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I DO Know How She Does It: Kate Reddy and Feminism`s Unfinished Business
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1998 to 62.5 percent in 2001. There have been other demographic changes that bear watching though. About 18 percent of women ages 40-44 today have never had a child, compared with 10 percent of women in 1976. Women in this age group have, on average, 1.9 children; down considerably from the 1976 average of 3.1 children. According to the most recent Census Bureau report (2003), 44 percent of all women of childbearing age (defined by the USCB as 15-44) are childless. Seventy-one percent of women without children participate in the labor force. Conservative, anti-feminist activist Phyllis Schlafly hails Belkin’s article as evidence that feminism has been “mugged by reality” (Young, 2004). Oddly, perhaps she is right—although certainly not in the sense that domestic maternalism has trumped the value of women in the workforce. Rather, if a majority of women really believe that their individual actions bear little consequence for their daughters (and sons) and the generations of women (and men) coming behind them, then feminism has been mugged by the very women who should be leading the revolution. There is plenty of unfinished business in creating more egalitarian family models, building more public support structures for families and developing family-friendly work models. The responsibility for transforming society belongs to all of us regardless of ideology or gender, even though I have labeled it “feminism’s unfinished business” for reasons described earlier. Equality of opportunity so celebrated in the United States has not translated into equal outcomes for men and women. Finding Answers to our Deepest Conflict There are three distinct but related tasks associated with deconstructing our deepest conflict: 1) disabling the power of gender ideology to assign the caregiving responsibility exclusively to women thereby enabling a reconceptualization of family work; 2) creating a new measure of workplace commitment and success that is tied to the quality of the output rather than the quantity of time on the task; and 3) letting go of the myth that individuals and families alone can provide/purchase as much care as they are required to consume over the course of the lifecycle and recognizing that there is a support obligation associated with the public value of care. As a prerequisite to taking action in any of these three areas, there must be an objective reckoning on the state of affairs. There is a yawning chasm in the provision of care in America. Care must be seen as a public value—one supported by everyone regardless of personal circumstances. We have assiduously avoided dealing with it by trying to repackage it as a deficit of personal responsibility—a moral failing of the individual—whether a welfare mother, a deadbeat dad, or a woman fired from a job for absenteeism because her childcare fell through—the common thread is a lack of public formulation of what care requires. Although much has changed over the last century, the need for people to receive and give care has not. Caring is not a free resource—it never was. Those who provide care today make sacrifices. Women who have provided care for centuries sacrificed their claims to full public participation and equality. As Deborah Stone (2000) writes:
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1998 to 62.5 percent in 2001. There have been other demographic changes that bear
watching though. About 18 percent of women ages 40-44 today have never had a child,
compared with 10 percent of women in 1976. Women in this age group have, on average,
1.9 children; down considerably from the 1976 average of 3.1 children. According to the
most recent Census Bureau report (2003), 44 percent of all women of childbearing age
(defined by the USCB as 15-44) are childless. Seventy-one percent of women without
children participate in the labor force.
Conservative, anti-feminist activist Phyllis Schlafly hails Belkin’s article as evidence that
feminism has been “mugged by reality” (Young, 2004). Oddly, perhaps she is right—
although certainly not in the sense that domestic maternalism has trumped the value of
women in the workforce. Rather, if a majority of women really believe that their
individual actions bear little consequence for their daughters (and sons) and the
generations of women (and men) coming behind them, then feminism has been mugged
by the very women who should be leading the revolution. There is plenty of unfinished
business in creating more egalitarian family models, building more public support
structures for families and developing family-friendly work models. The responsibility
for transforming society belongs to all of us regardless of ideology or gender, even though
I have labeled it “feminism’s unfinished business” for reasons described earlier. Equality
of opportunity so celebrated in the United States has not translated into equal outcomes
for men and women.
Finding Answers to our Deepest Conflict
There are three distinct but related tasks associated with deconstructing our deepest
conflict: 1) disabling the power of gender ideology to assign the caregiving responsibility
exclusively to women thereby enabling a reconceptualization of family work; 2) creating a
new measure of workplace commitment and success that is tied to the quality of the output
rather than the quantity of time on the task; and 3) letting go of the myth that individuals
and families alone can provide/purchase as much care as they are required to consume
over the course of the lifecycle and recognizing that there is a support obligation
associated with the public value of care.
As a prerequisite to taking action in any of these three areas, there must be an objective
reckoning on the state of affairs. There is a yawning chasm in the provision of care in
America. Care must be seen as a public value—one supported by everyone regardless of
personal circumstances. We have assiduously avoided dealing with it by trying to
repackage it as a deficit of personal responsibility—a moral failing of the individual—
whether a welfare mother, a deadbeat dad, or a woman fired from a job for absenteeism
because her childcare fell through—the common thread is a lack of public formulation of
what care requires. Although much has changed over the last century, the need for people
to receive and give care has not. Caring is not a free resource—it never was. Those who
provide care today make sacrifices. Women who have provided care for centuries
sacrificed their claims to full public participation and equality. As Deborah Stone (2000)
writes:
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