Abstract
Written by a Professor Emerita of Social Policy from the United Kingdom, this book examines gender equality in the United Kingdom through a broad lens, considering not only gender parity in employment, income, and wealth but also power, care responsibilities, and time. Pascall does this by comparing U.K. policy and practice, specifically with other European Union (EU) countries, but also with the United States. She asks the question, How equal are women and men? To answer this question, she argues that we must consider not only whether we have the same rights but also whether we have the same responsibilities. Thus, she expands her scope beyond the workplace and examines equality at home. She notes that in the United Kingdom (and the United States), women have been able to enter the workplace on men’s terms, but it is still assumed that women will be responsible for care.
When women enter the workplace, the challenge of assuring care for their children has fallen on the shoulders of individual women rather than fathers or society more broadly. In the United Kingdom and United States, the care deficit has resulted in what Pascall calls a commercialization of care, in which low-paid careworkers (often immigrants forced to leave their own children to care for those of others) and day care centers are the primary options. Looking to examples from Scandinavia and other parts of Europe, Pascall asks why we do not create policies that enable fathers to take responsibility for some of this care work. In addition to referencing paid family leave policies that reserve some leave for fathers, she looks to France, which has institutionalized a 35-hr workweek for everyone. This challenges perceptions that parents are receiving special benefits, as all citizens are allowed to “take back” their time (see timeday.org for more on this movement in the United States) and draws attention to what Pascall calls “temporal justice.” Pascall notes that the United States has the largest discretionary time differential between single mothers and women in dual earner households without kids, because we have so few family supports.
Pascall argues for reclaiming citizenship as an emancipatory concept, rooted in notions of interdependence and both rights and responsibilities. In this way, she reframes the discussion, moving beyond an equality versus difference paradigm, where equality means parity on men’s terms and difference is the reification of the traditional gender division of work outside the home and within it. Through thus expanding the discussion, Pascall is able to dissect and challenge the postfeminist choice rhetoric, in which it is suggested that women are now outdoing men, and, when they are not, that it is simply because they choose to work in jobs that pay less. She does this by demonstrating how single women without children have gained ground in certain work domains but also how motherhood creates a distinct disadvantage in these same domains, especially for single mothers.
With its detailed policy analysis and presentation of relevant data, this book is clearly a useful resource for U.K. students and scholars, and also for Europeans, because of its wealth of comparisons using the most recent EU data. It is quite valuable for Americans as well, particularly because of how it highlights not only the urgent necessity of reframing these debates, which is not necessarily a new insight, but moreover offers detailed guidance in how to do so. Pascall carefully and persuasively provides historical context for understanding the development of the gendered welfare state, gives detail on the causes and effects of the current economic crisis, contrasts policy ideals and practical realities, and supplies a means for rethinking our gender equality paradigm.