The Rise and Decline of Patriarchal Systems
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A major new work of feminism on the history and persistence of patriarchal hierarchies from the MacArthur Award-winning economist
In this groundbreaking new work, Nancy Folbre builds on a critique and reformulation of Marxian political economy, drawing on a larger body of scientific research, including neoclassical economics, sociology, psychology, and evolutionary biology, to answer the defining question of feminist political economy: why is gender inequality so pervasive? In part, because of the contradictory effects of capitalist development: on the one hand, rapid technological change has improved living standards and increased the scope for individual choice for women; on the other, increased inequality and the weakening of families and communities have reconfigured gender inequalities, leaving caregivers particularly vulnerable.
The Rise and Decline of Patriarchal Systems examines why care work is generally unrewarded in a market economy, calling attention to the non-market processes of childbearing, childrearing and the care of other dependents, the inheritance of assets, and the use of force and violence to appropriate both physical and human resources. Exploring intersecting inequalities based on class, gender, age, race/ethnicity, and citizenship, and their implications for political coalitions, it sets a new feminist agenda for the twenty-first century.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
MacArthur Award winner Folbre (Greed, Lust and Gender) examines the historical persistence of gender inequality in this wide-ranging scholarly account. Though an educated, skilled workforce is critical to the common good, Folbre writes, the caretaking and raising of children labor typically performed by women has been undervalued in economic systems throughout history. She explores hunter/gatherer, feudal, socialist, and capitalist societies, showing that, at every stage of human development, economic advancement has relied on the work of marginalized, nonpaid groups at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Because the "goods" they produce and maintain are human beings, Folbre writes, care providers cannot rely on individual benefits for their work and have limited bargaining power, which leaves them vulnerable to exploitation. She praises Nordic and northern European countries for "recognizing and rewarding reproductive commitments" by providing paid family leave and universal childcare, examines the political and economic consequences of a birth rate that has fallen below replacement levels in the U.S., and critiques wealthy countries' reliance on immigrants to provide child and elder care as "a short-run gambit that postpones a more serious reckoning." Though nonacademic readers may sometimes lose the thread, this careful application of intersectional feminism to economic theory yields ample food for thought.
