Constructing Social Citizenship: The Exclusion of African American Women from Unemployment Insurance in the US

Vicky Lovell

Feminist Economics, 2002, vol. 8, issue 2, 191-197

Abstract: Theories of dual social citizenship in the US welfare state postulate that two tiers of citizenship rights are defined by the state, with first-class citizenship status offered to some individuals (historically, white male industrial workers) and second-class rights to others. Unemployment insurance (UI), as an employment-based right, is often characterized as a first-tier right. However, this examination of the original UI law shows that many levels of stratification were incorporated within this one program. Workers of color were excluded from UI benefits under the agricultural exemption, and the exclusion of private domestic workers barred an additional three-fifths of African American women from receiving UI benefits. The UI system built on existing stratification in the labor market to restrict this new right of social citizenship, as policy-makers re-examined and reified overlapping hierarchies of race, gender, and class advantage.

Keywords: Citizenship; Race; Gender; Class; Unemployment Insurance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
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DOI: 10.1080/13545700210167332

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