Gender, Children, and Social Labor: Transcending the “Family Wage” Dilemma

Abstract

The “family wage”—or the bending of market signals and the labor force to accommodate marriage, gender roles, and children—has bedeviled political economists and policymakers for two centuries. This article reviews the treatment accorded family bonds in a competitive economy and outlines the quest for a family wage by working class families. After analyzing the feminist critique of the concept, the article shows how the family wage actually held corporate and state power in balance, relative to the family, from the 1840s through the 1960s. It also offers an original numerical measure of the scope of the American family wage during the 1950–1970 period, and charts its decline thereafter. The article proposes changes in income support, taxation, and regulatory policies that could deliver the benefits of a family wage while avoiding systemic gender discrimination.

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