Starving Hearts as Well as Bodies

Over 50 of UW-Milwaukee’s women’s studies and philosophy members joined together on March 5 to welcome Alison Jaggar, author and pioneer of feminist philosophy, at her event “Hearts Starve as Well as Bodies.”

Jaggar came to Milwaukee from the University of Colorado at Boulder where she leads their departments of philosophy and gender studies. During her speech, she used her extensive background in this field to question the justice of gendered disparities on a global level.

She used the World Bank’s global gender inequality facts from 2012 as the framework of her talk. The World Bank recognizes that women work more hours than similarly situated men and women remain in more house and care work while men do more paid market work. There is also an unequal balance of child raising duties between the genders.

“Due to the prevailing unpaid domestic labor women endure, women are economically insecure as of now,” said Jaggar. “Gender equality translates to a smart and stable economy.”

Jaggar referenced “The World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development” to explain the shortcomings in its policy recommendations and how it will not result in economic security.

In this report, the authors write that women should spend more time in paid employment and reduce the time they spend in unpaid labor. They recommend that a change in restrictive gender norms in the workplace will bring global gender equality.

“It is impracticable to believe that that remedy is actually matched to the scale of the problem,” argued Jaggar.

She insisted that the only cure to this problem is to publically provide childcare so women can leave their house and work, make investments in public transportation to make getting to work more accessible and to change the meaning of what it takes to be a good wife or husband on a global level.

As of now, Jaggar believes the worldwide characteristics of a good wife include being understanding, submissive to one’s husband and domestic whereas to be a good husband, one must only provide for his family.

“These unjust gender norms are not natural, they are socialized,” said Jaggar. “But what can be socialized can be un-socialized.”

What too has been socialized, believes Jaggar, is change in the availability of “good” jobs for women. Since World War II, women commonly worked as teachers and nurses in America and Europe, and it was considered highly respectable. However, today teachers are considered scapegoats for negative student performance and nurses are nearly assistants to the male-dominated doctor field causing yet another employment gender barrier.

Jaggar argued that the only true way to solve this employment gender problem is to change the structure of employment time options.

“We must guarantee paid leave for all parents for the birth or adoption of a child,” said Jaggar. “Only 40 percent of Americans are able to take advantage of the full unpaid leave provided by the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993.”

Unfortunately, it is only the mother who can take off from work to be with the child, causing the bond between mother and child to increase while the father provides for the family.

Jaggar also believes that employers must guarantee every employee at least three weeks of paid annual vacation leave. She presented studies showing that nearly a quarter of all female employees receive no paid vacation time at all.

She completed her talk with her New Year’s resolution. Jaggar said she needs to, “work less, but play more a lot more.”

The crowd graciously applauded her work. A short discussion section followed her speech, where most agreed with her points, but wanted elaboration in certain areas regarding the power of humans to intervene globally.

“It is philosophy’s job to seek out this natural catastrophe,” said Jaggar. “Inequalities may be justified, but that recognition is the first step closer to justice.”