Abstract

BUCHELY IBARRA, Lina Fernanda. The price of inequality. Law as Distribution and Legitimation: An approach to the analysis of the regulation of domestic work. Estud. Socio-Juríd [online]. 2012, vol.14, n.2, pp.107-143. ISSN 0124-0579.

This article provides a critique of the current regulation of domestic work and the latest legal reform on the subject that included the care economy in national accounts. The author argues that the law creates incentives to make women inefficient market players using legal mechanisms that define women's obligations as natural services associated with motherhood and home-making. The social cost of maintaining oppression over women are externalized in schemes such as healthcare, pension design and the gap in equal pay for women. The article concludes by showing how the contingency of the current regulation of domestic work and the social cost associated with it can be altered by incremental reforms that increase the social position of women in terms of power and resources.

Keywords : domestic work; care economy; distribution; law and economics; feminism.

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