Even economists, the most cold-blooded of all social scientists, are beginning to worry that our economy cannot rely entirely on the individual pursuit of self-interest. Altruism, trust, and solutions to coordination problems are now important topics of research. Why this rather surprising loss of confidence in rational economic man? Perhaps he is running into problems because his rational economic wife is no longer taking such good care of him. Women are now much less likely than they once were to devote themselves entirely to their families. Increases in women's independence are widely perceived as a threat to social integration. Many conservatives blame feminism, abortion, out-of-wedlock births, and affirmative action for our most serious social woes.

In this chapter, we agree that there is cause for concern about a possible decline in the quality of care services. But we reject the conservative argument that women are to blame and insist on the need for state policies that would promote norms, values, and preferences for caring among both men and women. The first section characterizes the motives underlying the provision of care services, offering several reasons why a shift toward more self-interested, pecuniary motives may have negative implications for social welfare. The second section explores the possibility that such a shift is taking place. We argue that the expansion of markets has contradictory effects, weakening patriarchal coercion, but also rewarding purely self-interested behavior.

Patriarchal forms of coercion had some positive indirect effects on the supply of caring services but were neither sustainable nor fair.