Schor Explores Gender, Work, Consumption

Last semester, Acting Chair of Women's Studies Juliet B. Schor taught the same book in two classes-one on economics and the other on women's studies.

According to Schor, the book-which dealt with the division of house-work between men and women-received a vastly different reception in each class.

In the economics course, there were twice as many men as women, while in the women's studies course, women comprised 90 percent of the class.

"I had a number of students [in the economics course] raise their hands and put forth some of the very traditional views of the division of housework between men and women," Schor says. "The discussion started to spiral. It was a moment that reminded me how divided people still are about the issues that I teach."

The contrast is not lost on Schor, a senior lecturer on women's studies who teaches Economics 1870: "Work, Leisure, and Consumption," Women's Studies 102: "Gender and Inequality" and Women's Studies 132: "Shop 'Til You Drop: Gender and Class in Consumer Society."

After graduating with a degree in economics from Wesleyan University, Schor has made the study of work and leisure time her life's work. Until the late 1980s, she specialized in economics, but since then, she has also explored issues of gender and economics.

"I really started getting interested in issues of women and gender with issue of work time, especially work time in the unpaid household and the relation between the unpaid economy and the market economy," she says.

Her first book, titled The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure, warned that working Americans have witnessed a remarkable decline in leisure time since World War II, despite increases in efficiency and production.

"Companies want to sell products," Schor explains. "That's why they want people to have more money and not more time."

Schor also says Americans have become so accustomed to the extra cash they earn by working extra hours, that they don't worry about the lack of downtime.

"Workers do not get what they want, but end up wanting what they get," she says.

Schor's new book, which came out this summer, explores how Americans spend the money they earn from working so hard.

The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting and the New Consumer, analyzes the recent rise in luxury spending.

With increasing earnings, Schor says, "the old norms of consuming luxury goods start to seem inadequate and people feel pressured, enticed, induced and compelled to upscale their consumption, often when they can't afford it".

Schor departs from traditional economists, who argue that social causes do not necessarily affect spending.

"The standard approach in economics is to assume that everyone's preference is independent-that I'm not affected by seeing you drive up in a Lexus," she explains. "That, to me, is a fundamental misunderstanding of what people are doing when they consume."

A Personal Approach

Schor's women's studies students, many of whom have attended the signings for her new book as a sign of support, say she takes time to get to know undergraduates personally.

James C. Augustine '01 recalls attending a meeting for prospective concentrators in women's studies.

"I was running late, and I was wandering around Barker Center looking for the meeting", he says. "I came into this room full of women, who all turned around and looked at me. [Schor] immediately said, 'Jim! Come in and have some pizza."'

"She turned a situation which could have been awkward [into something] really exciting," Augustine says.

Other students say that sort of personal contact extends into the classroom.

"Her class is enjoyable, and she really tries to make contact with her students," says Tanya N. Melillo '01. "She'll take questions in a50-person class."

Outside of Harvard, Schor and her husband arebusy raising two small children. She also worksclosely with various political action groups--TheCenter For a New American Dream, an education andoutreach group trying to reform the way peoplethink about the economy and the environment, and athird party effort called The New Party.

In her own life, Schor tries to practice theprinciples she teaches.

She drives a 1989 Acura, takes her lunch towork, uses coupons at the supermarket andcomposts.

"I am trying hard to be an ecologicallyresponsible individual," she says

Outside of Harvard, Schor and her husband arebusy raising two small children. She also worksclosely with various political action groups--TheCenter For a New American Dream, an education andoutreach group trying to reform the way peoplethink about the economy and the environment, and athird party effort called The New Party.

In her own life, Schor tries to practice theprinciples she teaches.

She drives a 1989 Acura, takes her lunch towork, uses coupons at the supermarket andcomposts.

"I am trying hard to be an ecologicallyresponsible individual," she says