1. Gender, the Economy and Work
Chapter 5
Gender, the Economy and Work

2. Please Note:
These slides are meant to help students think about the material. They are not meant to replace reading the material or taking notes. Using these slides as your only means of garnering information could harm your ability to understand the content of this class.
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3. Family Based Economies– (Colonial Period – Industrial Revolution)
Family Based Economies– (Colonial Period – Industrial Revolution). Household is basic unit of economy
1) Native American Societies
STRUCTURE – rules and laws that govern relationships
Government – informal; many were made up of both men and women. Shared power. Made policies about mobility, warfare, food….
Economy – Informal. Gender DOL. Women maintained 90% of subsistence and controlled production. Berdasche, third Genders.
Families – Communal families. Longhouses had families living and caring for each other.

4. Family Based Economies– (Colonial Period – Industrial Revolution)
Family Based Economies– (Colonial Period – Industrial Revolution). Household is basic unit of economy
1) African American Societies
STRUCTURE – rules and laws that govern relationships.
Government – Were not allowed to have governments. Indeed, controlled by European Immigrants.
Economy – Slavery governed who would work and where and when. Gendered DOL was disrupted by Slavery and so slaves tried to preserve this as an act of resistance.
Families – Torn apart by Slavery; Communal in structure.

5. Family Based Economies– (Colonial Period – Industrial Revolution)
Family Based Economies– (Colonial Period – Industrial Revolution). Household is basic unit of economy
1) European Immigrants
STRUCTURE – rules and laws that govern relationships.
Government – Slavery and Manifest Destiny. Only white propertied men allowed citizenship.
Economy – Farming. Gendered DOL; all labor seen as productive but very clear gendered lines.
Families – Nuclear; Gendered Dichotomy

6. Family Based Economies– (Colonial Period – Industrial Revolution)
Family Based Economies– (Colonial Period – Industrial Revolution). Household is basic unit of economy
Ideology – Ideas, beliefs and values that help organize a society.
Even though each group had its own ideology, the one that controlled the entire country was the ideology of European Immigrants because they had the force.
Ideologies helped justify slavery, male rule and annihilation of Native Americans:
PATRIARCHY; MEN MORE MORAL; RACISM; MANIFEST DESTINY

7. Family Wage Economies– (Industrialization -1970s) Families depend on wages outside household
STRUCTURE
Government –
Legal Segregation and Discrimination (protective legislation and unequal wages and mobility); Government sanctioned riots against African Americans. Laws favoring businesses rather than workers.
Also, all people allowed citizenry and the right to vote.

8. Family Wage Economies–Cont..
Economy
White men are given higher wages, more mobility. Workplace organized around the public/private split. Race is used to create Divide and Conquer. Women of color prevented from working in formal sector.
Families – All families are forced into nuclear structure: AA families are separated. Everyone affected by segregation.

9. Family Wage Economies–Cont
IDEOLOGIES –
Patriarchy (devaluing work in home and cult of true womanhood for white MC woman); Essentialism links everything to biology; White Women are now moral overseers; Racism prevents Women of Color from being True Women and from All People of Color from being seen as equal.

10. Family Consumer Economies – (1970s-present) The well-being of our economy is structured around consuming. Everyone must work for pay.
STRUCTURE
Government
1964 Civil Rights Act (Title VII)
1963 Equal Pay Act
Title IX
Favors business over workers. Favors paid work over non-paid work.

11. Family Consumer Economies, CONT….
STRUCTURE
Economy – Male as Norm; P/P split, Racism; Imperialism.
Family – Segregation and Everyone must work for Pay.
IDEOLOGY: Patriarchy, Devaluation of Women and Emotional Labor, Individualism, Imperialism; Leisure and Image important!

12. Issues for Women at Paid Work
1) Ideologies and Family Structure lead to:
Unequal household division of labor (second shift)
Devaluation of Labor done by women in the home and outside the home (household work seen as unnecessary).
What work is done in the home? Why don’t we recognize it as work?
2) Ideologies, Family Structure and Work Structure lead to:
Pay Gap (74%-- look at table) and Promotion Gap (glass ceiling and sticky floor)

13. Issues for Women at Paid Work
More Detailed Theories for PAY GAP and PROMOTION GAP.
Job Sex Segregation
Human Capital Theory
Networking – Homosocial Reproduction, Tokenism and Informal Workplace Cultures
Comparable Worth Discrimination
Sexual Harassment

14. Issue for Women at Paid Work
SOLUTIONS
1) Comparable Worth
2) FMLA
3) Laws