Table Of ContentW O MN I N SOCIETY
A F e i n i st List edited by
Jo Campling
Editorial Advisory Group
Phillida Bunckle, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand;
Miriam David, South Bank University; Leonore Davidoff,
University of Essex; Janet Finch, University of Keele; Jalna Hanmer,
University of Bradford; Beverley Kingston, University of New South
Wales, Australia; Hilary Land, University of Bristol; Diana Leonard,
University of London Institute of Education; Susan Lonsdale,
Department of Health; Jean O'Barr, Duke University, North
Carolina, USA; Arlene Tigar McLaren, Simon Eraser University,
British Columbia, Canada; Hilary Rose, University of Bradford;
Susan Sellers, University of St Andrews; Pat Thane, Goldsmiths'
College, University of London; Clare Ungerson, University of
Southampton.
The last two decades have seen an explosion of publishing by,
about and for women. This list is designed to make a particular
contribution to this continuing process by commissioning and
publishing books which consolidate and advance feminist research
and debate in key areas in a form suitable for students, academics
and researchers but also accessible to a broader general readership.
As far as possible, the books adopt an international perspective,
incorporating comparative material from a range of countries
where this is illuminating. Above all, they are interdisciplinary,
aiming to put women's studies and feminist discussion firmly on
the agenda in subject areas as disparate as law, literature, art and
social policy.
W O M EN IN SOCIETY
A F e i n i st List edited by
Jo Campling
Published
Christy Adair Women and Dance: sylphs and sirens
Sheila Allen and Carol Wolkowitz Homeworking: myths and realities
Ros Ballaster, Margaret Beetham, Elizabeth Frazer and Sandrda Hebron Women's Worlds:
ideology, femininity and the woman's magazine
Jenny Beale Women in Ireland: voices of change
Jennifer Breen In Her Own Write: twentieth-century women's fiction
Valerie Bryson Feminist Political Theory: an introduction
Ruth Carter and Gill Kirkup Women in Engineering: a good place to be?
Joan Chandler Women without Husbands: an exploration of the margins of marriage
Gillian Dalley Ideologies of Caring: rethinking community and collectivism (2nd edn)
Emily Driver and Audrey Droisen {editors) Child Sexual Abuse: feminist perspectives
Elizabeth Ettorre Women and Substance Use
Elizabeth Fallaize French Women's Writing: recent fiction
Lesley Ferris Acting Women: images of women in theatre
Diana Gittins The Family in Question: changing households and familiar ideologies
(2nd edn)
Tuula Gordon Feminist Mothers
Tuula Gordon Single Women: on the margins?
Frances Gray Women and Laughter
Eileen Green, Diana Woodward and Sandra Hebron Women's Leisure, What Leisure?
Frances Heidensohn Women and Crime (2nd edn)
Ursula King Women and Spirituality: voices of protest and promise (2nd edn)
Jo Little, Linda Peake and Pat Richardson (editors) Women in Cities: gender and the urban
environment
Susan Lonsdale Women and Disability: the experience of physical disability among women
Mavis Maclean Surviving Divorce: women's resources after separation
Shelley Pennington and Belinda Westover A Hidden Workforce: homeworkers in England,
1850-1985
Vicky Randall Women and Politics: an international perspective (2nd edn)
Diane Richardson Women, Motherhood and Childrearing
Susan Sellers Language and Sexual Difference: feminist writing in France
Patricia Spallone Beyond Conception: the new politics of reproduction
Taking Liberties Collective Learning the Hard Way: women's oppression and men's education
Clare Ungerson {editor) Women and Social Policy: a reader
Kitty Warnock Land Before Honour: Palestinian women in the Occupied Territories
Annie Woodhouse Fantastic Women: sex, gender and transvestism
Ideologies of Caring
Rethinking Community and Collectivism
Second Edition
Gillian Dalley
Foreword by Margot Jefferys
MACMILLAN
in association with the Centre for Policy on Ageing
CPA
© Gillian Dalley 1988, 1996
Foreword © Margot Jefferys 1996
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court
Road, London W1P 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
First edition 1988
Reprinted three times
Second edition 1996
Published by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-0-333-65098-1 ISBN 978-1-349-24733-2 (eBook)
DOl 10.1007/978-1-349-24733-2
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96
Editing and origination by
Aardvark Editorial, Suffolk
For Jessie and to the memory ofJ ack
Contents
Foreword by Margot Jefferys ix
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction xii
1. Community care and the meaning of caring 1
The development of community care policies 1
The reality of community care: the consequences
for carers and cared for 7
The meaning of caring 13
2. Familist ideology and possessive individualism 26
The ideology of familism 26
Possessive individualism and its relationship to
familist ideology 34
3. Collectivism defined 47
The collectivist viewpoint 49
Collectivism versus community 54
The development of feminist approaches to collectivism
in the organization of daily living 57
4. Collective forms in the social organization of
daily living 69
The role of kinship and its relationship to the
subordination of women 71
A typology of forms 73
vii
viii Contents
5. Collective responsibility for dependent people 95
Caring in traditional societies 98
Historical evidence 105
6. The principles and practice of collective care 121
Essential principles of collective care 122
Contrary views 125
A collectivist approach 128
Examples of collective living schemes 137
Public, private or voluntary provision 143
Low pay, low status: the rewards of caring 145
7. The future for collectivism 151
The need for change in personal, public and official
attitudes 152
The strength of professional definitions of dependency 154
Alternatives 156
Bibliography 165
Name Index 176
Subject Index 181
Foreword
I must start with a confession. When I was asked to write a foreword
to this second revised edition of Ideologies of Caring, I had not read
the first which appeared in 1988. My initial reaction to the invita
tion was one of some reluctance. I had already a long list of books
and articles which I intended to read and review. Nevertheless,
because I had had the opportunity recently to admire the author's
calm competence as Director of the Centre for Policy on Ageing, I
decided that I wanted to know whether her contribution to the
literature relating to some of the most salient issues facing modern
society - how to provide care to all those with dependency needs
without exploiting the carers - was as great as her obvious capacity
to give leadership to one of the major 'think tanks' in the field of
social policy.
I am now grateful to the editor of the series and the publishers for
pressing me to read the manuscript, and feel honoured by their
invitation to make this contribution. The book itself needs no
foreword from me. Its introduction sets the scene admirably. It notes
in passing the way in which acceptable language relating to disability
has changed in less than a decade in response to the increasing role
played by disabled people themselves in controlling their own
destinies. It records the events and trends of the last few years which
have underlined the cogency of the case for examining thoughtfully
and thoroughly the tensions and contradictions surrounding the way
in which modern societies define dependency, seek to provide for
those deemed to be dependant, and assign the task of caring to paid
and unpaid agents.
The substantive chapters themselves utilize concepts drawn from
social and political philosophy, dwelling particularly on those of
freedom and altruism, individualism and collectivism. These are used
to analyse historical developments and contemporary approaches to
caring as a societal as well as a familial responsibility. Interwoven
throughout is the contribution to our understanding which has come
from an appreciation of the continued gendered aspect of caring
IX
x Foreword
functions, illuminated by the work of feminist theoreticians. No facile
solutions are offered. Indeed, the impartial student of social policy
and caring professional worker will find food for thoughtful reconsid
eration of much of the received wisdom of the early welfare state years
rather than the reiteration of tired dogmas from the political left or
right or other entrenched religious or ideological positions.
MARGOT JEFFERYS
Emeritus Professor ofM edical Sociology
University ofL ondon
