(1)
>i start yammering about how i was a discussant at a conference and i
>was chomping at the bit to nail a presenter on his claim that
>discordant gender relations in the home had been dealt with because
>in his research he found that couples resolved their second shift
>struggles by purchasing the labor and commodities that lightened the
>burden of the second shift. in turn, they divided up more equitably
>what was left over.
>
>at the conference, i told her, i lambasted him for not recognizing
>that "discordant" gender relations had simply been shifted onto the
>labor market where there is a sexist and racist division of labor.
>you know the rave.
>
>she replied: not me! my housekeeper gets paid quite well.
>
>i replied: well, no, your housekeeper probably doesn't get paid
>quite well since i doubt s/he is paid enough to afford her or his
>own housekeeper is s/he?
>
>that's institutionalized sexism and racism no? the woman i was
>speaking to wouldn't think of it that way at all.
>
>she benefits because she thinks that paying someone a "decent" wage
>is enough without ever asking how that person she hires would ever
>be able to live in the same way. if that other person were able to
>afford the daycare and hired household help that this woman did,
>this same woman wouldn't be able to afford it! she benefits by
>imagining that the wages she pays are good wages without ever
>recognizing that they aren't.
(2)
>so, then you'd ask her how we could ALL have what she thinks people
>ought to have: less of a burdensome second shift, affordable
>daycare, etc.
How do empirically-minded leftists move from the empirical analysis (1) to the political question (2) if their interlocutors (who are in a position to employ housekeepers & pay "decent wages" in the the case of the above anecdote) have _not_ already come to an ethical viewpoint that _all_ people (in the USA or in the world?) _ought_ to have less of a burdensome second shift, affordable daycare, etc.?
What are likely political answers to the political question (2) that can be arrived at on the basis of the empirical analysis (1) even in the presence of an ethical viewpoint that _all_ people (in the USA or in the world?) _ought_ to have less of a burdensome second shift, affordable daycare, etc.?
Yoshie
P.S. How do empirically-minded leftists move from an empirical analysis of slavery and racism to the political question of reparations for them and further to the political answer that reparations are necessary?