Abstract

Subject to Debate

Two new books of great interest, Ann Crittenden's The Price of Motherhood and Nancy Folbre's The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values, point out that there is a crisis of care in the United States. Women are incredibly disadvantaged when they perform traditionally female work, childcare, housework, and eldercare, unpaid within families. The free market cannot replace this unpaid labor at decent rates, Folbre argues, because it would be too expensive: Even now, most families cannot afford tuition at a quality daycare center, any more than they can afford private school. And men are hardly falling over themselves to do their share-nobody's talking about the Daddy Track, one will notice. Both writers call for recognizing the work of care as essential to the economy: "Top-quality daycare should be funded by the government, like school, because it is a public good."