Who Pays for the Kids?: Gender and the Structures of Constraint (Economics as Social Theory) - Softcover

Folbre, Nancy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415075653 ISBN 13: 9780415075657

Publisher: Routledge, 1994

Synopsis

A fresh look at how women largely carry the costs of caring for themselves, the children and other dependents, with an analysis of individual choices within interlocking structures of constraint based on gender, sex, age, nation, race and class.

About this title

Review

"Nancy Folbre focuses on questions that most economists never think about: how and why people form overlapping groups that influence and limit what they want, how they may behave, and what they get. She has sharp and plausible things to say about group solidarity and group conflict and how they have affected the workings of economic institutions. Anyone would be a better economist, or just a clearer thinker, after reading this book."
-Robert M. Solow, Professor of Economics, MIT, and Nobel Laureate in Economics
"Nancy Folbre, offers a provocative rejoinder to standard economic analyses that focus primarily on market forces and wage labor, thereby marginalizing women and children and devaluing the work they perform in the home and community."
-"The Women's Review of Books
""Who Pays for the Kids?, by University of Massachussetts economist Nancy Folbre, offers a provocative rejoinder to standard economic analyses that focus primarily on market forces and wage labor, thereby marginalizing women and children and devaluing the work they perform in the home and community."
-"The Women's Review of Books
"This book could well serve as a provocative starting point for a graduate (or perhaps, in some cases, a senior level) seminar. It could be relevant in economics, family economics, women's studies, poverty courses, or modern history and provide a focus on women in the economy or perhaps on emerging work/family issues."
-"The Journal Of Consumer Affairs
"There is a mass of valuable information collected here."
-"NWSA Journal

Synopsis

Who bears the cost of social reproduction? The development of capitalism has brought many opportunities for women, but despite growing economic independence, they continue to bear a disproportionate amount of the costs of caring for children. Indeed whilst new freedoms and economic opportunities for women have been conceded they have not been matched by new responsibilities and obligations for men. Changes in family law, as well as increased economic mobility, have made it easy for men to default on family committments. Whilst public programmes have emerged to offset the costs of social reproduction for women, these are inadequate and regressive, encouraging women to reduce their participation in the labour market and reinforcing occupational segregation. The incidence of poverty amongst women maintaining families alone has increased over time, even in the wealthiest countries. "The Logic of Patriarchal Capitalism" argues that even where women derive important gains as individual wage earners from the processes of capitalist development, they remain disadvantaged by their family responsibilities.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0415075653
• ISBN 13: 9780415075657
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 348