Dependency, equality, and welfare

Feminist Studies

Volumn 24, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 32-43

  Kittay, Eva Feder ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0032016819     PISSN: 00463663     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3178616     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. Robin Toner, "Resolved: No More Bleeding Hearts (Both Democrats and Republicans Are Supporting Welfare Reform)," New York Times, 16 July 1995.
2. A cover story in U.S. News and World Report, 28 Mar. 1994, "Separating the Sisters: Many Women Feel Mainstream Feminism Has Ignored Their Plight" by Monica Guttman, represents this perception. Some major feminist organizations, NOW and NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, for example, had in fact devoted significant resources to the issues of welfare.
3. Nancy Fraser and Linda Gordon, "A Genealogy of Dependency: Tracing a Keyword of the U.S. Welfare State," Signs 19 (winter 1994): 309-36.
4. Joan Tronto, Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care (New York: Routledge, 1993).
5. The major works of John Rawls include A Theory of Justice (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971), and Political Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992).
6. The major works of John Rawls include A Theory of Justice (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971), and Political Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992).
7. Eva Feder Kittay, "Taking Dependency Seriously: The Family and Medical Leave Act Considered in Light of the Social Organization of Dependency Work and Gender Equality," Hypatia 10 (winter 1995): 8-29, and "Human Dependency and Rawlsian Equality," in Feminists Rethink the Self, ed. D.T. Meyers (Boulder: Westview Press, 1996), 219-66.
8. Eva Feder Kittay, "Taking Dependency Seriously: The Family and Medical Leave Act Considered in Light of the Social Organization of Dependency Work and Gender Equality," Hypatia 10 (winter 1995): 8-29, and "Human Dependency and Rawlsian Equality," in Feminists Rethink the Self, ed. D.T. Meyers (Boulder: Westview Press, 1996), 219-66.
9. At the same time that the earnings gap between full-time women and men workers declined between 1979 and 1994 to 0.76, Black women and women of Hispanic origin were twice as likely to experience unemployment as white women. (Diane E. Herz and Barbara H. Wootton, "Women in the Workforce: An Overview," in The American Woman, 1996-97, p. 45.) In 1993, 49 percent of female-headed families with children were poor (The American Woman, 1996-97, p. 316). See Cynthia Costello and Barbara Kivimae Krimgold, eds., The American Woman, 1996-97: Women and Work, Series for the Women's Research and Educational Institute, the American Woman (New York: W.W. Norton, 1996), 279, for further details.
10. At the same time that the earnings gap between full-time women and men workers declined between 1979 and 1994 to 0.76, Black women and women of Hispanic origin were twice as likely to experience unemployment as white women. (Diane E. Herz and Barbara H. Wootton, "Women in the Workforce: An Overview," in The American Woman, 1996-97, p. 45.) In 1993, 49 percent of female-headed families with children were poor (The American Woman, 1996-97, p. 316). See Cynthia Costello and Barbara Kivimae Krimgold, eds., The American Woman, 1996-97: Women and Work, Series for the Women's Research and Educational Institute, the American Woman (New York: W.W. Norton, 1996), 279, for further details.
11. At the same time that the earnings gap between full-time women and men workers declined between 1979 and 1994 to 0.76, Black women and women of Hispanic origin were twice as likely to experience unemployment as white women. (Diane E. Herz and Barbara H. Wootton, "Women in the Workforce: An Overview," in The American Woman, 1996-97, p. 45.) In 1993, 49 percent of female-headed families with children were poor (The American Woman, 1996-97, p. 316). See Cynthia Costello and Barbara Kivimae Krimgold, eds., The American Woman, 1996-97: Women and Work, Series for the Women's Research and Educational Institute, the American Woman (New York: W.W. Norton, 1996), 279, for further details.
12. Important works for me include Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider (Trumansburg, N.Y.: Crossing Press, 1984); bell hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (Boston: South End Press, 1984); Maria C. Lugones, "Playfulness, 'World'-traveling, and Loving Perception," in Lesbian Philosophies and Cultures, ed. Jeffner Allen (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 159-81; Julianne Malveaux, "Gender Difference and Beyond: An Economic Perspective on Diversity and Commonality among Women," in Theoretical Perspectives on Sexual Difference, ed. Deborah L. Rhode (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 226-38.
13. Important works for me include Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider (Trumansburg, N.Y.: Crossing Press, 1984); bell hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (Boston: South End Press, 1984); Maria C. Lugones, "Playfulness, 'World'-traveling, and Loving Perception," in Lesbian Philosophies and Cultures, ed. Jeffner Allen (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 159-81; Julianne Malveaux, "Gender Difference and Beyond: An Economic Perspective on Diversity and Commonality among Women," in Theoretical Perspectives on Sexual Difference, ed. Deborah L. Rhode (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 226-38.
14. Important works for me include Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider (Trumansburg, N.Y.: Crossing Press, 1984); bell hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (Boston: South End Press, 1984); Maria C. Lugones, "Playfulness, 'World'-traveling, and Loving Perception," in Lesbian Philosophies and Cultures, ed. Jeffner Allen (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 159-81; Julianne Malveaux, "Gender Difference and Beyond: An Economic Perspective on Diversity and Commonality among Women," in Theoretical Perspectives on Sexual Difference, ed. Deborah L. Rhode (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 226-38.
