Feeding the Family: The Social Organization of Caring as Gendered Work (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780226143606)

Housework--often trivialized or simply overlooked in public discourse--contributes in a complex and essential way to the form that families and societies assume. In this innovative study, Marjorie L. DeVault explores the implications of "feeding the family" from the perspective of those who do that work. Along the way, DeVault offers a new vocabulary for discussing nurturance as a basis of group life and sociability.

Drawing from interviews conducted in 1982-83 in a diverse group of American households, DeVault reveals the effort and skill behind the "invisible" work of shopping, cooking, and serving meals. She then shows how this work can become oppressive for women, drawing them into social relations that construct and maintain their subordinate position in household life.

Author: Marjorie L. DeVault
ISBN-10: 0226143600
ISBN-13: 9780226143606
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 07/15/1994
Pages: 284
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.86lbs
Size: 9.08h x 6.00w x 0.64d