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Living Standards in Britain 1900-2000: Women's Century?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Sara Horrell
Sara Horrell*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Abstract

Two composite measures are calculated to map improvements in living standards over the 20th century: the Dasgupta–Weale index and the Human Development Index. A gendered version of the latter is also considered. Indicators of income, leisure, inequality, wealth, health, education and political rights are included. The indices reveal a century of progress. But progress has been neither continuous nor uniformly shared. Downturns are evident in some of the indicators since 1980, demonstrating that the gains are not immutable and need to be protected. Women‘s position has improved if the end of the century is compared to its beginning, but there has been little change in women's position relative to men's over the last few decades on the dimensions considered here.

Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 172 , April 2000 , pp. 62 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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