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86 Part I " The Changing Family
families and to offer alternative policies that place greater value on the quality of life and
human relationships. They judge family strength not by their form (whether they have
two-parents) but by their functioning (whether they promote human satisfaction and
development) and whether both women and men are able to be family caregivers as well
as productive workers. They attribute difficulties of children less to the absence of the
two-parent family than to low-wage work of single mothers, inadequate child care, and
inhospitable housing and neighborhoods.
Feminist Model
Lack of cooperation Families where adults Children lack
among community, are stressed and sufficient care and
family, and work overburdened attention from parents
Accordingly, feminists would work for reforms that build and maintain the social
capital of volunteer groups, neighborhoods, and communities because a healthy civil so-
ciety promotes the well-being of families and individuals as well as economic prosperity
and a democratic state. They would also recognize greater role flexibility across the life
cycle so that both men and women could engage in caregiving, and they would encourage
education and employment among women as well as among men.
Disappearance of Community
From a feminist perspective, family values have become an issue because individualism
has driven out the sense of collective responsibility in our national culture. American
institutions and social policies have not properly implemented a concern for all citizens.
Comparative research on family structure, teenage pregnancy, poverty, and child out-
comes in other countries demonstrates that where support is generous to help all fami-
lies and children, there are higher levels of health and general education and lower levels
of violence and child deviance than in the United States.54
Liberal thinking and the focus on the free market have made it seem that citizens
make their greatest contribution when they are self-sufficient, thereby keeping them-
selves off the public dole. But feminist theorist Iris Young argues that many of the activi-
ties that are basic to a healthy democratic society (such as cultural production, caretaking,
political organizing, and charitable activities) will never be profitable in a private market.
Yet many of the recipients of welfare and Social Security such as homemakers, single
mothers, and retirees are doing important volunteer work caring for children and help-
ing others in their communities. Thus the social worth of a person s contribution is not
just in earning a paycheck that allows economic independence but also in making a social
contribution. Such caretaking of other dependent citizens and of the body politic should
be regarded as honorable, not inferior, and worthy of society s support and subsidy.55
In fact it appears that married women s rising labor force participation from 41 per-
cent in 1970 to 58 percent in 1990 may have been associated with their withdrawal from
unpaid work in the home and community.56 Volunteer membership in everything from
the PTA to bowling leagues declined by over 25 percent between 1969 and 1993. There is
now considerable concern that the very basis that Alexis de Tocqueville thought necessary
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Chapter 2 " Public Debates and Private Lives 87
to democracy is under siege.57 To reverse this trend, social observers suggest that it will
be necessary to guard time for families and leisure that is currently being sucked into the
maw of paid employment. What is needed is a reorientation of priorities to give greater
value to unpaid family and community work by both men and women.
National policies should also be reoriented to give universal support to children
at every economic level of society, but especially to poor children. In a comparison of
countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United
States ranks at the top in average male wages but near the bottom in its provision for
disposable income for children. In comparison with the $700 per month available to chil-
dren in Norway, France, or the Netherlands in 1992, U.S. children of a single nonem-
ployed mother received only slightly under $200.58 The discrepancy is explained by very
unequal distribution of U.S. income, with the top quintile, the fortunate fifth, gaining
47 percent of the national income while the bottom fifth receives only 3.6 percent.59 This
sharp inequality is, in turn, explained by an ideology of individualism that justifies the
disproportionate gains of the few for their innovation and productivity and the meager
income of the poor for their low initiative or competence. Lack of access to jobs and the
low pay accruing to many contingent service occupations simply worsen the picture.
Feminists are skeptical of explanations that ascribe higher productivity to the higher
paid and more successful leading actors while ignoring the efforts and contribution of
the supporting cast. They know that being an invisible helper is the situation of many
women. This insight is congruent with new ideas about the importance social capital to
the health of a society that have been put forward recently by a number of social scien-
tists.60 Corporations cannot be solely responsible for maintaining the web of community,
although they are already being asked to serve as extended family, neighborhood support
group, and national health service.
Diversity of Family Forms
Those who are concerned for strengthening the civil society immediately turn to the
changing nature of the family as being a key building block. Feminists worry that seem-
ingly sensible efforts to reverse the trend of rising divorce and single parenthood will
privilege the two-parent family to the detriment of women; they propose instead that
family values be understood in a broader sense as valuing the family s unique capacity for
giving emotional and material support rather than implying simply a two-parent form.
The debate between conservatives, liberals, and feminists on the issue of the two-
parent family has been most starkly stated by sociologist Judith Stacey and political phi-
losopher Iris Young.61 They regard the requirement that all women stay in a marriage as
an invitation to coercion and subordination and an assault on the principles of freedom
and self-determination that are at the foundation of democracy. Moreover, as Christo-
pher Jencks and Kathryn Edin conclude from their study of several hundred welfare
families, the current welfare reform rhetoric that no couple should have a child unless
they can support it, does not take into account the uncertainty of life in which people
who start out married or with adequate income [do] not always remain so. In the face
of the worldwide dethronement of the two-parent family (approximately one-quarter to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl rafalstec.xlx.pl
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86 Part I " The Changing Family
families and to offer alternative policies that place greater value on the quality of life and
human relationships. They judge family strength not by their form (whether they have
two-parents) but by their functioning (whether they promote human satisfaction and
development) and whether both women and men are able to be family caregivers as well
as productive workers. They attribute difficulties of children less to the absence of the
two-parent family than to low-wage work of single mothers, inadequate child care, and
inhospitable housing and neighborhoods.
