Of Markets and Martyrs: Is It OK To Pay Well for Care?

Citation:

Nelson, Julie A. 1999. “Of Markets and Martyrs: Is It OK To Pay Well for Care?” Feminist Economics 5 (3): 43–59.

Author: Julie A. Nelson

Abstract:

If caring work were well paid, would it lose some of the special, emotional, interpersonal aspects we want in “real” care relationships? Some fear that the introduction of “market values” would lead to such an outcome. This article seeks to bring to light some logical fallacies and insuficiently expunged gender dualisms that may lie, unexamined, under such concerns. Examining the ways we think and talk about markets, meanings, and motivations, it argues that the foci of feminist concern should instead be the concrete structures of caregiving and the problem of under-demand.

Keywords: caring, labor, wages, dualism, markets, commodification

Topics: Economies, Care Economies, Feminist Economics, Gender, Women

Year: 1999

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