The Winter 2020 issue of Daedalus, with the theme “Women and Equality,” is now live on the website of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, with open access. The introductory essay by Nannerl Keohane and Frances McCall Rosenbluth puts the theme in historical context and sets the stage for a rich and diverse set of contributions–cutting edge in their… Read more →
Up on Down Girl
The title of Kate Manne’s book, Down Girl, initially confused me. I thought maybe it was a girl-on-a-train-variety novel or a training manual for dog owners. As the subtitle indicates, though, it’s a treatise on the logic of misogyny. In my view, it’s a very good one. The dog allusion works, because Manne’s careful analysis of the rhetoric used in… Read more →
Populist Prism, Patriarchal Facet
Just use your eyes. Here’s how Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times saw the impeachment of Donald Trump: “You could watch the debate with the sound off and understand. All day, Republican speeches delivered by old white men alternated with Democratic speeches from women, people of color and young people. White men make up 90 percent of the Republican… Read more →
What IS the Economy, Stupid
A lean, bald-pated, drawling political strategist from Louisiana named James Carville helped Bill Clinton win an election in 1992 by reminding campaign staff of the importance of “the economy, stupid.” A recession that year probably helped unseat George Bush the First. As another presidential election looms, we’re hearing the same drumbeat. An unemployment rate lower than most economists thought sustainable… Read more →
Pinko Economics
How colors mysteriously attain political significance. Pinko has a kind of vintage glow. Time magazine used it in 1925 as a snappy way of altering the term “pink,” long used to imply that leftist tendencies were effeminate, as in “parlor pinks,” a term the Wall Street Journal included in a list of derogatory adjectives applied to progressive politicians: “visionaries, ne’er… Read more →
Quantifying Care
With help from many colleagues and research assistants, I have been badgering away at a report on design and harmonization issues for time-use surveys in developing countries. It focuses on inconsistencies in the definition and measurement of direct care time across surveys (as well as larger problems) and on underestimation of the temporal constraints imposed by dependent care. It includes… Read more →
Revaluation not Devaluation
I invoke a billionaire investor to call your attention to a particularly important divergence between value and price–the low wages of care.
In a recent foray to the meetings of the American Sociological Association in New York City, organized by President Mary Romero, I put together a powerpoint presentation linking the devaluation of care work to the weak bargaining power of care workers, in turn related to the specific characteristics of care work.
Sociologists tend to emphasize the highly-gendered cultural devaluation of care, along with the vulnerability of the low-wage workers (including many immigrants and people of color) who provide it. I agree these factors are important, but I think they need to be situated in a larger analysis of institutional mechanisms that affect the bargaining power of all workers. For one thing, such an analysis could help build sympathies, and perhaps even alliances, between relatively high-wage care workers such as teachers and nurses, and others, such as child care and elder care workers.
The Lazy Father Saga
The lazy father is enshrined in popular culture. Google up the term and there he is: Homer Simpson snoring on the couch. Unfair caricature, especially on Fathers’ Day! So, it’s easy to see why a short essay by Robert VerBruggen in defense of fathers caroomed through social media this week, boosted by a link from Ross Douthat’s regular New York… Read more →
Cut Child Poverty by Half
The United Kingdom did it between 1999 and 2008. The Canadian government implemented a plan to do it in 2016. The U.S. almost did it between 1967 and 2016: cut the incidence of child poverty by half. Right now about 13% of U.S. children live in families with incomes below the poverty line. One could quibble with this number (based… Read more →
The Childcare Conundrum
Like one of my journalist faves, Katha Pollitt, I would like to move public support for child care higher on the progressive wish list. So I was happy when Senator Elizabeth Warren stepped up with a specific proposal; I hope she has garnered enough publicity to send other potential presidential candidates to their drawing boards and spreadsheets. The Warren proposal gets good marks… Read more →