INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
MARCH 8, 2012
THE PERSONAL PRICE OF CARE
Taking care of a loved one — or someone else’s loved
one — is a virtuous thing, and that’s something that
Eugeneans of all stripes can agree on. So why are caretakers
so frequently economically penalized for their work?
Economist Nancy Folbre’s keynote speech March 8,
“Women’s Gains, Mothers’ Losses: Capitalism and the Care
Penalty,” will address aspects of something called the care
penalty.
“The care penalty is the price that caregivers pay for
taking on responsibilities or obligations to care for others,”
Folbre says. “It’s pretty evident what happens to earnings
when people take time out of the labor market.”
It’s not just that caregivers, so frequently women, lose
out on wages temporarily while caring for children or the
elderly, Folbre says. “It lowers your earnings over the entire
course of your life, often adding up to a pretty substantial
sum of money.”
One way to examine the care penalty is to look at different
groups of caregivers and non-caregivers that are otherwise
similar. “Economic differences between mothers and non-
mothers, controlling for differences in education and other
factors that might affect their labor market productivity, are
actually greater than differences between single women and
single men,” Folbre says.
Since women are so often the caregivers in American
culture, that can mean that in data the care penalty can be
obscured. As a result, Folbre says, “a lot of what we see
today as gender differences in pay or promotions are kind of
a result of the care penalty.”
The infl uence of the care penalty is shown further in
the differences between groups of men, who often have
families but also have cultural expectations of care that
are different than those of women. “Men who are fathers
tend to earn more than men who aren’t fathers; they’re
often working harder and longer hours in order to help
support their families,” she says. In contrast, women who
N A N CY FO L B R E
BRING YOUR DAUGHTERS AND YOUR DEMANDS
EVENTS
The next generation of young women, who still face inequality and disparaging slurs from the
likes of Rush Limbaugh, will be the focus of “Women Amplifi ed,” a march taking place on March
8, International Women’s Day.
The “Uniting Girls, Inspiring Futures” event will address Planned Parenthood funding,
contraceptives, gender equality and pregnancy discrimination.
The event is being organized by an activist known as Lotus, in close connection with Occupy
Eugene. Gay/straight alliance students from local high schools have been invited to participate
in the march as have other groups closely tied to the issues being presented.
“I fi gured maybe 50 people would show up,” says Lotus, who was ultimately surprised by the
overwhelming response of support she has received for the event.
Lotus has a lot of ideas for what will take place, but she does not want it to be confi ned to
one expression of discontent instead of another.
“I’m trying not to put too many things in stone because I want to go where the people want to
go,” she says.
The plan is to gather at Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza at 4 pm and see what happens from
there. Speakers will expound on the transition from matriarchal to patriarchal societies of the
past and talk about the struggle for women today. There will be food and music and then a more
radical call for change through street theater, topless protesters and a reclamation ceremony, all
part of a deliberate stance to get a younger generation involved in women’s rights.
— Ted Shorack
SATURDAY, MARCH 10
SUNDAY, MARCH 11
American Association of University Women:
Women veterans of WWII, 9:30am social time,
10 am brunch, 10:30 am program, Westminster
Presbyterian Church, 777 Coburg Rd.
Eugene Russian singing group Ruskii Dukh,
5-7 pm, Cozmic Pizza. Don.
That Takes Ovaries — An Event to Celebrate
Women’s History Month, presentation of The
Golden Ovary award presentations, variety,
5:30 pm, Cozmic. FREE.
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
are mothers are more likely to take time out from paid
employment for care.
The care penalty isn’t limited to women who take
time from their careers, intentionally or by happenstance.
“There’s also a second related but distinct penalty for
entering an occupation that involves paid care work,” Folbre
says. When factors that might skew the data are accounted
for, and recognizing that exceptions do exist, “generally a
job that involves taking care of other people pays less than
a job that doesn’t.”
Even within the caregiving fi eld there are some occupations
that are paid less than others, such as childcare and caring for
people in nursing homes. Folbre says that there are several
possible explanations for this. Having a lot of women in a
fi eld tends to lower the wage that’s offered, and Folbre says
women may continue to choose the lower-paid profession
because they fi nd an intrinsic satisfaction in it.
How can women avoid being dinged by the care penalty?
Folbre says that, just as one might guess, the answer is
education, which adds a certain level of fl exibility to
caregivers’ lives.
“There’s a lot of discussion today about why there are
more women than men fi nishing college,” Folbre says,
“and I think the reason … is that a college education is
particularly valuable to women because it enables them to
move into traditionally feminine occupations but at a higher
level and that has kind of a protective effect.”
Folbre says that one of the next topics she plans to
investigate involves how we think about public spending
and fi nance, with an emphasis on how societal spending
resembles the spending of a traditional family.
Folbre will deliver the keynote address at the Wayne
Morse Center for Law and Politics’ Gender Equity and
Capitalism Conference, 7 pm Thursday, March 8, Knight
Law 110, UO, full schedule available at wkly.ws/17q
— Shannon Finnell
YOU’VE COME
A LONG WAY, BABY?
When it comes to the current condition of elected
women in politics, “grim and dismal would be a good
place to start,” Mary V. Hughs, founder of the 2012
Project, said at a Public Interest in Environmental Law
Conference panel March 3.
Oregon can only boast 14.3 percent of its
congressional delegation and 27.8 percent of the state
Legislature with ovaries. The election of new women to
Congress peaked in 1992, but then “The effort to elect
women into government fl atlined,” Hughes says.
Now the effort to keep women involved in politics lo-
cally is growing again, thanks in part to Emerge Oregon.
“Our goal is to have women trained and ready to go in
the pipeline,” says Laura Coyle. Emerge is accomplishing
that by graduating its fourth class, which includes 24
women who are interested in running for offi ces such as
city councils, school boards and county commissions. Its
53 alumnae include state Rep. Val Hoyle of Lane County
and state Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer of Portland.
Cynthia Wooten, a former Oregon legislator and a
founder of the Oregon Country Fair, urged women at
the PIELC panel to think of what they can do for their
communities. “I would say to women: We need you
desperately,” Wooten said.
Emerge 2012’s kick-off event is 5:30 pm Tuesday,
March 13, at the Oregon Electric Station, 27 E. 5th
Ave.; cost is $51.
— Shannon Finnell
EUGENE WEEKLY MARCH 8, 2012
9