| Popis: |
Drawing on relevant literature on care and autonomy, this chapter suggests that despite innovative feminist work that seeks to re-examine care by setting aside its roots in the (hetero)sexual division of labour and women’s work, in the field of post-separation parenting law at least, feminists ignore the gendered nature of care at their peril. The chapter first reviews feminist approaches to care in this field, emphasizing materialist approaches, before considering the relationship between care and autonomy. To empirically ground the discussion, the chapter then draws on a small number of interviews conducted with advocates for women and for fathers’ rights who have been involved in parenting law reform consultations in the UK and Canada. These interviews with advocates who are characterized as being engaged in ‘the gender wars’ also serve to elaborate how care operates in a highly conflictual environment. When parenting rights are contested, idealistic and de-gendered notions of care may be more risky than in other contexts. Despite some ambivalence, women’s advocates in my study were much clearer than fathers’ rights advocates about the relationship between care labour and parenthood rights. |
