Women in
Comparative Societies
The
Price of Motherhood: Part Three (Chpts. 10-Conclusion)
Reading:
Crittenden, Anne. 2001. The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important
Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued. New York: Henry Holt
and Company (an Owl Book).
Chpt. 10
Welfare State vs. Caring State
** ‘contrary
to popular perception, the United States does have a welfare state, but it is
designed to ameliorate the economic risks of paid workers only. Unpaid
workers, including those who care for dependent family members, are excluded
from the system’
(186)
thus, the
American ‘welfare state’ has played a major role in the ‘feminization of
poverty’
What’s the
alternative? Are there other ways
of structuring economic/family life that are more just (to women, to children,
to men? What do men have to gain
from such a restructuring?)
The Caring
State
This is
Crittenden’s term for the policies of most European countries
Most call
this: the European Social Model or
The Social
Democratic Model or
Social
Democracy
How does
this model differ from the American, Liberal-Individualist one?
Strong
commitment to social rights including health, housing, education, jobs
Strong
commitment to social justice, i.e., that people should not be penalized
for not being an unencumbered worker
Strong commitment
to family
That
everyone has a right to a family life; to a reasonable balance between work and
personal life; hence, all workers get about 1 month PAID vacation.
That
women have a right to employment/careers; jobs are protected when they
maternity leave;
Maternity leave
is paid, (but often mandatory); some variation between countries in terms of
number of weeks/% of pay
But average
is 21 weeks and 90% pay in W Europe
In
most countries fathers can also qualify for paid leave if the mother opts to go
back to work sooner than their benefit has run out;
Child/Family
Allowances
All
families get monthly payments for children
Why? How is this justified?
Children
seen as a SOCIAL GOOD not just a “personal” or “lifestyle” choice for which
parents, esp. mothers are responsible for
How many
times have you heard someone say something like, “If you’re poor, don’t have
children?” or “Don’t have so many children?”
Europe
does this not only because it’s more just, but also because it’s population has
been stagnant or shrinking since the 1970s
Need more workers
in future generations to maintain generous welfare state/social model
So, there
has been a push to encourage people to have children
Chpts. 11
and 12
these are
about the child care industry
low
rates of pay and potential dangers of
nannygate
(only women political appointees were drilled and yet accoutable for their
child care arrangements)
problems
with au pairs
also
argues that many children from underprivileged backgrounds would be better off
(better cared for, better educated, better prepared for school) if they had
access to government provided, subsidized or free preschools
Chpt. 13
It was her choice
The
constant refrain, that we don’t have to change anything about how we treat
mothers because women ‘choose’ to be mothers over career ‘because it’s more
important’
Research
in US colleges shows that men and women have greatly different preferences for
working/childcare than what actually happens in most families
Women’s
preference is both parents working and caring for children part-time
Men’s
preference is for the man to work full-time and the woman to be home with
pre-school age kids full-time (238)
The
arrangement preferred by the women is the most rare ‘ in most families, either
both work full-time (not men’s first choice) or the men’s preference prevails
this
chapter discusses family (PAID) leave policies in Sweden where men get first 10
days and then mother and father can share the next year off (although one month
is reserved for fathers or forfeited)
shows that
you can’t just leave to ‘choice’
social
norms led many Swedish men not to use their leave the way the policy was
originally written (.i.e. without the one month reserved for the men);
research showed that the state had to offer this carrot to men to override
their (and the mothers’) unfamiliarity/fear of men being primary care-givers to
babies
Research
showed the early bond formed by men and their infants through this leave
translated into closer relationships with their children later in childhood,
more confidence in their parenting (feeling like they new what their children
needed) and made men less likely to abandon their children a la deadbeat dads
(242)
This is
one reason why the Swedish people feel it’s worth the cost of paying people’s
salaries during their child’s infancy
another
side effect is that Scandinavian men do more housework than men anywhere else
(241)
A 1997
survey in the US found that only 32 companies offered any leave specifically
for fathers (243)
Conclusion
recommendations
to help reduce the mommy tax, allow women to actually balance career and family
and not be economically shafted for it
calls for
a new social contract in the US that counts motherwork and stops punishing
women economically for raising their children
Recommendations
(some utopian, some not possible in federal system like ours)
1.
Employment: Redesign Work around Parental Norms
like?
pd leave, shorter hours, pro-rated benefits, more part-time, elim.
discrimination ag. parents in the workplace (like what? how?)
how
possible/likely is each one of these?
2.
Government: Replace the Welfare State with a Caring State
by?
equalizing ss for spouses, offering social insurance to primary care-givers,
providing universal preschool to all three and four year olds, stop taxing
mothers more than everyone else, create a child allowance (social security for
children ‘ this is how Europeans have erased child poverty), provide free
health care for children and their primary caregivers, add unpaid household
labor to GDP
possible?
probable?
3.
Husbands: If You Want Her to Do the Work, You Have to Pay Her
make
all income family income, insist on equal standards of living after divorce,
transfer resp. for post-divorce payments to a federal agency
possible?
probable?
4.
The Community
provide
community support to parents through more public spaces for parents and
children, e.g. folk center (should this be under govt? who pays for
center?), parent education, value caregiving in employment/as a credential
possible?
probable?