a greater likelihood of remaining single and childless and, when married, an increased risk of separation and divorce compared to their male counterparts.

However, a new era may be dawning. The #MeToo movement, public reactions to political sexual abuse scandals, and the increasingly vocal denunciation of the unfair burden of housework on women—highlighted and exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns—demonstrate a renewed demand for gender equality.

In this book, I trace women's economic progress throughout the 20th century and examine how and why it has recently plateaued. Drawing on international comparisons, historical studies, fieldwork, and corporate surveys, I unveil what I have termed “Patriarcapitalism”: the interplay of societal domination structures, cultural norms, and gender identity with economic systems that impedes economic equality between women and men. I also highlight innovative policies that could overcome these obstacles to gender equality and close the final chapter of Patriarcapitalism – and hereby elevate both women and men.

Pauline Grosjean Biography

Pauline Grosjean is a Professor of Economics at University of New South Wales (UNSW), a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and an affiliated researcher at Science Po Paris and Centre for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR). She completed her PhD at Toulouse School of Economics and her Post-Doctoral studies at the University of California at Berkeley. Before joining UNSW, she was an Economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and an Assistant Professor at the University of San Francisco. Her work examines how cultural and social norms shape individual behaviour and economic development. In particular, she studies how historical events and the ecology shape gender norms, and influence women’s and men’s economic outcomes. Pauline’s work is based on historical and fieldwork studies, which she has conducted in various parts of the world, including China, Tunisia, Tajikistan, and the Solomon Islands.