This explicitly feminist look at women and work presents data and research on the wide range of work performed by women in our society, and analyzes it from the distinct theoretical perspective of socialist feminism. It highlights the lives, the work, and the experiences of women of different races and classes through the different types of work they do. Addresses the full range of women's work--productive work done in the labor market, reproductive work performed mainly in the home, and the additional work women perform for the state (by the state regulation of women's lives in the areas of employment and children). Contrasts the socialist feminist perspective with other major theoretical perspectives from sociology and women's studies. Expresses the voices and experiences of women through qualitative research data and excerpts from the creative literature (by and about women, including women of color). Features original tables that describe the contemporary socio-economic standing of women in the U.S. For anyone interested in women's studies, the sociology of women, gender roles, social stratification, women cross-culturally, work and occupations.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 344-366) and indexes.

 1. Introduction.

 2. Methodological Treatment of Women: a Feminist Method or a Sociology for Women.

 3. Individualist Theories of Women's Work: Views from Functionalism, Neoclassical Economics, Liberal and Liberal Feminism, and Radical Feminism.

 4. Structural Theories of Women's Work: Marxism, Marxist Feminism, Socialist Feminism, and Theories of Women of Color.

 5. History of Women's Work.

 6. Women's Labor Force Participation in the Twentieth Century.

 7. Occupational Sex Segregation: Choice or Constraint?

 8. Domestic Labor in the Patriarchal Family.

 9. Women's Work and the State.

10. The Plight of Third-World Women and a Feminist Agenda for the Future.

Recommended Readings.

References.