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Unbending Gender
In Unbending Gender , Joan Williams takes a hard look at the state of feminism in America. Concerned by what she finds--young women who flatly refuse to identify themselves as feminists and working-class and minority women who feel the movement hasn't addressed the issues that dominate their daily lives--she outlines a new vision of feminism that calls for workplaces focused on the needs of families and, in divorce cases, recognition of the value of family work and its impact on women's earning power.
Williams shows that workplaces are designed around men's bodies and life patterns in ways that discriminate against women, and that the work/family system that results is terrible for men, worse for women, and worst of all for children. She proposes a set of practical policies and legal initiatives to reorganize the two realms of work in employment and households--so that men and women can lead healthier and more productive personal and work lives. Williams introduces a new 'reconstructive' feminism that places class, race, and gender conflicts among women at center stage. Her solution is an inclusive, family-friendly feminism that supports both mothers and fathers as caregivers and as workers.
Williams shows that workplaces are designed around men's bodies and life patterns in ways that discriminate against women, and that the work/family system that results is terrible for men, worse for women, and worst of all for children. She proposes a set of practical policies and legal initiatives to reorganize the two realms of work in employment and households--so that men and women can lead healthier and more productive personal and work lives. Williams introduces a new 'reconstructive' feminism that places class, race, and gender conflicts among women at center stage. Her solution is an inclusive, family-friendly feminism that supports both mothers and fathers as caregivers and as workers.
352 pages, Paperback
First published November 18, 1999
12 people are currently reading
325 people want to read
About the author
Joan C. Williams
26 books82 followersProfessor Joan C. Williams is Distinguished Professor of Law, 1066 Foundation Chair, founding Director of the Center for WorkLife Law at University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and Co-Director of the Project on Attorney Retention (PAR).
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 25, 2008
This is a dense and amazing book that describes a new kind of feminism - reconstructive feminism. It includes a history of where we have come from regarding gender roles in society and specifically talks about what aspects of 1960's feminism aren't working today. The main proposition: I kinder, gentler world where both men and women have the ability to work fewer hours, and either gender can pursue their dreams of career, family, or both.
February 17, 2007
full of interesting facts and tidbits and perspectives I hadn't considered about how people, male and female, from all classes, deal with balancing a career and a family and a LIFE. Pretty convincing evidence on the need for paradigm changes.
October 24, 2007
I used this book for a research paper about family work conflict for attorneys. I really appreciated the depth of her theory and the amount of statistical research she used to support this... Although I did feel that some of the legal solutions she proffers are based in theory and not the reality of the current legal system (and hostility toward toward these types of cases). Interestingly enough, she also makes the case that work-family conflict is not a "women's issue"
Nonetheless, I really liked the book a lot and would recommend it to others who are interested in work-family conflict issues, even for men.
Nonetheless, I really liked the book a lot and would recommend it to others who are interested in work-family conflict issues, even for men.
July 19, 2009
I am very interested in women and cultural politics. The best thing about this book is that the author is a lawyer who is showing how to change our world legally to assist in cultural acceptance of the value of women's work. The book "Get to Work" is another in this vein--she said "If women (working at home) worked next door they would be getting paid & have Social Security."
January 28, 2010
A book that changed the way I think about work and caregiving, and how we value caregiving in US society.
June 1, 2017
I enjoyed this book. I read it as a part of a sociology course that I took and it was really eye opening in a number of ways.
November 12, 2009
Should be part of the official learning curricula.
March 1, 2015
Joan Williams does an incredible job of systematizing many issues that I have always thought of separately. Her vision in this book is broad--sometimes so broad that it makes it difficult to follow, but nevertheless the ambitious scope remains an asset.
Her most effective argument is about the need to dismantle the ideal-worker norm. She skillfully shows how our "norm of parental care"--the deeply valued cultural belief that children are entitled to a certain amount of parental care--functions in combination with the ideal-worker norm to disadvantage mothers. That is, if workers are expected to be at the office more than 40 hours per week, and parents (largely mothers) are unwilling to keep their children in childcare past a certain number of hours, women end up leaving market work and putting themselves in a vulnerable financial position. The ideal-worker norm needs dismantling to correct this; she explores how this might be done with some interesting examples from companies that have been successful at implementing creative policies.
She presents an interesting historical account of the full commodification strategy of second-wave feminists (notably Friedan), showing how, though it may have made sense at the time in historical context, the full commodification strategy is a dead-end for future feminist work.
She also contributes helpfully to the feminist "sameness/difference" debate by arguing that, instead, the debate is really between maternalists and equal-parenting advocates. She shows how this formulation of thinking about the problem allows us to get past the stalemate often found in the sameness/difference debate. She also has a nice discussion of the debate between special treatment and equal treatment.
