Picture 1 of 1

Stock photo

Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight over Womens Work by Brown, Jenny [Paperback] - Picture 1 of 1

Birth Strike : The Hidden Fight over Women's Work by Jenny Brown (2019, Trade Paperback)

Booksxpress (9181)

95.9% positive feedback

Price:

$18.67

Free shipping

Estimated delivery Fri, Aug 22 - Thu, Aug 28

Returns:

30 days returns. Buyer pays for return shipping. If you use an eBay shipping label, it will be deducted from your refund amount.

Condition:

Brand New

Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight over Womens Work by Brown, Jenny [Paperback]

About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherPM Press

ISBN-10162963638X

ISBN-139781629636382

eBay Product ID (ePID)2309727608

Product Key Features

Book TitleBirth Strike : the Hidden Fight over Women's Work

Number of Pages240 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicFeminism & Feminist Theory, Labor & Industrial Relations, Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism, Civil Rights, Abortion & Birth Control, Labor, Life Sciences / Biology

Publication Year2019

IllustratorYes

GenrePolitical Science, Social Science, Science, Business & Economics

AuthorJenny Brown

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.7 in

Item Weight9.5 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2018-948918

Reviews" Birth Strike is highly recommended, especially for public library collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that Birth Strike is also available in a Kindle edition." --James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review , http://www.midwestbookreview.com/lbw/may_19.htm#rc, " Birth Strike is bold in its attack on the way US society portrays the act of childbearing. Instead of portraying it as a social activity essential to the continuation of society, author Brown argues that among the so-called middle class this activity is almost perceived as a luxury; almost as another form of entertainment. Given the cost in the United States throughout the childrearing process, this perception is understandable. However, points out Brown, it is not an accident. Indeed, it is as intentional as the impoverishment of many public school systems and their replacement with essentially privatized charter schools. Under capitalism, an act which should be a perfect compromise between the individual and society has become privatized, with consequences for all, especially the children, especially in working class situations. Parenting services which other governments have socialized--health care, education, childcare, parental leave--are mostly left up to the individual parent or parents in the United States." --Ron Jacobs, Counterpunch , https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/making-and-raising-babies-in-the-usa/, "Jenny Brown compellingly explains the low U.S. birthrate: those primarily responsible for the labor of bearing and raising children (women) are responding as one should to lousy working conditions--by going on strike! Brown's bold and brilliant book ventures into terrain that left and feminist thinkers have avoided for far too long. A breathtakingly accessible analysis, supported by riveting and intimate testimonials, it's also an inspiring call to action."--Liza Featherstone, The Nation "An astute analysis of power relations not only in the sphere of reproduction but also in the worlds of work, immigration, and government policy as they bear on women's ability to control their bodies. Brown illuminates the historical context of the writings of Marx and Malthus, the crusades of Comstock, and recurring elite pleas for women to supply more workers and soldiers. Birth Strike lays bare why U.S. women who want to be mothers, and those who don't, have it far worse here than in Europe. Then she tells us how to change that." --Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes "... a serious contribution to the debate around women's reproductive labor and its vital place in women's liberation. A must read for those seeking to understand and carry on the struggle." --Carol Hanisch, women's liberation pioneer and author of the 1969 article "The Personal is Political" "Jenny Brown's rational and forthright answer to what the abortion struggles are about will surprise American women on both sides of the issue. Hint: it's not religion nor politics." --Peggy Dobbins, author of From Kin to Class, WITCH founder "Jenny Brown's book Birth Strike is a game-changer and is equal in significance to Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique which sparked a movement in the 1960's." --Carol Downer, Feminist Women's Health Centers founder and author of A Woman's Book of Choices, "In 11 chapters and an appendix with questions for consciousness-raising, she hits the mark of helping us to understand the system that puts profits before people and tactics to weaken it. Therefore, Birth Strike is a book for everybody. Read it." --Seth Sandonsky, http://www.populist.com/25.10.sandronsky.html, "Drawing on the experiences of other advanced Western society, Brown recommends that the U.S. needs to introduce a national health care program, free abortion on-demand and birth-control, universal free childcare (and eldercare), parental leave for all, and a shorter work week. It's unlikely that a birthrate strike will do much to realize these important goals." --David Rosen, https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/birth-strike, "Jenny Brown has cracked the code that few writers, outside of analysts trained by the CIA, has cracked. In her new book scheduled for release on March 1 by PM Press, Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight Over Women's Work , Brown performs a brilliant forensic examination of the money and people behind the stealth agenda to raise the low birth-rate in the United States. That agenda includes concerted campaigns against abortion, the 'morning-after pill' and other forms of contraception. Using exhaustive research, Brown convincingly makes the case that it's a well-financed corporate agenda implanted in Washington with an end goal of putting more American women in the maternity ward." --Pam Martens, Wall Street on Parade, "Why would opponents of abortion also want to keep birth control out of women's hands? In Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight over Women's Work (PM Press), veteran feminist Jenny Brown, a plaintiff in the RU-486 litigation, argues that record numbers of women are declining to have children because they do not have the social or government support--such as paid parental leave and universal healthcare--to raise children unencumbered. In response, she contends, the corporate patriarchy is trying to coerce them into having more children by reducing or eliminating access to abortion and birth control." --Ann Schneider, https://indypendent.org/2019/04/labor-conflict-with-birth-strike-jenny-brown-tackles-the-population-decline/, "Brown calls for increasing the social wage versus payments in cash, taxations benefits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit or allowances for kids, e.g., taxable deductions. Why? Upping the social wage allows chronically underpaid women and their families to disconnect from the tyranny of the 'family wage system' where the boss does not have to be right; s/he just has to be the boss and by force of power rules the increasingly union-free workplace. By contrast, social wage provisions are universal policy options. That is 'they are provided to everyone in the society regardless of marital status, age, or any other characteristic, and therefore are more of a feminist way to go.' No means-testing metrics that allocate social wage provisions based on household income, a kind of divide-and-conquer approach to keeping the working class, women and men, down and divided." --SETH SANDRONSKY, http://www.populist.com, " Birth Strike is a masterpiece of reasoning and insight." -- Foreword Magazine "The book delivers an overarching account of population control and family policy and details the ways the US government has pushed the cost of reproduction onto parents. Birth Strike is especially adept at deflating panicked arguments over an impending baby bust. Against the conservative think tank alarmists who insist that Social Security will dry up and the economy will collapse, Brown argues that low birth rates really only pose a threat to corporate interests: Fewer babies means a smaller workforce, higher wages, and, to certain economists, slower economic growth." -- Bookforum, "Medicare for All Is a reproductive rights Issue feminists have been pushing for years to repeal the Hyde Amendment. But we should think even bigger: Medicare for All." -- Jacobin Magazine

