The Feminine Economy and Economic Man : Riving the Role of Family in the Post Industrial Age

In a uniquely depolarizing approach to some of our most divisive cultural issues, Shirley Burggraf makes a compelling case for taking the caretaking roles and the familys place in our economy seriously. She argues that if we really care about the family we need to replace the social infrastructure that has disintegrated in recent decades with a new social contract for the family. Burggraf offers original ideas for supporting family functions in ways consistent with the economic circumstances of modern families. Along the way, she shows how such problems as economic growth, productivity, social-security insolvency, education, and welfare reform will surely prove intractable unless we first tend to the institution that is the primary producer of our social capital. }We hear much talk about family values, but what value do we actually place on the family itself? In Postindustrial America i s the family merely a moral and sentimental worthy cause? Or is it in fact the focus of some of societys most important workthe development of productive workers and citizensand thus one of the primary engines of economic growth?In The Feminine Economy and Economic Man , Shirley Burggraf sets the record straight about the true valueand true costof the familys work in nurturing and protecting societys human capital. With startling insight she also shows why we must replace our charity attitude toward family with something more appropriate, the same model we use for encouraging other, important economic entitiesthe model of investment and incentives.Economists have always referred to an inevitable next generation of workers who will expand the GNP, pay off the national debt, and support the social security system. Yet until now economic thinkers, predominantly male, have never factored into their equations the investment in time, labor, and opportunity cost actually required to rear those children into productive maturity. It was as if the next generation arose magically on its own when, in fact, the economically important work of caretaking was being performed all the while by an invisible, unpaid labor force called women.But now, with expanded opportunities available, women no longer volunteer to nurture and educate the young, or to take care of the sick and dying, for submarket wages or for no wages at all. A huge transfer of labor has taken place from the Feminine Economy of caregiving into the market-driven world of Economic Man, but economists, persisting in their blind spot, have yet to recognize the full impact of the shift. Thirty years after this free or underpriced labor force began to disappear we see our social structure fraying at the seams, and we wonder why.The answer, clearly, is not to send women back home, nor is it for paternalistic government to try to displace the family entirely and take over every caretaking function. The answer is insightful public policy that insures that those who invest most in producing our economys human capitalthe parents, the teachers, the caregiversbe rewarded with real economic incentives rather than lip service and platitudes.A parents dividend through social security, dramatic revision of our divorce laws, and a parent-driven approach to public education are just a few of the provocative ideas Shirley Burggraf offers for bringing the family back into the center of this vital economic function. Both in its analysis and in its recommendations, this is a book certain to spark heated debate. }

Shirley P. Burggraf, Ph.D., a recent Bunting Fellow at Radcliffe College, teaches economics at Florida A & M University in Tallahassee.