The Other Women's Movement

The Other Women's Movement
Author: Dorothy Sue Cobble
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2011-08-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1400840864

American feminism has always been about more than the struggle for individual rights and equal treatment with men. There's also a vital and continuing tradition of women's reform that sought social as well as individual rights and argued for the dismantling of the masculine standard. In this much anticipated book, Dorothy Sue Cobble retrieves the forgotten feminism of the previous generations of working women, illuminating the ideas that inspired them and the reforms they secured from employers and the state. This socially and ethnically diverse movement for change emerged first from union halls and factory floors and spread to the "pink collar" domain of telephone operators, secretaries, and airline hostesses. From the 1930s to the 1980s, these women pursued answers to problems that are increasingly pressing today: how to balance work and family and how to address the growing economic inequalities that confront us. The Other Women's Movement traces their impact from the 1940s into the feminist movement of the present. The labor reformers whose stories are told in The Other Women's Movement wanted equality and "special benefits," and they did not see the two as incompatible. They argued that gender differences must be accommodated and that "equality" could not always be achieved by applying an identical standard of treatment to men and women. The reform agenda they championed--an end to unfair sex discrimination, just compensation for their waged labor, and the right to care for their families and communities--launched a revolution in employment practices that carries on today. Unique in its range and perspective, this is the first book to link the continuous tradition of social feminism to the leadership of labor women within that movement.

Greed

Greed
Author: A. F. Robertson
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2013-05-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0745668364

'Greed' is a visceral insult. It jabs below the belt, evoking guilty sensations of gluttony and lust. It taunts the rich and powerful, penetrating the cover of modern ideologies and institutions. Today, old-fashioned accusations of greed drag the larger-than-life corporate fat cats down to human bodily proportions, accusing them of gain without genuine growth. This lively new book is a wide-ranging inquiry into how greed works in our lives and in the world at large. Western philosophy has intellectualized human passions, explaining and justifying our expansive desires as 'rational self-interest'. However, an examination of the visceral power of greed tells us something about the apathy of modern theory. It shows us how confused we have become about the meanings of growth, creating false and morally hazardous distinctions between biology on the one hand, and history on the other. With greed as a guide, this book considers how the integrity of these meanings may be restored. This remarkable book will be of interest to anyone concerned about the morality of economic behavior in the modern world. It will be an important text for students in the social sciences, especially in anthropology, sociology, development studies, and business studies.

Society and Family Strategy

Society and Family Strategy
Author: Mark J. Stern
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 190
Release: 1987-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780887064951

Using one of the largest quantitative data bases ever compiled on a single representative community, Stern explains and substantiates the reasons for the decline of the fertility rate during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He integrates demographic and social history to determine the implications of this aspect of the modernization of America. Society and Family Strategy describes the impact of capitalism, and changing class and ethnic structure on family economy, life cycle, and ideology. The author evaluates recent studies by social historians on the family, social class, and ethnicity in light of the Erie County experience, examines theories of social and cultural change, and proposes a non-evolutionary model of their relationship.

Towards a Gendered Political Economy

Towards a Gendered Political Economy
Author: J. Cook
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2000-04-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0230373151

This collection sets out how a gendered approach to political economy can help us understand the inherently gendered structures that characterise our society, and provide the foundation for a truly interdisciplinary social science. It provides a comprehensive coverage of gendered political economy - what it is, where it is and, perhaps more importantly, how it should develop. The twelve chapters that make up this volume combine the development of a theoretical framework with empirical examples, which illustrate the core concerns of gendered political economy.

Working Hard and Making Do

Working Hard and Making Do
Author: Margaret K. Nelson
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 300
Release: 1999-05-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780520921696

The economic recovery of the 1990s brought with it a surge of new jobs, but the prospects for most working Americans improved little. Family income rose only slightly and the period witnessed a significant degradation of the quality of work as well as in what people could expect from their waged employment. In this book, Margaret K. Nelson and Joan Smith take a look inside the households of working-class Americans to consider how they are coping with large-scale structural changes in the economy, specifically how the downgrading of jobs has affected survival strategies, gender dynamics, and political attitudes. Drawing on both randomly distributed telephone surveys and in-depth interviews, Nelson and Smith explore the differences in the survival strategies of two groups of working-class households in a rural county: those in which at least one family member has been able to hold on to good work (a year-round, full-time job that carries benefits) and those in which nobody has been able to secure or retain steady employment. They find that households with good jobs are able to effectively use all of their labor power—they rely on two workers; they engage in on-the-side businesses; and they barter with friends and neighbors. In contrast, those living in families without at least one good job find themselves considerably less capable of deploying a complex, multi-faceted survival strategy. The authors further demonstrate that this difference between the two sets of households is accompanied by differences in the gender division of labor within the household and the manner in which individuals make sense of, and respond to, their employment.

Work-Lifestyle Choices in the 21st Century

Work-Lifestyle Choices in the 21st Century
Author: Catherine Hakim
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2000-11-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0191583308

In this book, Hakim presents a new, multi-disciplinary theory for explaining and predicting current and future patterns of women's choice between employment and family work. Preference theory is the first theory developed specifically to explain women's behaviour and choices. As such, it constitutes a major break from male-centred theorizing to date in sociology and economics. Preference theory is grounded on the substantial body of new research on women's work and fertility that has flourished within feminist scholarship. It identifies five major historical changes that collectively are producing a qualitatively new scenario for women in prosperous societies in the 21st century. Throughout the analysis, the USA and Britain illustrate what the new scenario means for women, how it alters their preferences and work-lifestyles choices. Hakim also reviews research evidence on contemporary developments across Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, and the far East to develop a new theory that is genuine international in perspective.

Class Counts Student Edition

Class Counts Student Edition
Author: Erik Olin Wright
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2000-07-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780521663946

This textbook provides students with a lively and penetrating exploration of the concept of class and its relevance for understanding a wide range of issues in contemporary society. Erik Olin Wright treats class as a common explanatory factor and examines three broad themes: class structure, class and gender, and class consciousness. Specific empirical studies include such diverse topics as class variations in the gender division of labour in housework; friendship networks across class boundaries; the American class structure since 1960; and cross-national variations in class consciousness. The author evaluates these studies in the light of expectations within the Marxist tradition of class analysis. This Student Edition of Class Counts thus combines Wright s sophisticated account of central and enduring questions in social theory with practical analyses of detailed social problems.

Class in Contemporary Britain

Class in Contemporary Britain
Author: Kenneth Roberts
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2011-02-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0230344585

Britain is one of the most unequal countries in the western world: the richest one per cent own a vast proportion of the wealth, while both the pay gap and spending habits remain incredibly divisive. How do such divisions reflect contemporary ideas of class? In what way does economic life affect individuals and social relationships? What are the implications for society as a whole? This thoroughly revised second edition of Class in Contemporary Britain uses class theory to interrogate and explain patterns and trends in economic inequalities, and to explore their consequences from a sociological view. Addressing and debating timely questions, this new edition: - Assesses different ways of mapping class structures through class schemes - Highlights the continued importance of class in sociological study and analyses contemporary social class divisions - Explores key topics, including social mobility, voting habits and education - Reflects on recent changes and developments in the field, from environmental and technological concerns to shifts in class demographics This comprehensive and accessible book disentangles the complex ties between economic, social and political perspectives on class in contemporary Britain. It is essential reading for all social sciences students who are studying class.