Feminist Model
Lack of cooperation Families where adults Children lack
among community, are stressed and sufficient care and
family, and work overburdened attention from parents
Accordingly, feminists would work for reforms that build and maintain the social
capital of volunteer groups, neighborhoods, and communities because a healthy civil so-
ciety promotes the well-being of families and individuals as well as economic prosperity
and a democratic state. They would also recognize greater role flexibility across the life
cycle so that both men and women could engage in caregiving, and they would encourage
education and employment among women as well as among men.
Disappearance of Community
From a feminist perspective, family values have become an issue because individualism
has driven out the sense of collective responsibility in our national culture. American
institutions and social policies have not properly implemented a concern for all citizens.
Comparative research on family structure, teenage pregnancy, poverty, and child out-
comes in other countries demonstrates that where support is generous to help all fami-
lies and children, there are higher levels of health and general education and lower levels
of violence and child deviance than in the United States.54
Liberal thinking and the focus on the free market have made it seem that citizens
make their greatest contribution when they are self-sufficient, thereby keeping them-
selves off the public dole. But feminist theorist Iris Young argues that many of the activi-
ties that are basic to a healthy democratic society (such as cultural production, caretaking,
political organizing, and charitable activities) will never be profitable in a private market.
Yet many of the recipients of welfare and Social Security such as homemakers, single
mothers, and retirees are doing important volunteer work caring for children and help-
ing others in their communities. Thus the social worth of a person s contribution is not
just in earning a paycheck that allows economic independence but also in making a social
contribution. Such caretaking of other dependent citizens and of the body politic should
be regarded as honorable, not inferior, and worthy of society s support and subsidy.55
In fact it appears that married women s rising labor force participation from 41 per-
cent in 1970 to 58 percent in 1990 may have been associated with their withdrawal from
unpaid work in the home and community.56 Volunteer membership in everything from
the PTA to bowling leagues declined by over 25 percent between 1969 and 1993. There is
now considerable concern that the very basis that Alexis de Tocqueville thought necessary
C
Ch-02.indd 86 7/8/2008 12:31:59 PM
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Chapter 2 " Public Debates and Private Lives 87
to democracy is under siege.57 To reverse this trend, social observers suggest that it will
be necessary to guard time for families and leisure that is currently being sucked into the
maw of paid employment. What is needed is a reorientation of priorities to give greater
value to unpaid family and community work by both men and women.
National policies should also be reoriented to give universal support to children
at every economic level of society, but especially to poor children. In a comparison of
countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United
States ranks at the top in average male wages but near the bottom in its provision for
disposable income for children. In comparison with the $700 per month available to chil-
dren in Norway, France, or the Netherlands in 1992, U.S. children of a single nonem-
ployed mother received only slightly under $200.58 The discrepancy is explained by very
unequal distribution of U.S. income, with the top quintile, the fortunate fifth, gaining
47 percent of the national income while the bottom fifth receives only 3.6 percent.59 This
sharp inequality is, in turn, explained by an ideology of individualism that justifies the
disproportionate gains of the few for their innovation and productivity and the meager
income of the poor for their low initiative or competence. Lack of access to jobs and the
low pay accruing to many contingent service occupations simply worsen the picture.
Feminists are skeptical of explanations that ascribe higher productivity to the higher
paid and more successful leading actors while ignoring the efforts and contribution of
the supporting cast. They know that being an invisible helper is the situation of many
women. This insight is congruent with new ideas about the importance social capital to
the health of a society that have been put forward recently by a number of social scien-
tists.60 Corporations cannot be solely responsible for maintaining the web of community,
although they are already being asked to serve as extended family, neighborhood support
group, and national health service.
Diversity of Family Forms
Those who are concerned for strengthening the civil society immediately turn to the
changing nature of the family as being a key building block. Feminists worry that seem-
ingly sensible efforts to reverse the trend of rising divorce and single parenthood will
privilege the two-parent family to the detriment of women; they propose instead that
family values be understood in a broader sense as valuing the family s unique capacity for
giving emotional and material support rather than implying simply a two-parent form.
The debate between conservatives, liberals, and feminists on the issue of the two-
parent family has been most starkly stated by sociologist Judith Stacey and political phi-
losopher Iris Young.61 They regard the requirement that all women stay in a marriage as
an invitation to coercion and subordination and an assault on the principles of freedom
and self-determination that are at the foundation of democracy. Moreover, as Christo-
pher Jencks and Kathryn Edin conclude from their study of several hundred welfare
families, the current welfare reform rhetoric that no couple should have a child unless
they can support it, does not take into account the uncertainty of life in which people
who start out married or with adequate income [do] not always remain so. In the face
of the worldwide dethronement of the two-parent family (approximately one-quarter to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]