Getting By Women Homeworkers and Rural Economic Development / Christina E. Gringeri.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gringeri, Christina E.

Series:

Rural America (Lawrence, Kan.)

Rural America

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rural women--Employment--Middle West--Case studies.

Rural women.

Rural development--Middle West--Case studies.

Rural development.

Home labor--Middle West--Case studies.

Home labor.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 200 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

University Press of Kansas 1994

University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan. : 1994.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this book Christina Gringeri investigates the effects of homeworking on workers—mainly women—and their families and explores the role of the state in subsidizing the development of homeworking jobs that depend on gender as an organizing principle. She focuses on two Midwestern communities—Riverton, Wisconsin and Prairie Hills, Iowa—where more than 80 families have supplemented their incomes since 1986 as homebased contractors of small auto parts for The Middle Company, a Fortune 500 manufacturer and subcontractor of General Motors.Gringeri looks at rural development from the perspective of local and state officials as well as that of the workers. Through the use of extensive personal interviews, she shows how the advantage of homework for women—being able to stay home with their families—is outweighed by the disadvantages—piecework pay far below minimum wage, long hours, unstable contracts, and lack of company benefits.Instead of providing the hopedfor financial panacea for rural families, Gringeri argues, industrial homework reinforces the unequal position of women as lowwage workers and holds families and communities below or near poverty level.

Contents:

Cover

Series Page

Title Page

Dedication and Copyright

Table of Contents

Preface to the Kansas Open Books Edition

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Industrial Homework as Rural Development

2 Restructured Production: Homework as Rural Development

3 Homeworkers in the Heartland

4 Integrating Home and Informal-Sector Work

5 Understanding Industrial Homework as Subsidized Development

6 Homework in a Comparative Context

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Back Cover.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 187-193) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780700611072

070061107X

OCLC:

1280349822