Child Care and Inequality: Re-Thinking Carework for Children and Youth

by Kurz,Demie; Kurz,Demie

• ISBN13: 9780415933506
• ISBN10: 0415933501
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-07-26
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

How do we provide adequate child care for our kids? How do we close the gap between children in desperate need of quality care and healthcare providers with scarce financial and material resources to provide for them? This collection has assembled a team of the top names in the field to provide a wide-ranging and thought-provoking analysis on the state of child care today. Contributors consider the intersecting inequalities of race, ethnicity, gender, social class and sexual orientation and the ways in which each shapes the provision of care and young people. All essays are original and address a range of topics including issues of power and inequality in carework, family and neighborhood resources, workplace demands and opportunities for parents, and carework and the welfare state. As one of the most pressing problems facing families today, this collection challenges scholars, policymakers and concerned community members to rethink the issues, revitalize the debate and reconsider how to establish ahealthcare system that better serves its most important clients.

Table of Contents

Introduction
I: Rethinking Family Carework
American Women Tending Sick and Disabled Children, 1850-1940	11	(12)
Emily K. Abel
Poor Mothers and the Care of Teenage Children	23	(14)
Demie Kurz
Las Madres en el Barrio: Godmothers, Othermothers, and Women's Power in a Community of Caregiving	37	(14)
JoAnn DeFiore
Nurturing Babies, Protecting Men: The Unequal Dynamics of Women's Postpartum Caregiving Practices	51	(14)
Christa Kelleher
Bonnie Fox
Defining ``Good'' Child Care: Hegemonic and Democratic Standards	65	(18)
Francesca M. Cancian
II: Family Intersections with the State
Making Poor Mothers Fungible: The Privatization of Foster Care	83	(16)
Barbara Bennett Woodhouse
Children and Chronic Health Conditions: Welfare Reform and Health-Related Carework	99	(14)
Andrew S. London
Ellen K. Scott
Vicki Hunter
Caregiving, Welfare States, and Mothers' Poverty	113	(20)
Karen Christopher
III: Carework in the Marketplace and Community
Care, Inequality, and Policy	133	(12)
Paula England
Nancy Folbre
Child Care across Sectors: A Comparison of the Work of Child Care in Three Settings	145	(14)
Heather M. Fitz Gibbon
Empowering Forces: Professional Careworkers in the Support Networks of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Youth	159	(16)
Eric R. Wright
Robert E. Connoley
Support Organizations for Parents of Children with Cancer: Local, National, and International Problems and Prospects	175	(18)
Mark Chesler
``Where Teachers Can Make a Livable Wage'': Organizing to Address Gender and Racial Inequalities in Paid Child Care Work	193	(14)
Mary C. Tuominen
Activist Mothering and Community Work: Fighting Oppression in Low-income Neighborhoods	207	(16)
Nancy A. Naples
References	223	(34)
Contributor Notes	257	(6)
Index	263