I am working on a paper on women's work--housekeeping, childcare, etc., as
exploited labor. I am looking generally for bibliographical references
that deal with this in helpful ways. I am also looking for a couple of
specific things:
Any attempts to either value the total contribution of women's nonmarket
labor as part of the the total economic product;
including methodologies for doing this, and
any quantitative results.
I think Nancy Folbre did some work on this.
Theoretical accounts of the sense in which women's work so defined is
exploited (or not);
Useful critical discussions of Becker on the gender allocation of women's
work in the household;
Citations to the old "wages for housework" proposal, and any literature on
that idea, if anyone still holds out for it.
Other proposals for ending the exploitation of housework and childcare.
In this connection I am playing with the idea of a guaranteed
annual income intended specifically as remuneration for this sort of
caregiving labor. Has anyone considered such a proposal?
--Justin Schwartz
