A mother's work : how feminism, the market, and policy shape family life
01 Oct 2008-
TL;DR: Gilbert argues that while the market ignores the essential value of a mother's work, prevailing norms about the social benefits of work have been overvalued by elites whose opportunities and circumstances little resemble those of most working-and middle-class mothers as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The question of how best to combine work and family life has led to lively debates in recent years. Both a lifestyle and a policy issue, it has been addressed psychologically, socially, and economically, and conclusions have been hotly contested. But as Neil Gilbert shows in this penetrating and provocative book, we haven't looked closely enough at how and why these questions are framed, or who benefits from the proposed answers. A Mother's Work takes a hard look at the unprecedented rise in childlessness, along with the outsourcing of family care and household production, which have helped to alter family life since the 1960s. It challenges the conventional view on how to balance motherhood and employment, and examines how the choices women make are influenced by the culture of capitalism, feminist expectations, and the social policies of the welfare state. Gilbert argues that while the market ignores the essential value of a mother's work, prevailing norms about the social benefits of work have been overvalued by elites whose opportunities and circumstances little resemble those of most working- and middle-class mothers. And the policies that have been crafted too often seem friendlier to the market than to the family. Gilbert ends his discussion by looking at the issue internationally, and he makes the case for reframing the debate to include a wider range of social values and public benefits that present more options for managing work and family responsibilities.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine whether it is possible to recognise specific patterns of institutionally regulated downward (towards children) and upward (to the old) intergenerational obligations with regard to care and financial support, and to identify specific country profiles and clusters of countries in Europe.
Abstract: This paper examines whether it is possible to recognise specific patterns of institutionally regulated downward (towards children) and upward (towards the old) intergenerational obligations with regard to care and financial support, and to identify specific country profiles and clusters of countries in Europe. Based on the three-fold conceptualisation of familialism by default, supported familialism and de-familialisation, and using a complex set of indicators, we describe how countries, by means of policies, allocate intergenerational responsibilities between families and the state, also paying attention to their gender impact. The study includes all 27 EU countries and for the first time offers a comparative overview of a diversified set of policies with regard to both children and the old. It concludes that although specific policy profiles emerge with regard to the two sets of obligations, these do not always coincide. Furthermore, contrary to widespread opinion, supported familialism and de-...
374 citations
TL;DR: This paper assess the gendered contributions to the analysis of modern systems of social provision, starting with the concept of gender itself, and then moving to studies of the gender division of labor (including care) and of gendered political power.
Abstract: Can feminists count on welfare states—or at least some aspects of these complex systems—as resources in the struggle for gender equality? Gender analysts of “welfare states” investigate this question and the broader set of issues around the mutually constitutive relationship between systems of social provision and regulation and gender. Feminist scholars have moved to bring the contingent practice of politics back into grounded fields of action and social change and away from the reification and abstractions that had come to dominate models of politics focused on “big” structures and systems, including those focused on “welfare states.” Conceptual innovations and reconceptualizations of foundational terms have been especially prominent in the comparative scholarship on welfare states, starting with gender, and including care, autonomy, citizenship, (in)dependence, political agency, and equality. In contrast to other subfields of political science and sociology, gendered insights have to some extent been incorporated into mainstream comparative scholarship on welfare states. The arguments between feminists and mainstream scholars over the course of the last two decades have been productive, powering the development of key themes and concepts pioneered by gender scholars, including “defamilialization,” the significance of unpaid care work in families and the difficulties of work-family “reconciliation,” gendered welfare state institutions, the relation between fertility and women's employment, and the partisan correlates of different family and gender policy models. Yet the mainstream still resists the deeper implications of feminist work, and has difficulties assimilating concepts of care, gendered power, dependency, and interdependency. Thus, the agenda of gendering comparative welfare state studies remains unfinished. To develop an understanding of what might be needed to finish that agenda, I assess the gendered contributions to the analysis of modern systems of social provision, starting with the concept of gender itself, then moving to studies of the gendered division of labor (including care) and of gendered political power.
265 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an up-to-date overview of the different childcare packages offered by the 27 EU countries, indicating how they represent quite different understandings of proper care, as well as of proper behaviour by mothers and fathers.
Abstract: Childcare has become a much-debated issue in all developed countries. Who should care for children, how, how much and for how long are the questions at the centre of value conflicts that shape not only policies and struggles around policies, but also individual and family choices. This article contributes to the debate in two ways. First, it presents an up-to-date overview of the different childcare packages offered by the 27 EU countries, indicating how they represent quite different understandings of proper care, as well as of proper behaviour by mothers and fathers. Second, it attempts to unravel the different dimensions implicated in the debate, going beyond the simplification of the mother’s care vs non-family care dichotomy. It concludes that an integrated research agenda, focusing both on the outcomes for labour markets and for children’s well-being, is necessary in order to develop policies that address the complex issues of choice, rights and social inequality involved in child-caring patterns.
120 citations
TL;DR: Jennifer was an extremely talented undergraduate, majoring in mathematics and engineering; her grades and test scores were nearly perfect; her professors saw a bright future for her as an engineering professor and encouraged her to pursue a doctorate.
102 citations
01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: The decision to have a family and teach mathematics part-time at a local community college was made by a 33-year-old postdoc who could not imagine waiting to have children until after tenure at age 40, nor could she imagine how she would juggle caring for a young family with the omnipresent demands of an assistant professorship as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Jennifer was an extremely talented undergraduate, majoring in mathematics and engineering. Her grades and test scores were nearly perfect; her professors saw a bright future for her as an engineering professor and encouraged her to pursue a doctorate. In graduate school, she continued to excel, accumulating high-quality publications, fellowships and awards. She landed a premier postdoctoral position and was headed for a firsttier professorship. But she never applied for a tenure-track academic job. As a 33-year-old postdoc, she could not imagine waiting to have children until after tenure at age 40, nor could she imagine how she would juggle caring for a young family with the omnipresent demands of an assistant professorship. The harried lives of the two tenured mothers in her department convinced her that such a path was not for her. Jennifer made the choice to have a family and teach mathematics part-time at a local community college.
83 citations