Feeding the Family: The Social Organization of Caring as Gendered Work (Women in Culture and Society)

Type

Book

Authors

Marjorie L. DeVault

ISBN 10

0226143597

ISBN 13

9780226143590

Tags

Social Sciences, Cultural

Description

Housework—often trivialized or simply overlooked in public discourse—contributes in a complex and essential way to the form that families and societies assume. In this innovative study, Marjorie L. DeVault explores the implications of "feeding the family" from the perspective of those who do that work. Along the way, DeVault offers a new vocabulary for discussing nurturance as a basis of group life and sociability.Drawing from interviews conducted in 1982-83 in a diverse group of American households, DeVault reveals the effort and skill behind the "invisible" work of shopping, cooking, and serving meals. She then shows how this work can become oppressive for women, drawing them into social relations that construct and maintain their subordinate position in household life. - from Amzon

Number of Copies