She takes a pragmatist approach (citing Dewey) that allows her to think through the needs of diverse groups of people: she thinks through what is necessary for stay-at-home mothers, for working mothers, for working fathers, etc. For example, she argues that work policies to achieve "work/family balance" will never be effective unless men take them up--and that men will never take them up if doing so will marginalize them at work. She doesn't present this as a value judgment, but rather as fact. This is reality; if feminists want to change it, they need to take this into account. (In this sense, we can gauge the effectiveness of work/family policies through the rate of male take-up.)
She invokes Butler to argue that parents need to "gender bend" in the context of market work--family work, noting that this is difficult because gender operates as such a powerful "force field" affecting people's lives.
I think her greatest weakness in this book is that the terms she's using--reconstructive feminism, the paradigm of domesticity--are not well-defined or explained. Or maybe they are well-explained, but they are difficult to separate from their vernacular definitions while reading, so it's hard to keep in mind all that she means to connote.
This is not a general-audience non-fiction book. It is highly technical, though, if you're interested in these debates, very interesting. It is also not a how-to manual. Her recent book "What Works For Women at Work" is aimed at being more how-to; I look forward to seeing her suggestions there.
Her most effective argument is about the need to dismantle the ideal-worker norm. She skillfully shows how our "norm of parental care"--the deeply valued cultural belief that children are entitled to a certain amount of parental care--functions in combination with the ideal-worker norm to disadvantage mothers. That is, if workers are expected to be at the office more than 40 hours per week, and parents (largely mothers) are unwilling to keep their children in childcare past a certain number of hours, women end up leaving market work and putting themselves in a vulnerable financial position. The ideal-worker norm needs dismantling to correct this; she explores how this might be done with some interesting examples from companies that have been successful at implementing creative policies.
She presents an interesting historical account of the full commodification strategy of second-wave feminists (notably Friedan), showing how, though it may have made sense at the time in historical context, the full commodification strategy is a dead-end for future feminist work.
She also contributes helpfully to the feminist "sameness/difference" debate by arguing that, instead, the debate is really between maternalists and equal-parenting advocates. She shows how this formulation of thinking about the problem allows us to get past the stalemate often found in the sameness/difference debate. She also has a nice discussion of the debate between special treatment and equal treatment.
She takes a pragmatist approach (citing Dewey) that allows her to think through the needs of diverse groups of people: she thinks through what is necessary for stay-at-home mothers, for working mothers, for working fathers, etc. For example, she argues that work policies to achieve "work/family balance" will never be effective unless men take them up--and that men will never take them up if doing so will marginalize them at work. She doesn't present this as a value judgment, but rather as fact. This is reality; if feminists want to change it, they need to take this into account. (In this sense, we can gauge the effectiveness of work/family policies through the rate of male take-up.)
She invokes Butler to argue that parents need to "gender bend" in the context of market work--family work, noting that this is difficult because gender operates as such a powerful "force field" affecting people's lives.
I think her greatest weakness in this book is that the terms she's using--reconstructive feminism, the paradigm of domesticity--are not well-defined or explained. Or maybe they are well-explained, but they are difficult to separate from their vernacular definitions while reading, so it's hard to keep in mind all that she means to connote.
This is not a general-audience non-fiction book. It is highly technical, though, if you're interested in these debates, very interesting. It is also not a how-to manual. Her recent book "What Works For Women at Work" is aimed at being more how-to; I look forward to seeing her suggestions there.
April 19, 2011
I had high hopes for this book since the subject matter definitely is interesting to me and applies to my life. Here is my beef- the dust cover says "the author presents material in layman's terms so that all can understand" (or something to that effect). It is absolutely not in layman's terms. I am a layman and I did not understand half of what she was saying. But I got one thing out of the parts I read (because I actually didn't finish it)- our culture's view on women and work are not only horrible for women but also to the family unit and even to men. I totally agree, I just wish I could have read the book to find out what I could do about it. It will just have to do for me to declare that I REFUSE TO BE MARGINALIZED!
June 16, 2014
Pros: Really gets down to the root of the problem fueling gender wars and explains some of my observations with the varying views of women.
cons: It is very technical which makes it very hard to read and seems very dull at times. Lots of technical terms and back references to them and other chapters.
Once you get pass the dull technical aspects, it has really great points!
cons: It is very technical which makes it very hard to read and seems very dull at times. Lots of technical terms and back references to them and other chapters.
Once you get pass the dull technical aspects, it has really great points!
October 31, 2007
Great analysis of why it's so hard to combine motherhood and career in today's society, and why options for part-time work are so limited. Not much help for an individual in the "what to do about it" department.
April 1, 2013
everyone who dislikes the current state of equality between women and men, and even those who like current gender roles should read this book. so basically everyone.
May 22, 2012
Too much of a feminist agenda and I didn't appreciate the lack of objectivity..also a dead boring read.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews