The Velvet Glove

Paternalism and Conflict in Gender, Class, and Race Relations

Edición de la obra The velvet glove

This landmark study analyzes and compares the ideologies that develop among unequal social groups. Mary Jackman employs a unique national survey to investigate the three major relationships of inequality in the United States: gender, class, and race. Where other scholars have emphasized hostility and conflict as the emblem of inter-group oppression, Jackman proposes a theory in which both dominant and subordinate groups maneuver to avoid open conflict. Hostility, she points out, only generates resistance. Contending groups therefore gravitate toward less-offensive ways of promoting their interests within the confines of their mutual relationship. Ideology becomes the velvet glove, as dominant groups use "sweet persuasion" and thus delimit the moral parameters for political discourse with subordinates. Dominant groups, Jackman argues, are drawn especially to the ideological mold of paternalism, where the coercion of subordinates is grounded in love, rather than hate. Dominant-group members pronounce authoritatively on the needs and welfare of all and then profess to "provide" for those needs. Love, affection, and praise are offered to subordinates on strict condition that the subordinates comply with the terms of the unequal relationship. Whether in the home or in the arena of race and class relations, paternalism wraps control and authority in an ideological cocoon in which discriminatory actions are defined as benevolent and affection is contingent on compliance. Jackman contends that paternalism has a coercive potency that is unrivaled. However, gender, class, and race relations are structured in ways that are differentially conducive to the practice of coercive love. In the unfolding political exchange between unequal groups, participants on both sides respond to the constraints and opportunities in their daily lives as they seek to preserve their interests. Jackman examines the varying forms of subordinate dissent that emerge under different structural conditions and the alternative methods of persuasion to which dominant groups reluctantly turn when they are confronted with subordinates who have broken away from the grip of paternalism. This powerful, original exploration of race, class, and gender relations is sure to generate controversy and further research. Sociologists, psychologists, political scientists, and anyone interested in group ideology will find here a provocative challenge to conventional views.