Creating New Norms of Work and Care
Un atelier Annie Macdonald Langstaff avec Jennifer Nedelsky, professeure de droit et de science politique, Université de Toronto.
Résumé
(En anglais seulement) My project addresses three serious problems that afflict, in various forms, virtually all modern industrial societies:
- There is an unsustainable structure of work and family life that puts enormous stress on families, and forces workers (at all levels) into untenable choices between work and family
- The shift in gender norms and the inequality of women improves at a glacial pace, leaving women with less pay, less economic security, vulnerability to poverty, less leisure time, less access to top jobs and to other advantages such as high quality health care. More generally, equality for all cannot be achieved without a just distribution of care work.
- The policy / care divide means that those in top policy making positions are almost always people with very little experience of the demands (or satisfactions or importance) of care taking. In my view this means that policy-makers are, for the most part, ignorant of a core dimension of human life. This renders them unfit for the job. Those who do have the requisite knowledge and experience (primarily women) have very limited access to high-level policy-making positions.
My argument is that these problems can only be redressed by a radical restructuring of work and care practices. I argue that we need a fundamental shift in social norms, so that the expectation of ALL is that we will work part-time and engage in care work for family, friends and community part time. This paper is an exploration of what such an optimal norm would look like.
S'inscrit dans le cycle des Ateliers Annie Macdonald Langstaff, et organisé en collaboration avec le Centre sur les droits de la personne et le pluralisme juridique et le Collectif féministe de la Faculté de droit.