In “Under a Modified Patriarchy,” Barbara Katz Rothman presents the two types of kinship systems, each of which produce different ideas about a person’s identity. The first of these systems is a patriarchal system in which a person’s identity is that which grows out of men’s seed. The second system is a mother-based system in which “people are made of the care and nurturance that brings a baby forth into the world and turns the baby into a member of the society” (Rothman 90). Rothman argues that our modern American kinship system is a bilateral one, meaning that the mother and father have equal claim over their children. However, the definition of kin that characterizes our system is derived from the principles of the patriarchal system. These patriarchal principles of kinship that saturate our current ideologies place all value in genetic ties, while denying the importance of all nurturance.
Today, genetic parenthood determines an individual’s identity and defines the parent-child relationship. As such, this relationship, Rothman points out, is granted social and legal rights to which other genetic relationships are not privilege. Throughout her article, Rothman explores the implications of the long-standing practice of hiring mother-substitutes. Rothman asserts that the way hired caregivers are treated, which is as disposable substitutes is deeply flawed. When the mother-substitutes do the nurturing tasks of mothering, the tasks are belittled. However, when it is the mother completing these tasks, these tasks become treasured and idealized and are protected by the law. Rather, Rothman insists that these caregivers must be given “legally recognized rights. Someone who has been raising a child has moral rights invested in that child. At a minimum, we have to protect child-care workers from arbitrary firing, from loss of visitation rights to the children they raise, from having the relationship with the child used as a source of exploitation” (Rothman 103).
In order to bring about a change, Rothman explains that we must change the system by which one person takes uses a portion of his or her salary in order to cover the salary of another. This creates a class- and race-based pattern whereby the poor are hired to care for the children of the rich, while the children of the poor our often neglected. Rothman believes that the solution to this problem would begin with monetary subsidies for childcare, which would mean that the costs for childcare would be a socially shared responsibility. However, Rothman concludes that true change at can only be reached by rejecting the patriarchal definition that dictates our thought at a most fundamental level.
I found this article to be a very strange read because I felt that it shed a villainous light on m parents. I could really relate to the discussion about caregivers as I always thought of my nanny in a motherly way. However, I never thought about how my mother might feel about this. I always thought of our relationship with Cathy as mutually beneficial; she took care of us and we assisted her, helping her get her citizenship. Even though Cathy no longer works for us she still comes to us for support and we still go to her for support.
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