Front cover image for The wages of motherhood : inequality in the welfare state, 1917-1942

The wages of motherhood : inequality in the welfare state, 1917-1942

Entering the vigorous debate about the nature of the American welfare state, The Wages of Motherhood illuminates ways in which a "maternalist" social policy emerged from the crucible of gender and racial politics between the world wars. Gwendolyn Mink here examines the cultural dynamics of maternalist social policy, which have often been overlooked by institutional and class analyses of the welfare state. Mink maintains that the movement for welfare provisions, while resulting in important gains, reinforced existing patterns of gender and racial inequality. She explores how Anglo American women reformers, as they gained increasing political recognition, promoted an ideology of domesticity that became the core of maternalist social policy. Focusing on reformers such as Jane Addams, Grace Abbott, Katherine Lenroot, and Frances Perkins, Mink shows how they helped shape a social policy premised on moral character and cultural conformity rather than universal entitlement
Print Book, English, 1995
Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1995
xi, 198 pages ; 23 cm
9780801422348, 9780801495342, 0801422345, 0801495342
31408733
The promise of Motherhood: maternalist social policy between the wars
Wages for Motherhood: Mothers' pensions and cultural reform
"A baby saved is a citizen gained": infancy protection and maternal reform
Schooling for Motherhood: woman's role and "American" culture in the curriculum
Cultural reform across the color line: maternalists and the politics of educational provision
Maternalism in the New Deal Welfare State: women's dependency, racial inequality, and the Icon of welfare Motherhood
Wage earning or Motherhood: maternalist Labor policy during World Warr II
Post maternalist welfare politics
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