The work addresses current issues in women's history and women's studies, such as the relationship between women's paid employment and male power and the multifaceted causes of women's subordination in working-class families."--BOOK JACKET.

"All women, regardless of race, face a greater risk of poverty in their later years than elderly men, chiefly as a result of social biases and the failure of public policy. In this volume, the author presents her findings from an extensive study of low-income older women from around the country and features the detailed life stories of seven selected women. In examining central aspects of the respondents' private lives, the author describes the impact of poverty on self-concept, daily coping strategies, marriage, and caregiving." "This text offers recommendations for policy changes that are desperately needed to prevent and to ameliorate poverty among older women and examines the role of older women in social reform. Academics, students, policymakers, researchers, and professionals in sociology and social gerontology will find this volume a valuable resource."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Despite an overhaul in the 1990s, the American welfare system remains with a business model focused on the bottom line. Crafted by male-dominated legislative bodies whose members most likely never had to choose between paying the rent or feeding their kids, established policies primarily protect the popular programs that ensure politicians' re-election. This book offers a feminist perspective on the 21st century attitude toward poverty, illustrated by the words of women forced to live every day with social policies they had no voice in developing. Topics include the struggles of daily life, crime, health care, education, employment, and a discussion of capitalism, inequality, greed, and moral obligation in a free society. In the unrestrained pursuit of wealth, this work shows that America has created a vast poverty problem, making the rich richer and forcing the poor into a forgotten class.

Publisher Description

The World Bank Group’s Women, Business and the Law examines laws and regulations affecting women’s prospects as entrepreneurs and employees across 190 economies. Its goal is to inform policy discussions on how to remove legal restrictions on women and promote research on how to improve women’s economic inclusion.

This important book looks at the changes in AFDC, Social Security, and Unemployment Insurance, and welfare "reform." This new edition reveals how welfare policy scapegoats women more than ever to justify widespread retrenchment and to divert the public's attention from the real causes of the nation's mounting economic woes.

2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action. It also marks the first time that progress on the implementation of the Platform is reviewed in light of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in 2015. This report therefore takes an integrated approach to reporting on progress, gaps and challenges related to the advancement of gender equality and women's rights across six dimensions that link the Platform's critical areas of concern and the Sustainable Development Goals. It finds that there have been important gains since the adoption of the Beijing Platform in 1995, but that progress towards gender equality has stalled and even reversed in some areas in recent years. Across the globe women's movements, energized by young feminists at the helm, are challenging slow and piecemeal progress and are impatient for systemic change. World leaders can learn from the ways in which these movements work across silos and political boundaries, seeing their work to advance the rights of women and girls as inextricably linked to the achievement of economic, social and environmental justice for all. The report features their voices that must be heard and acted upon. The report also highlights catalytic policies and programmes under each of the six dimensions as well as a number of cross-cutting strategies that can accelerate the implementation of the entire Platform for Action for this generation and the next.

“An engrossing look at the human side of Benjamin Franklin . . . Using a post-feminist lens that’s critical of gender essentialism, Stuart rescues these women from obscurity . . . This is a terrific read: poignant, provocative, and probing.” —Library Journal, Starred Review A vivid portrait of the women who loved, nurtured, and defended America’s famous scientist and founding father. Everyone knows Benjamin Franklin—the thrifty inventor-statesman of the Revolutionary era—but not about his love life. Poor Richard’s Women reveals the long-neglected voices of the women Ben loved and lost during his lifelong struggle between passion and prudence. The most prominent among them was Deborah Read Franklin, his common-law wife and partner for 44 years. Long dismissed by historians, she was an independent, politically savvy woman and devoted wife who raised their children, managed his finances, and fought off angry mobs at gunpoint while he traipsed about England. Weaving detailed historical research with emotional intensity and personal testimony, Nancy Rubin Stuart traces Deborah’s life and those of Ben’s other romantic attachments through their personal correspondence. We are introduced to Margaret Stevenson, the widowed landlady who managed Ben’s life in London; Catherine Ray, the 23-year-old New Englander with whom he traveled overnight and later exchanged passionate letters; Madame Brillon, the beautiful French musician who flirted shamelessly with him, and the witty Madame Helvetius, who befriended the philosophes of pre-Revolutionary France and brought Ben to his knees. What emerges from Stuart’s pen is a colorful and poignant portrait of women in the age of revolution. Set two centuries before the rise of feminism, Poor Richard’s Women depicts the feisty, often-forgotten women dear to Ben’s heart who, despite obstacles, achieved an independence rarely enjoyed by their peers in that era.

Brings together the words of welfare mothers, activists and advocates, as well as scholars in a poignant and powerful challenge to the impoverishment of women.

Trade can dramatically improve women’s lives, creating new jobs, enhancing consumer choices, and increasing women’s bargaining power in society. It can also lead to job losses and a concentration of work in low-skilled employment. Given the complexity and specificity of the relationship between trade and gender, it is essential to assess the potential impact of trade policy on both women and men and to develop appropriate, evidence-based policies to ensure that trade helps to enhance opportunities for all. Research on gender equality and trade has been constrained by limited data and a lack of understanding of the connections among the economic roles that women play as workers, consumers, and decision makers. Building on new analyses and new sex-disaggregated data, Women and Trade: The Role of Trade in Promoting Gender Equality aims to advance the understanding of the relationship between trade and gender equality and to identify a series of opportunities through which trade can improve the lives of women.