THE DISPLACED HOMEMAKER
McCarthy, Abigail
THE DISPLACED HOMEMAKER Abigail McCarthy It was predictable, I suppose, that when I was one of the speakers at the recent national conference of Divorced and Separated Catholics, my presence was...
...But," says Elizabeth C. Spaulding in the report on Marriage and Divorce issued by the National Organization of Women, "no divorce reform bill guarantees restitution of these dollar losses...
...This alliance was the result of the vision of two displaced homemakers...
...The court held that he was providing "the necessaries...
...If she dies (except in a few community property states), he does not...
...To most of them the theological discussions are highly academic: nationwide two-thirds of divorced women never remarry...
...She had nursed her mother through her final illness against the wishes of her husband...
...Their problem is economic survival...
...Another source of help has been proudly announced by the national office of the Alliance for Displaced Homemakers (4223 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, Ca...
...The married woman is not covered by Social Security in her own right...
...Her unpaid labor is not counted under the law as constituting any investment or contribution to the acquisition of their joint property, whether she works in the home or in a business operated by her husband...
...Because they have been out of the conventional job market, or because they cannot work full time, they can find only the most low-paid employment, no matter how skilled they are...
...94609...
...If she inherits any of the property she has to pay a state inheritance tax...
...They write: "Less than an hour and a half before the deadline for his decision...
...It is an area of concrete reality in the "mutual help" for which they come together...
...State laws calling for a husband to support his family require only that he provide the "necessaries" of food and shelter and he decides what those necessaries are...
...These provisions of the law are not only unjust, but unbelievably humiliating to the spirit...
...Nevertheless, the Commission is distributing the results of the study to the respective states in the hope that the legislatures will take action on the inequities...
...These women need pastoral support and the aid of the Catholic community to feel that they still have a place in the parish and the church...
...They also need organized help to redress the injustice inherent in their situation...
...As long ago as 1840 Jane Gray Swisshelm, the brilliant abolitionist, felt their weight and could not bear to spell out, but could only imply the comparison to the slavery she so abhorred...
...National Commission on the Observance of International Womens' Year...
...One wife on record helped her husband save $250,000 by the most stringent economies-foregoing a home of their own and raising and canning as much of their food as she could...
...THE DISPLACED HOMEMAKER Abigail McCarthy It was predictable, I suppose, that when I was one of the speakers at the recent national conference of Divorced and Separated Catholics, my presence was widely publicized but my subject-the plight of the displaced homemaker-was not...
...He felt himself wronged and became angry but he had one remedy...
...It will be an uphill battle," said Delegate Mary A. Marshall of the state of Virginia...
...No one can sensibly advise a woman to become a homemaker today...
...Being the owner of my person and services, he had the right to wages for the time spent nursing mother, and would file his claim against her executors...
...Catherine East, deputy coordinator of the U.S...
...Other topics made better headlines...
...estimates vary from an annual $6,000 to $20,000...
...Probably more than half of them have children to care for...
...The married woman has no right to her spouse's pension, unless the pension system allows this option and he chooses to exercise it...
...The usual case cited in law books is that of a well-to-do Nebraska farmer who refused to provide any running water or appliances in the home for his wife of 34 years...
...Why should the discovery of its existence curdle my blood, stop my heart-beats, and send a rush of burning shame from forehead to finger-tip...
...months with no feudal dower right or substitute therefore...
...Except in Texas and the state of Washington marital property is under the control of the husband whether the wife has bought it with her own money or not...
...National Displaced Homemakers Bills have been introduced in Congress by Representative Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and by Senator John Tunney...
...But there can be no dispute about the loss of salary incurred if she stays out of the job market until her children are fourteen: it ranges from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands depending on her level of education...
...Furthermore, as long as a homemaker lives under the same roof with her husband she cannot go to the courts for any increase in a support allowance...
...After a lifetime together a widow may receive one-half to one-third of her husband's estate if-if he hasn't made other arrangements...
...Tish Sommers and Laurie Fields...
...Their problem is not only psychological and emotional suffering...
...I do not know why I should have been so utterly overwhelmed by this proposal to execute a law passed by Christian legislators for the government of Christian people-a law which had never been questioned by any nation or state, or church, and was in full force all over the world...
...The United States Commission for International Women's Year is making a study of the relevant laws of each state...
...What the study shows at the moment is indicated by the statement of Dr...
...He left it all to an animal shelter in memory of his dog...
...Their situation has its source in the fact that a woman who marries in the United States loses her separate legal identity...
...The experience of divorced and separated women-and widows, as well-makes it clear that nothing could be further from the truth...
...the percentage of Catholic women, who do, obviously, is much smaller...
...It would be an act of charity and justice if the organizers of Divorced and Separated Catholics would enlist in that battle...
...Help is being mobilized...
...But these displaced homemakers are the people most in need of help, if 1 can judge by my mail...
...Statistics in this area are sparse and questionable, but it is a good guess that there are one-and-a-half-million Catholic women divorced, or separated, who will never remarry...
...In 48 states the homemaker-wife lives in a feudal world working at a feudal job in servitude to a husband who can walk out at any time and get a divorce which throws her and the children into the 20th Century within three to six (Continued on page 63) Abigail McCarthy (Cont...
...She has no access to disability insurance or workman's compensation...
...New studies show that only 14.7% of such women receive support payments and only 15% of those receive it regularly...
...Governor Brown signed SB 825...
...There is a widespread misconception that she gets financial security in return for this loss...
...In California, it calls for setting up one pilot multi-purpose center in Alameda County, to test a new concept for dealing with barriers older women-displaced homemakers-face in their attempts to find gainful employment, meaningful and useful work at a decent salary...
...The actual dollar-value of a home-maker's contribution as cook, cleaner, chauffeur, child-tender, household nurse, etc., is under dispute...
Vol. 103 • January 1976 • No. 2
