Women, the Family, and Policy: A Global Perspective / Edition 1

by Esther Ngan-ling Chow, Catherine White Berheide

Overview

The authors highlight how structural circumstances in countries with various degrees of industrialization are associated with specific policies. The analyses of women's experiences reveal the variety of ways in which private patriarchy in families combines with public patriarchy in economies and states to create a system of domination which subordinates women. The authors detail how gender is constructed under specific political, economic, and cultural circumstances, and seek to understand how state policies with differing sensitivities to women's issues have produced mixed outcomes for women and their families in the process of economic development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791417867
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	06/07/1994
Series:	SUNY series in Gender and Society
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Esther Ngan-ling Chow is Professor of Sociology at The American University. Catherine White Berheide is Associate Professor of Sociology at Skidmore College.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Studying Women, Families, and Policies Globally Esther
Ngan-ling Chow and Catherine White Berheide

Part I: Changing State Policies, Women, Families, and Economic Development

1. Women, Families, and Public Policy in Sweden
Joan Acker

2. Repudiation versus Divorce: Responses to State Policy in Tunisia
Mounira Charrad

3. The Impact of the One-Child Policy on Women and the Patriarchal Family in the People's Republic of China
Esther Ngan-ling Chow and Kevin Chen

4. Working without Wages in Australian Welfare
Cora Vellekoop Baldock

5. Women's Work, Wealth, and Family Survival Strategy: The Impact of Guatemala's ALCOSA Agribusiness Project
Rae Lesser Blumberg

Part II: Stategic and Practical Gener Interests, Families, and Policies

6. Controlling Less Land, Producing Less Food: The Fate of Female-Headed Households in Malawi
Catherine White Berheide and Marcia Texler Segal

7. The Urban Street Food Trade: Regional Variations of Women's Involvement
Irene Tinker

8. Women, Political Activism, and the Struggle for Housing: The Case of Costa Rica
Montserrat Sagot

9. Fertility, Selective Recruitment, and the Maquila Labor Force
Susan Tiano

10. Childcare Arrangements of Employed Mothers in Taiwan
Chin-Chun Yi

Part III: Conclusion

11. Perpetuating Gender Inequality: The Role of Families, Economies, and States
Catherine White Berheide and Esther Ngan-ling Chow

About the Contributors

Index

Editorial Reviews

"The strength of this book is the powerful introduction to the field of women and development and its integration with issues and data from studies of the family and gender. The authors argue strongly and demonstrate clearly the necessary interdependence of theory development in all of these specialties." — Rachel Kahn-Hut, San Francisco State University

"The topic is useful and timely; the collection contains an enormous amount of information on both the theme and on the local context in which each study is set. The style of argument among the articles is quite uniform: straightforward, well supported, and cogently presented. Consequently, the volume is dense—packed with information and relatively free from digressions, polemic, or fluff." — Elizabeth McLean Petras, Drexel University

From the Publisher

Analyzes the various ways in which private patriarchy is reinforced by public patriarchy in economies and states to create or sustain a system that subordinates women, especially as part of the process of industrialization. Reports on policies and women's experiences in Sweden, Tunisia, China, Australia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and other countries. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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