The cost of being female [electronic resource] / Sue Headlee and Margery Elfin.

ISBN:

9780313390005

9780313023934

Title:

The cost of being female [electronic resource] / Sue Headlee and Margery Elfin.

Author:

Headlee, Sue E. (Sue Eleanor), 1943-

Personal Author:

Headlee, Sue E. (Sue Eleanor), 1943-

Publication Information:

Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 1996.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxv, 229 pages)

Contents:

Tables; Preface; Introduction: The Cost of Being Female Index; 1 The Cost of Being Female in the Workplace; 2 The Cost of Being Female in Politics; 3 The Cost of Being Female in Social Life; 4 The Educational Cost of Being Female; 5 The Health Cost of Being Female; 6 The Cost of Being Female in Sweden and Norway; 7 The Cost of Being Female in France; 8 The Cost of Being Female in China; 9 The Impact of the Industrial Revolution on the Cost of Being Female; 10 The Cost of Being Female across the Generations; Conclusion: Reducing the Cost of Being Female in the Twenty-first Century.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Sex discrimination against women.

Women -- Social conditions.

Women -- Economic conditions.

Added Author:

Elfin, Margery.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

1996

Publication Information:

Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 1996.

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
305.42 22	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

The Cost of Being Female is 30 cents, say the authors of this new book on discrimination against women. They demonstrate their thesis by constructing an index that documents the costs of discrimination against women in five aspects of life: economic, political, social, education, and health. The index compares the costs for American women with those of women in Sweden, Norway, France and China, and measures the costs for three time periods: 1990s, 1950s, and the 19th century. The authors interviewed over 70 women, providing a human approach to the statistics of earnings, occupations, political participation, marriage, divorce, childrearing, education, and women's health. The women's narratives are living testimony to the experiences of the costs of being female.

Author Notes

SUE HEADLEE is Assistant Professor of Economic Policy in the Washington Semester Program at American University. She is the author of The Political Economy of The Family Farm: The Agrarian Roots of American Capitalism (Praeger, 1991).MARGERY ELFIN is Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of History and Political Science at Hood College.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Headlee and Elfin use a sociological approach to show the cost (disadvantage) of being female in major areas of life. In the workplace, women get lower pay and have lower status occupations. In politics, there is low representation of women in elected public offices. In social life, childrearing (done mostly by women) has low status. In education, there is a "chilly classroom climate" for women. In health, there is less research on women's health problems. Although conditions in the US are emphasized, Sweden, Norway, France, and China are also discussed. The cost of being female is compared before WW I and after WW II for the US, and in the 1990s for all five countries. There are interesting, but too brief, excerpts of interviews with women. Four generations of women in one family are compared to illustrate changes over time. The benefits of being female are also considered, but are judged to be smaller than the costs. An attempt to quantify the costs of being female by means of indexes is not very successful. High quality paper and binding. A good resource book for sociology and women's studies collections. Upper-division undergraduate and up. E. P. Hoffman; Western Michigan University