Word: loeser
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...housewife can "enrich" her life by volunteering. A woman returning to work can gain valuable experience by volunteering. High school and college students can learn first hand about possible careers. And in a series of chapters strangely reminiscent of "Ask Beth" and her advice to lonely high school freshmen, Loeser recommends volunteering to widows divorcees, new people in town and retired women; and woman, that is, who is lonely and in need of company...
...problem with this book is that it is simplistic. There are many interesting problems raised by the issue of volunteering. She extols the virtues of volunteering in whole chapters while glossing over some of the more important questions in sentences. Loeser says at the beginning of the book that her pro-volunteering arguments apply to men as well as women. But her discussion of the economic situation that leads women to volunteering instead of working is limited to one well-intentioned aside: "...I cannot disagree with the charge that much service oriented volunteering has served so far to reaffirm stereotyped...
This sentence comes at the head of a chapter entitled "Feminism and Volunteering." Despite the observation, Loeser concludes that the benefits to be gained from volunteering--interesting work, a possible lead to a professional career, working in a situation that has been "pioneered by women"--overrides the disadvantages and make it possible for feminists to espouse service volunteering with no loss to their political commitments...
...dealing with the relationship between the helped and the helping. Loeser again makes a point and drops it. She speaks of the traditional image of the volunteer as a "Lady Bountiful" expecting gratitude from a pliable clientele. She says this image prevails only in some agencies. Her advice: "Avoid such agencies as you would the plague unless you are the well-organized, aggressive type who might enjoy the battle it would take to bring them around..." She also observes that there are few lower class and lower middle class men and women volunteering, but says she hopes this is changing...
...Loeser's original points are well taken. There is a far wider range of activity available to the average person through volunteering than through paid employment. A paycheck cannot glamorize unimportant work, nor can the lack of one take the glow off interesting and useful work. But she stops at that...