The Universal Breadwinner Model

Married women would do a lot of work that didn't involve them needing to leave the home. They were there as what we call in the book an intra-familiar army of wage labour. So when there was any kind of crisis, if somebody died, if somebody was made unemployed, if they needed money, the family would have this resource of the woman who could go out and bring in more income into the household. But now it's women who are largely stepping back from wage work to take up those caregiving responsibilities. In every situation essentially, the mother figure is seen as being the most resilient point in the most resilient form of social reproduction. And not everybody has access to that