The Cost of Being Female

by Margery Elfin, Sue Headlee

Overview

The Cost of Being Female is 30 cents, say the authors of this new book on discrimination against women. They demonstrate their thesis by constructing an index that documents the costs of discrimination against women in five aspects of life: economic, political, social, education, and health. The index compares the costs for American women with those of women in Sweden, Norway, France and China, and measures the costs for three time periods: 1990s, 1950s, and the 19th century. The authors interviewed over 70 women, providing a human approach to the statistics of earnings, occupations, political participation, marriage, divorce, childrearing, education, and women's health. The women's narratives are living testimony to the experiences of the costs of being female.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275955366
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/25/1996
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)
Lexile:	1210L (what's this?)

About the Author

SUE HEADLEE is Assistant Professor of Economic Policy in the Washington Semester Program at American University. She is the author of The Political Economy of The Family Farm: The Agrarian Roots of American Capitalism (Praeger, 1991).

MARGERY ELFIN is Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of History and Political Science at Hood College.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
The Cost of Being Female in the Workplace
The Cost of Being Female in Political Life
The Cost of Being Female in Social Life
The Educational Cost of Being Female
The Health Cost of Being Female
The Cost of Being Female in Sweden and Norway
The Cost of Being Female in France
The Cost of Being Female in China
The Impact of the Industrial Revolution on the Cost of Being Female
The Cost of Being Female across the Generations
Conclusion
Appendix
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Examines gaps between men's and women's earnings, education, health, and political equity, and other social costs of being female. Early chapters analyze the economic cost of being female in the labor market and the workplace, in political and social life, in education, and in health care, for contemporary American women. Later chapters look at life for women in Sweden and Norway, France, and China, and at the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the cost of being female in Europe and the US in the 19th century, and compare the cost of being female across the generations from WWII to the present. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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