In Pursuit of Equity : Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in 20th-Century America

Few historians have contributed more to our understanding of the history of women, and women's effect on history, than Alice Kessler-Harris. Author of the classic Out to Work, she is one of the country's leading scholars of gender, the economy, and public policy. In this volume, Kessler-Harris pierces the skin of arguments and legislation to grasp the preconceptions that have shaped the experience of women: a "gendered imagination" that has defined what men and women alike think of as fair and desirable. In this brilliant account that traces social policy from the New Deal to the 1970s, she shows how a deeply embedded set of beliefs has distorted seemingly neutral social legislation to further limit the freedom and equality of women. Government rules generally sought to protect women from exploitation, even from employment itself; but at the same time, they attached the most important benefits to wage work. To be a real citizen, one must earn--and most policymakers (even female ones) assumed from the beginning that women were not, and should not be breadwinners. Kessler-Harris traces the impact of this gender bias in the New Deal programs of Social Security, unemployment insurance, and fair labor standards, in Federal income tax policy, and the new discussion of women's rights that emerged after World War II. "For generations," she writes, "American women lacked not merely the practice, but frequently the idea of individual economic freedom." Only in the 1960s and '70s did old assumptions begin to break down--yet the process is far from complete. Even today, with women closer to full economic citizenship than ever before, Kessler-Harris's insights offer a keen new understanding of the issues that dominate the headlines, from the marriage penalty in the tax code to the glass ceiling in corporate America. Frontmatter Acknowledgements (page ix) Introduction (page 3) CHAPTER 1 The Responsibilities of Life (page 19) The Mere Fact of Sex (page 22) A Practical Independence (page 34) A Man-Run Company (page 45) Marriage: A Defining Condition (page 56) CHAPTER 2 Maintaining Self-Respect (page 64) Self-Help Is the Best Help (page 66) Have We Lost Courage (page 74) A Sieve with Holes (page 88) A Foundling Dumped upon the Doorstep (page 101) CHAPTER 3 Questions of Equity (page 117) Matters of Right (page 121) The Hardest Problem of the Whole Thing (page 130) They Feel That They Have Lost Citizenship (page 142) It Would Be a Great Comfort to Him (page 156) CHAPTER 4 A Principle of Law but Not of Justics (page 170) Apportioning the Income Tax (page 172) More Than Money Is Involved (page 178) To Confer a Special Benefit on the Marital Relationship (page 193) CHAPTER 5 What Discriminates? (page 203) How're You Going to Feel? (page 206) The President's Commission on the Status of Women (page 213) Calling into Question the Entire Doctrine of Sex (page 226) Equal Pay for Equal Work (page 234) CHAPTER 6 What's Fair? (page 239) Constructing an Equal Opportunity Framework (page 241) Standing with Lot's Wife (page 246) Divided Women (page 267) At First Glance, the Idea May Seem Silly (page 275) History Is Moving in This Direction (page 280) Epilogue (page 290) Notes (page 297) Index (page 365) In this volume, Alice Kessler-Harris explores the transformation of some of the United States' most significant social policies. Tracing changing ideals of fairness from the 1920s to the 1970s, she shows how a deeply embedded set of beliefs, or "gendered imagination" shaped seemingly neutral social legislation to limit the freedom and equality of women. Law and custom generally sought to protect women from exploitation, and sometimes from employment itself; but at the same time, they assigned the most important benefits to wage work. Most policy makers (even female ones) assumed from the beginning that women would not be breadwinners. Kessler-Harris shows how ideas about what was fair for men as well as women influenced old age and unemployment insurance, fair labor standards, Federal income tax policy, and the new discussion of women's rights that emerged after World War II. Only in the 1960s and 1970s did the gendered imagination begin to alter—yet the process is far from complete. "This volume pierces the skin of arguments and legislation to grasp the preconceptions that have shaped the experience of women: a "gendered imagination" that has defined what men and women alike think of as fair and desirable. The role of the breadwinner is investigated as a prime example."