Who pays for the kids? : gender and the structure of constraint / Nancy Folbre.
By: Folbre, Nancy.
Material type: BookSeries: Economics as social theory.Publisher: London : Routledge, 1994Description: xi, 335 p. ; 24 cm.ISBN: 0415075645; 0415075653 .Subject(s): Labor economics | Industries -- Social aspects | Sexual division of labor | Work and familyDDC classification: 305.42Item type | Current library | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General Lending | MTU Bishopstown Library Lending | 305.42 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 00015908 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Three paradoxes surround the division of the costs of social reproduction:
* Women have entered the paid labour force in growing numbers, but they continue to perform most of the unpaid labour of housework and childcare.
* Birth rates have fallen but more and more mothers are supporting children on their own, with little or no assistance from fathers.
* The growth of state spending is often blamed on malfunctioning markets, or runaway bureaucracies. But a large percentage of social spending provides substitutes for income transfers that once took place within families.
Who Pays for the Kids? explains how this paradoxical situation has arisen. The costs of social reproduction are largely paid by women: men have remained extremely reluctant to pay their share of the costs of raising the next generation. Traditional theories - neo-classical, Marxist and Feminist - can only provide an incomplete account of this, and this book offers an alternative analysis, based on individual choices but within interlocking structures of constraint based on gender, age, sex, nation, race and class.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-325) and index.
Part I: Concepts and social reproduction -- Feminist theory and political economy -- Collective action and structures of constraint -- The persistence of patriarchal power -- Part II: Histories of social reproduction -- Introduction to Part II -- Northwestern Europe -- The United States -- Latin America and the caribbean -- Conclusion: the political economy of family policy.
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- Acknowledgements (p. ix)
- Introduction (p. 1)
- Part I Concepts of Social Reproduction (p. 13)
- 1 Feminist Theory and Political Economy (p. 15)
- 2 Collective Action and Structures of Constraint (p. 51)
- 3 The Persistence of Patriarchal Power (p. 91)
- Part II Histories of Social Reproduction (p. 127)
- Introduction To Part II (p. 129)
- 4 Northwestern Europe (p. 132)
- 5 The United States (p. 166)
- 6 Latin America and the Caribbean (p. 211)
- 7 Conclusion: The Political Economy of Family Policy (p. 248)
- Notes (p. 263)
- References (p. 291)
- Index (p. 326)