Contesting the Market: Pay Equity and the Politics of Economic Restructuring

Using a political economy perspective, Contesting the Market explores pay equity in the context of a deregulating global economy. Deborah M. Figart and Peggy Kahn use Michigan, the quintessential example of the deindustrializing heartland, as an instructive case, contending that the state's decision-making concerning pay equity was related to a broader politics of the economy, of political parties, and of debate over the appropriate roles of the state and the market. Contesting the Market chronicles and analyzes the role of the national pay equity movement, specific women's organizations inside state institutions, and public sector unions in placing a discussion of wage discrimination on the state's agenda. Figart and Kahn contend that the large-scale, systemic, relatively technocratic efforts to create comparable worth in state government will probably have limited success.