LIFE'S WORK

Abstract

In this Essay, Professor Schultz develops a vision of social justice grounded in the redistribution and restructuring of paid work. Work is a site of deep self-formation offering rich opportunities for human flourishing or devastation. Although society has been slow to understand the significance of paid work to women, research suggests that women who work for a living are better off than other women in many ways. Currently, however, transformations in the structure of work are increasing insecurity and deepening inequality for all but those at the top; many once privileged workers now face conditions akin to those that women and disadvantaged men have long confronted. These trends demand political attention. Professor Schultz urges that we remake law and culture to create a world in which everyone has the right to participate meaningfully in life-sustaining work, with the social support necessary to do so. She calls upon feminists to forego narrow identity politics in favor of joining with a broad array of other groups to fashion a social order in which work provides a foundation for egalitarian conceptions of citizenship and care.