More than just another litany of the shortcomings of the modern
women's movement with its emphasis on storming elite male-dominated
professions while ignoring - and, sometimes, even working against -
the welfare of mainstream working women. Mason (a family lawyer)
also presents a fairly persuasive argument that the women's
movement played into the hands of an economy rapidly changing from
an industrial (and relatively high-paid) base to a labor-intense,
low-paid service one. Had, she says, women not been inspired by
rhetoric glorifying work and denigrating domesticity, this
transformation could only have been accomplished by the lure of
high pay and realistic pregnancy and childcare programs similar to
those mandated in European nations. Today - because of sagging real
wages - two breadwinners are necessary to keep most families above
the poverty level. Childcare arrangements are frequently
jerry-built, absences for pregnancies and part-time or short-term
work lower women's Social Security benefits, and bar them from most
employment-related pension and medical plans. Furthermore, no-fault
divorce - an offshoot of the "equality trap" - has devestated many
young families as men walk away from marriages obligated only to
pay inadequate childcare allotments. Divorced older women - many
with no workplace skills - often find themselves with meager nest
eggs from community property splits and no prospects except
minimum-wage jobs. Mason calls for a bread spectrum of safeguards
to halt the "feminization of poverty." These include paid parental
leaves of at least 50% of salary up to six months, sliding-scale
childcare assistance, free day-care in public schools for children
between ages three and five and divorce settlements that assure
adequate income for the parent who keeps the children and for the
older woman who's spent most or all of her adult life as a
homemaker. She also calls for a higher minimum wage, pensions and,
at least, partial medical coverage for regular part-time workers,
and a revision of Social Security to compensate for income gaps for
childbearing and low-paid part-time work. The best of the recent
spate of books on crucial women's issues. (Kirkus Reviews)
Despite the feminist revolution of the past twenty years, most
women in America are worse off today than at any time in the recent
past. Magazines and television programs profile women bank
executives, surgeons, and corporate lawyers, but the vast majority
of women still work in relatively low-paying jobs. Women work more
hours per week in the house and outside than ever before, and a
paying job has become a necessity for women in most households.
What went wrong? In this provocative book, Mary Ann Mason argues
that the women's movement shares some of the blame for this
situation. In an original analysis that draws on both social and
legal history, she explains how the move away from women's rights
toward equal rights has worsened the situation of American working
women, especially working mothers. Because women are still the
primary care-providers for their children, they must take flexible
and relatively low-paying jobs to be available in case of a
child-care problem. With nearly 50 percent of all marriages now
ending in divorce, and with a growing trend-inspired by the equal
rights movement-toward no-fault divorce and low- or no-alimony
settlements, divorced mothers frequently find themselves
economically devastated.
Mary Ann Mason argues that the solution to this predicament is to
draw up a new women's rights agenda that will benefit all working
women, especially those with children. The equal-rights strategy
was important in opening the door for the highly publicized
super-achievers, but it is now time, she says, to improve the lives
of the majority of America's working women. This book will be of
interest to readers interested in gender studies, and particularly
issues of equality and feminism.
Mary Ann Mason is a professor of law and social welfare at the
University of California, Berkeley. In addition to her law degree,
Mason holds a Ph.D. in American social history.
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