A really interesting sf book that looked at the concept of a
"housewife/mother" wage was Zoe Fairbairns BENEFITS. Fairbairns is a
British socialist/feminist who has also done work in the peace movement.
My review of BENEFITS from the feminist-sf web pages is:
"Fairbairns' Benefits traces a future history of women in Britain.
Concentrating on government influence over women's fertility, this novel
portrays an all-too-possible dystopia. Particularly striking were
Fairbairns' dissection early in the novel (p. 38) of double-speak phrases
like "the fight against inflation" and "giving parents a free hand,"
phrases that ring all too familiarly to us in 1996. All in all, a neat
book -- well-written, well-thought-out, and depressing as hell. An
interesting spin on the same sorts of ideas as in Margaret Atwood's The
Handmaid's Tale; and in fact, there were actual references to the Biblical
handmaid. This in a work published six years prior to The Handmaid's
Tale. -- lq, 6/21/96. "
On Tue, 23 Sep 1997, George Elgin, Suzette Haden Elgin wrote:
> Date: Tue, 23 Sep 1997 08:01:26 -0500
> From: George Elgin, Suzette Haden Elgin <ocls@IPA.NET>
> To: FEMINISTSF@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU
> Subject: [*FSFFU*] *On* topic -- wage gap
>
> I don't see the issue of women and wages as off topic; not at all. This
> country is run by the principles of a science fiction (or science fiction
> fantasy, depending on which version is supported) in which all the labor
> that a woman does in her own household is entirely without monetary value,
> while exactly the same labor done by "housekeepers" and "maids" and
> "nannies" and "home healthcare workers," etc., has to be paid for, becomes
> part of the Social Security system, is counted in the gross national
> product, and all the rest. Few science fictions are less credible than this
> one, but we allow it to go on in perpetuum and lift not a finger to change
> it. I think we badly need science fiction portraying alternate US societies
> in which a woman's labor in her own household (or a man's, for that matter,
> in those cases where it is a man who does the "homemaking") has to get
> minimum wage just like any other labor, and the money that changes hands
> must be counted into national statistics like any other money, must count
> toward Social Security, and all the rest. That would let us explore the
> question of whether following that policy would -- as has been proposed --
> mean the collapse of Western civilization.
>
> Suzette Haden Elgin
>
Laura Quilter / lquilter@igc.apc.org
"If I can't dance, I don't want to be
in your revolution." -- Emma Goldman
FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
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