This is the first theoretical and empirically based examination of the interaction of class consciousness with workplace-related gender consciousness and household class relations. Significant contemporary socio-political issues, such as the division of labour for both women and men in the paid workplace and household spheres are examined afresh. Based on the Steelworker Families and Hamilton Families Projects -- studies of class and gender relations employing survey data and indepth interviews which span a decade of research -- D.W. Livingstone and Marshall Mangan revise the materialist approach to group consciousness, employing a Marxist-Feminist perspective to discuss practices in the household sphere and the production of goods and services in the paid workplace. Internationally recognized scholars Meg Luxton and Wally Seccombe also contribute, in critical analyses of class consciousness and gender relations and critiques of conventional Marxist and post-modernist perspectives. Elizabeth Asner, formerly a research assistant on the Hamilton Families Project, co-authors the chapter on household class groupings.
Recast Dreams is an immensely informative and highly readable book, essential reading for all those who are interested in class and gender relations. The book will be particularly useful for unionists and social activists.