Alison Wolf -- The XX Factor: How the Rise of Working Women Has Created a Far Less Equal World
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One central message of this book is that women are self-dividing
into two groups: (1) an elite, well-educated, and highly paid group
and (2) the rest.

Women are no longer "sisters under their skin".  The social (and
other) classes of women with "elite" educations, skills, and jobs
are diverging from other women.  They now have different roles,
different work, and different family lives.  This influences, for
example, who cares for their children.

The question is: Does this make an important difference to our
society.  And, what are the consequences of that difference.  Can we
all be happy with it?  Does it mean that we are headed for a new
world that is divided into a small, well-off elite and a bitter,
unproductive underclass?

A consequence of this increasing division within our society is that
we are creating a class of nannies and child care-givers.  Why is
that happening?  (1) Because elite women work.  And, because they do
not have time or are not willing to take time or feel that for the
success of their work and career that they should not take time to
do both their paid work and their unpaid, in-the-home work.  (2)
Because they (elite women, mothers) have the money.  Nannies and day
care are expensive, but more and more we are producing in our
society a class of people who can afford it.  Couple that with the
fact that we are producing many people in our society who cannot
find other work, possibly because they do not have the skills or
credentials, and you can see how we are producing this service
class.  It's a bit like the work done by the British service class
in "Downton Abbey" and "Upstairs Downstairs", but without the large
staff and without providing a place to live.

Women are now spending much less time on *unpaid* labor in the home,
in particular, child care, cleaning, and food preparation.  That's
partly a result of conveniences that reduce the amount of time
needed, for example, prepared foods, washing and cleaning machines,
etc.  But, the other explanation is the two income and two career
family.  When someone who would have been a traditional care-taker
and cleaner works, s/he does not have time for all the traditional
household chores.

Wolf claims that elite women with children are more likely to have
husbands than non-elite women.  I'm skeptical about that, but I can
see why it might be so: (1) Elite women make attractive mates, in
part because they can earn money.  And, (2) the in-home (nanny)
child care or day care for children is expensive, which provides
strong motivation to marry and keep someone who can share those
costs.

Another claim that Wolf makes is that this division between elite
and non-elite women produces two classes of women with different
interests, in particular, different interests at work and different
wants from our political system.  If you are a high earner, pay for
private school for your children, and pay for child care, then what
you want the political system to do for you will likely be
different: you are likely to want lower taxes (especially at your
higher income bracket), to want tax breaks for private schooling,
and to care less about public support for public schools.

Viewed from one perspective, we are seeing the outcomes from the
revolutions of the 1960's, specifically, the gender equality
movement that enabled and encouraged women to pursue careers and the
birth control that enabled women to determine when they would become
pregnant, if at all, and freed women to work more that part-time.
Perhaps we as a society are still in the process of adjusting to
that.  Wolf's book will hopefully help us make a more well-informed
adjustment.

Many of us are worried about the increasing inequality that is
occurring in our society.  Wolf helps explain where it comes from.

02/03/2014

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