CRACKING THE FOUNDATIONAL MYTHS: INDEPENDENCE, AUTONOMY, AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY MARTHA ALBERTSON FINEMAN* - wcl.american.edu
CRACKING THE FOUNDATIONAL MYTHS: INDEPENDENCE, AUTONOMY, AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY MARTHA ALBERTSON FINEMAN* - wcl.american.edu Caretaking labor provides the citizens, the workers, the voters, the consumers, the students, and others who populate society and its institutions. The uncompensated labor of caretakers is an unrecognized subsidy, not only to the individuals who directly receive it, but more significantly, to the entire society ... "derivative dependency"... The assignment of responsibility for the burdens of dependency to the family in the first instance, and within the family to women, operates in an unjust manner because this arrangement has significant negative material consequences for the caretaker... those who care for others are themselves dependent on resources in order to undertake that care. Caretakers have a need for monetary or material resources. They also need recourse to institutional supports and accommodation, a need for structural arrangements that...