Dewey Edition23

Dewey Decimal363.9/6

SynopsisWhen House Speaker Paul Ryan urged U.S. women to have more children, and Ross Douthat requested "More babies, please," in a New York Times column, they openly expressed what policymakers have been discussing for decades with greater discretion. Using technical language like "age structure," "dependency ratio," and "entitlement crisis," establishment think tanks are raising the alarm: if U.S. women don't get busy having more children, we'll face an aging workforce, slack consumer demand, and a stagnant economy. Feminists generally believe that a prudish religious bloc is responsible for the protracted fight over reproductive freedom in the U.S. and that politicians only attack abortion and birth control to appeal to those "values voters." But hidden behind this conventional explanation is a dramatic fight over women's reproductive labor. On one side, elite policymakers want an expanding workforce reared with a minimum of employer spending and a maximum of unpaid women's work. On the other side, women are refusing to produce children at levels desired by economic planners. By some measures our birth rate is the lowest it has ever been. With little access to childcare, family leave, health care, and with insufficient male participation, U.S. women are conducting a spontaneous birth strike. In other countries, panic over low birth rates has led governments to underwrite childbearing and childrearing with generous universal programs, but in the U.S., women have not yet realized the potential of our bargaining position. When we do, it will lead to new strategies for winning full access to abortion and birth control, and for improving the difficult working conditions U.S. parents now face when raising children., When House Speaker Paul Ryan urged U.S. women to have more children, and Ross Douthat requested "More babies, please," they openly expressed what U.S. policymakers have been discussing for decades with greater discretion. Using technical language like "age structure," "dependency ratio," and "entitlement crisis," establishment think tanks are raising the alarm: if U.S. women don't have more children, we'll face an aging workforce, slack consumer demand, and a stagnant economy. Feminists generally believe that a prudish religious bloc is responsible for the fight over reproductive freedom in the U.S., but hidden behind this conventional explanation is a dramatic fight over women's reproductive labor. On one side, elite policymakers want an expanding workforce reared with a minimum of employer spending and a maximum of unpaid women's work. On the other side, women are refusing to produce children at levels desired by economic planners. With little access to childcare, family leave, health care, and with insufficient male participation, U.S. women are conducting a spontaneous birth strike. In other countries, panic over low birth rates has led governments to underwrite childbearing with generous universal programs, but in the U.S., women have not yet realized the potential of our bargaining position. When we do, it will lead to new strategies for winning full access to abortion and birth control, and for improving the difficult working conditions U.S. parents now face when raising children., If women don't have more children, we'll face an aging workforce, slack consumer demand, and a stagnant economy. With little access to childcare, family leave, health care - especially in the US - and with insufficient male participation, women are conducting a spontaneous birth strike. In other countries, panic over low birth rates has led governments to underwrite childbearing with generous universal programs, but in the U.S., women have not yet realised the potential of their bargaining position. When we do, it will lead to new strategies for winning full access to abortion and birth control, and for improving the difficult working conditions U.S. parents now face when raising children.

LC Classification NumberHQ766.B77 2019

All listings for this product

item 1 Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight over Women... by Jenny Brown Paperback / softback