A number of factors contributed to the current U.S. auto dependence. But one overlooked factor I learned about in "More Work For Mother" was self-service markets. Before the automobile, stores that did not cater to rural families with their own horse and cart (something only the richest of urban families had) had to deliver. And that meant that anything other than pure farm, from a small town to a large city had to be dense enough to allow grocery delivery. But once we had automobiles for the middle classes and a good part of the working working class, stores could offer lower prices for people who not only served themselves but carried their own groceries home. What made self-service possible? Not just the availability of the automobile but the fact women's time was counted at zero and women were doing the grocery shopping. (The latter had not always been true - especially in rural areas.) And that in turn allowed the development of the current type of low density suburbs. Suburbs where people did not drive to the store would have been much more like traditional small towns, something they were sold as but did not match in reality. Also would have been more expensive for developers to develop. This is discussed in my book being published in November.
Also something I've posted about on lbo talk before. A lot of wasted energy and resources occurs in modern industry due to failure to apply
the same mental skills needed to do housework properly. That stems not neccesarily from people who design industrial process not knowing how do do housework (though I'm sure that is widespread) but also from people who know how to do housework but also design industrial processes not respecting their own knowledge enough to apply in such cases. Probably because housework is gendered in practice (even if not as much as it used to be still substantially) thus seen as unskilled work and not thought of as a form of knowledge worth applying to something as sophisticated as say manufacture of computer chips.
On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 1:07 PM, Luis Gutierrez
<luisgutierrez at peoplepc.com> wrote:
> The May 2011 issue has been posted:
> Mother Pelican - A Journal of Sustainable Human Development
> Theme - The Coupling of Gender Equality & Clean Energy
> Link - http://www.pelicanweb.org/solisustv07n05page1.html
>
> SUMMARY
>
> Two leaps forward are needed to attain the transition from consumerism to
> sustainability: a leap from sexism to gender equality, and a leap from
> fossil fuels to clean energy. The April 2011 issue was focused on gender
> equality for human development. This issue reiterates the need for gender
> equality and addresses another crucial need: the transition from fossil
> fuels to clean energy. The influence of the patriarchal religious mindset in
> reinforcing gender inequities and exploitation of natural resources is
> discussed. If religion is part of the problem, it must be part of the
> solution. Resolving gender and sustainability issues will require radical
> reforms in both social and religious institutions.
>
> ARTICLES
>
> Page 1. The Coupling of Gender Equality & Clean Energy
> Page 2. Conscious Leadership for Sustainability, Barrett C. Brown
> Page 3. Urgent Appeal to Change the Mindset, Roberto Bissio
> Page 4. Do We Need a Scientific Revolution?, Nicholas Maxwell
> Page 5. From Footprints to Thoughtprints, Stephen K. Goobie
> Page 6. Ignorance or Compassion?, Heiner Benking
> Page 7. Biological Diversity: A Common Heritage, Priyan D. Rajan
> Page 8. Sustainability and Economics 101, Susan Santone
> Page 9. How we live, David & Helga Orton
>
> SUPPLEMENTS
>
> Supplement 1: Advances in Sustainable Development
> Supplement 2: Directory of Sustainable Development Resources
> Supplement 3: SDSIM 1.5 to 2.0, Human Development, and Clean Energy
> Supplement 4: Status of Gender Equality in Society
> Supplement 5: Status of Gender Equality in Religion
>
> Sincerely,
> Luis
>
> Luis T. Gutiérrez, PhD, PE
> The Pelican Web of Solidarity and Sustainability
> Mother Pelican: A Journal of Sustainable Human Development
> Home Page ~ http://pelicanweb.org
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
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