The institutionalization of discrimination of the female gender from the perspective of Thorstein Veblen

Abstract

This essay brings to the fore a new epistemological and theoretical perspective for gender studies by proposing a historical circular causal analysis of the institutionalization of female gender discrimination in the Brazilian labor market. For Veblen, institutions are formed by a set of instincts, habits and behaviors reflected in practices accepted and incorporated by a group or society. With this, the cycle of development of institutions that ranges from the innate instincts to the human beings to its legitimation and institution of behavioral norms, with a view to the discrimination of the feminine gender in the labor market, was presented as a theoretical model. Knowing that society still treats men and women unequally at work, the proposition of a cycle aimed at understanding what these behaviors are and how they perpetuate themselves in society may become relevant to gender studies. Therefore, discrimination of the female gender can be understood as a cumulative historical process of transforming habits into institutions.