Mothers and Other Workers: (Re)Conceiving Labor, Maternalism, and the State

Abstract

This article interrogates the gendering of labor and welfare history as part of an examination into the meaning of work, its connection to social welfare policy, and definitions of what constitutes a "real" family in the United States. It examines the gendering of labor based upon the largely male model of waged labor and the exclusion of women of color from the early phases of women's labor history. By integrating caregiving and domestic production into analyses of work and welfare, it analyzes how the troika of class, race, and gender (especially as complicated by marriage and motherhood) have become central issues in the history of labor. It explores the racialized and gendered construction of labor and welfare legislation and the redefinition of women's "rights" in contemporary America as participation in the waged workforce, not the right to choose how to combine motherwork and economic survival.

Rights, affect and precarity: Post-racial formations in carework

“…In the 2013 interview cited in the epigraph, Poo proclaimed, “We are all domestic workers now,” in an attempt to counteract visions of the sanctity of the home through which “women’s work” became conceptualized as expression of care and love and not really work at all (Eidelson, 2013). Domestic worker organizing has been focusing on correcting such historical indignities by calling for collective bargaining, minimum wages, overtime pay, and the worker protections that have long covered recognized laborers in the United States (Boris and Kleinberg, 2003; Coll, 2010; Glenn, 2010; Kessler-Harris, 2006). Such campaigns retain the claim to particularity by appealing to the ethics of family and maternalism, which, unfortunately, is productive of differentiated levels of personhood in that the maternalism of the employer makes her a better person even as the maternal care provided by the worker constructs her as political and economic victim, thereby naturalizing her servitude.…”

A Long-Neglected Mother of Contemporary Ethnography

“…We are not the only scholars to recognize the value of MacLean's work. Her article "The Sweat-Shop in Summer" (MacLean 1903a) is still taught in labor-studies classes because of its readability, and she is known in labor history (Boris and Kleinberg 2003). She is also mentioned briefly in scholarship that identifies the "Women Founders" of sociology (Deegan 1991(Deegan , 1995Fish 1981;Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley 1998).…”

Exploring the Housing Pathways of Low-Income Women: A Biographical Approach

“…A small body of research suggests that the housing experiences of low-income individuals differ in the frequency of moves, the quality and security of their housing and their ability to exercise choice and control over their housing decisions (Bartlett 1997;Cook et al 2002;Clark 2010;Fitchen 1992;Phinney 2013). This study uses a housing pathways framework and a biographical methodology to explore the housing experiences of low-income women with children, who face the multiple burdens of maintaining a home, caring for children and employment and are particularly vulnerable in an era of a declining public safety net (Boris and Kleinberg 2003;Harknett and Hartnett 2011). The study examines the following research question: "What are the housing pathways of low-income women with children?"…”