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Race, Gender and Work*

A Multi-Cultural Economic History of Women in the United States

Teresa Amott and Julie Matthaei

Race, Gender, and Work traces women’s lives through the dynamic and complicated process which economists have called capitalist development. It uncovers the multiplicity and diversity of women’s work contributions, both paid and unpaid, to our economic history.

“Race, Gender, and Work is exciting because of its frank acknowledgement of difference among women. It is a volume that will inform and motivate scholars and activists.”
--Julianne Malveaux, Economist and Syndicated Columnist, Department of Afro-American Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

“Teresa Amott and Julie Matthaei have given us a lovingly detailed, richly textured history of American working women. And that’s women plural- Indian, Chicana, European American, Asian American, African American, and Puerto Rican. Almost everyone will find a bit of her own grandmother’s struggles and contributions in this impressively comprehensive book.”
--Barbara Ehrenreich, author of The Worst Years of Our Lives

Julie Matthaei is associate professor of economics at Wellesley College, and author of An Economic History of Women in America: Women’s Work, the Sexual Division of Labor, and the Development of Capitalism. Teresa Amott is assistant professor of economics at Bucknell University, and editorial associate at Dollars and Sense magazine. Both are long-time feminist activists and have written widely on the political economy of gender and race.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
List of Figures

Preface and Acknowledgments

PART I: RACE, GENDER, AND WOMEN’S WORKS

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Race, Class, Gender, and Women’s Works: A Conceptual Framework

PART II: HISTORIES OF WOMEN’S WORKS

Chapter 3: I Am the Fire of Time: American Indian Women
Chapter 4: The Soul of Tierra Madre: Chicana Women
Chapter 5: Whatever Your Fight, Don’t Be Ladylike: European American Women
Chapter 6: We Specialize in the Wholly Impossible: African American Women
Chapter 7: Climbing Gold Mountain: Asian American Women
Chapter 8: Yo Misma Fui Mi Ruta: Puerto Rican Women

PART III: TRANSFORMING WOMEN’S WORKS

Chapter 9: The Growth of Wage Work
Chapter 10: The Transformation of Women’s Wage Work
Chapter 11: Seeking Beyond History

Notes
Appendix A: United States Census Sources
Appendix B: Definitions of Major Occupational Categories
Appendix C: Labor Force Participation Rates, 1900-1980, and Share of Families Which Were Female-Headed, 1960-1980
Appendix D: Some Problems of Comparability Between Census Years
Index

 FEMINISM

433 pages, index, appendices

Paperback ISBN: 0-921689-90-X $19.99
Hardcover ISBN: 0-921689-91-8 $48.99

Prices are in Canadian dollars in Canada and in U.S. dollars elsewhere