Once upon a time, it is said, our ancestors didn't care very much about making money.
They lived miserable lives and consoled themselves with a religious faith that offered them the hope of eternal life. Then something happened, we are not exactly sure what. Maybe some of them figured out better ways of doing things, which changed the way they thought about themselves.
Maybe some of them decided they wanted something better in this world rather than the next and changed their behavior as a result. In any case, European society began to undergo a series of related but distinctive transitions: from production for use to production for exchange, from kin- to non-kin-based units of production, from strict patriarchal control over women and children to greater scope for individual choice. At approximately the same time, concepts of appropriate human behavior began to shift along a series of related but distinctive spectra: from solidarity to selfinterest, from authoritarianism to democracy, from patriarchy towards gender equality.This is the basic story we like to tell our children about the origins of our prosperity, with titles like The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, The Rise of the Western World and How the West Grew Rich.1 On its moral implications, however, we are profoundly divided. Some argue that women have become more virtuous as well as more prosperous over time.2 Men have less power to order women about than they once had. On the other hand, some argue that the weakening of religious values—and a new-found faith in the purchase of happiness—have corrupted us. In Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, R. H. Tawney warned that unbridled pursuit of self-interest would lead to moral bankruptcy.3 Tawney's contemporary, the English historian Alice Clark believed that the growth of individualism had adverse effects on wives and mothers because it weakened recognition of work that was not conducted for individual gain.4
In this debate over moral progress versus regress much hinges on the interpretation of economic systems in place before capitalism got fully underway. Consider the most extreme possibilities: If these were moral economies shaped largely by obligations to care for others, the growth of individualism could have enabled more selfish behavior. If these were authoritarian economies shaped largely by inherited authority, the growth of individualism could have weakened selfish forms of arbitrary power. A careful look at changing ideologies of gender paints a more complex picture. Women only gradually gained new rights because they found it difficult to reassign their traditional obligations.