15. Important works for me include Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider (Trumansburg, N.Y.: Crossing Press, 1984); bell hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (Boston: South End Press, 1984); Maria C. Lugones, "Playfulness, 'World'-traveling, and Loving Perception," in Lesbian Philosophies and Cultures, ed. Jeffner Allen (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 159-81; Julianne Malveaux, "Gender Difference and Beyond: An Economic Perspective on Diversity and Commonality among Women," in Theoretical Perspectives on Sexual Difference, ed. Deborah L. Rhode (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 226-38.
16. I argue this point in more detail in Eva Feder Kittay, "Dependency Work, Political Discourse, and a New Basis for a Coalition amongst Women," in Women, Children, and Poverty, ed. Martha Fineman and Perry Twila (New York: Routledge, forthcoming). For an excellent discussion of the interlocking of racial/ethnic women's work and white women's work and the ways in which the latter group benefits from the racialized nature of the sexual division of labor, see Evelyn Nakano Glenn, "From Servitude to Service Work: Historical Continuities in the Racial Division of Paid Reproductive Labor," Signs 18 (autumn 1992): 1-43. See Susan M. Reverby, Ordered to Care: The Dilemma of American Nursing (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1987), for this dynamic in the dependency work of nursing. Also see Marilyn Friedman, "Welfare Cuts and the Ascendance of Market Patriarchy," Hypatia 3 (summer 1988): 145-49.
17. I argue this point in more detail in Eva Feder Kittay, "Dependency Work, Political Discourse, and a New Basis for a Coalition amongst Women," in Women, Children, and Poverty, ed. Martha Fineman and Perry Twila (New York: Routledge, forthcoming). For an excellent discussion of the interlocking of racial/ethnic women's work and white women's work and the ways in which the latter group benefits from the racialized nature of the sexual division of labor, see Evelyn Nakano Glenn, "From Servitude to Service Work: Historical Continuities in the Racial Division of Paid Reproductive Labor," Signs 18 (autumn 1992): 1-43. See Susan M. Reverby, Ordered to Care: The Dilemma of American Nursing (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1987), for this dynamic in the dependency work of nursing. Also see Marilyn Friedman, "Welfare Cuts and the Ascendance of Market Patriarchy," Hypatia 3 (summer 1988): 145-49.
18. I argue this point in more detail in Eva Feder Kittay, "Dependency Work, Political Discourse, and a New Basis for a Coalition amongst Women," in Women, Children, and Poverty, ed. Martha Fineman and Perry Twila (New York: Routledge, forthcoming). For an excellent discussion of the interlocking of racial/ethnic women's work and white women's work and the ways in which the latter group benefits from the racialized nature of the sexual division of labor, see Evelyn Nakano Glenn, "From Servitude to Service Work: Historical Continuities in the Racial Division of Paid Reproductive Labor," Signs 18 (autumn 1992): 1-43. See Susan M. Reverby, Ordered to Care: The Dilemma of American Nursing (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1987), for this dynamic in the dependency work of nursing. Also see Marilyn Friedman, "Welfare Cuts and the Ascendance of Market Patriarchy," Hypatia 3 (summer 1988): 145-49.
19. I argue this point in more detail in Eva Feder Kittay, "Dependency Work, Political Discourse, and a New Basis for a Coalition amongst Women," in Women, Children, and Poverty, ed. Martha Fineman and Perry Twila (New York: Routledge, forthcoming). For an excellent discussion of the interlocking of racial/ethnic women's work and white women's work and the ways in which the latter group benefits from the racialized nature of the sexual division of labor, see Evelyn Nakano Glenn, "From Servitude to Service Work: Historical Continuities in the Racial Division of Paid Reproductive Labor," Signs 18 (autumn 1992): 1-43. See Susan M. Reverby, Ordered to Care: The Dilemma of American Nursing (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1987), for this dynamic in the dependency work of nursing. Also see Marilyn Friedman, "Welfare Cuts and the Ascendance of Market Patriarchy," Hypatia 3 (summer 1988): 145-49.
20. Many in the welfare rights movement and advocates for the poor have stressed that workfare requirements and mandatory "community service" is only slavery by another name. For a summary of these arguments see Eileen Boris, "When Work Is Slavery: Poor Single Mothers and the Problematics of Welfare Reform," Social Justice, forthcoming, 1998.
21. Glenn points to the difficulties that await this effort. She asks us to consider: "Who is going to do the work? Who will benefit from increased services?" (36). Historically, the answer has been poor women and women of color. The apparent coincidence of interest between women of different races and classes comes apart, she notes wryly, when one recognizes that at current wages, childcare work will not suffice to bring the welfare mother out of poverty, and if wages are raised the middle-class woman will not be able to afford the less advantaged women's services. Glenn will be proved right and the cause of feminism will suffer unless women speak and think together concerning policies that will benefit both sets of women and will lessen the increasing disparity between them.
22. States must apply for the funds and must conduct programs that conform to the act's definition of abstinence education (PL 104-193, Sec. 912). In addition to promulgating the views already mentioned, a program must also have as its exclusive purpose education about the psychological and health gains of abstaining from sexual activity; teach that monogamy is the expected standard and that sex outside marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects; teach young people how to reject sexual advances and how alcohol/drug use increases vulnerability to sexual advances; and teach the importance of attaining self-sufficiency before having sex.
23. Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (New York and London: Harvest/HBJ, 1929).