Routledge Gender Inequalities, Households and the Production of Well-Being in Modern Europe (Gender and Well-Being)

Feminist scholars have long pointed out the relevance of the unpaid work that goes on within European households in sustaining the well-being of the continent's populations. However, care work and domestic labour continue to be largely unremunerated and unequally distributed by gender. This unique volume of interdisciplinary essays casts new light on the roles that households play in securing the well-being of individuals and families, uncovering the processes of bargaining and accommodation, and conflict and compromise that underpin them. Contributors put gender at the centre of their analyses, demonstrating the uneven experiences of men and women as both providers and receivers of welfare in European households, in both the past and the present. As European states grapple with changing family forms, a growing population of dependent people, increased participation of women in labour markets and a profound shift in the nature and organisation of work, this book makes a timely contribution to our understanding of the critical role played by households in mediating processes of economic and social change. It offers new challenges to scholars, researchers and policy makers eager to address gender inequalities and enhance well-being. This book is the second of four volumes being published as part of Ashgate's 'Gender and Well-Being' series that arise from a programme of international symposia funded by the European Science Foundation under the auspices of COST (European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research). Review 'The book makes a strong theoretical argument for broadening the scope when assessing gender inequality... a brief introduction to the capability approach with a specific focus on gender inequality; and the European case studies, especially those rich in historical detail, make the volume or individual chapters relevant for comparative scholars and potentially useful reading material for advanced undergraduate or graduate classes.' Contemporary Sociology 'By allowing us to grasp the changing nature and organization of livelihoods across time and space and linking these transformations to shifting social relations, the collection brings the complex and contradictory relationships between the household and the market into clearer view across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - historical eras of profound social and economic transformation... By presenting new empirical evidence regarding contemporary gendered income and household inequality in Europe, as well as making clear recommendations on how unequal gender divisions of labor might be overcome, the volume is likely to be of real use and interest to European policymakers... By advancing the feminist project of addressing the omissions of conventional economic approaches, and by developing a historical perspective on the gender division of labor and household inequality, the collection contributes to academic research, particularly by providing fresh evidence of disadvantage and inequality... this collection provides extensive and useful analysis and evidence of gender inequality...' Feminist Economists About the Author Tindara Addabbo, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy, Marie-Pierre Arrizabalaga, Université de Cergy-Pontoise, France, Cristina BorderÃas, University of Barcelona, Spain and Alastair Owens, Alastair Owens, Queen Mary University of London, UK