Bankruptcy

The CFPA--A Bureaucracy to Benefit Women and Families

By Debb Thorne

I recognize that some folks dislike the idea of a CFPA. Indeed, it may well feel like just another bureaucracy--and sometimes it seems that our country is awash in the doggone things. Why in the world would we want another one? I think there are many good reasons for a CFPA, and not the least of which is discussed in a paper I recently published in Journal of Family and Economic Issues ("Extreme Financial Strain: Emergent Chores Gender Inequality, and Emotional Distress").

As I discuss in the article, among families who are experiencing extreme financial distress, it is overwhelmingly the wives who are left alone to juggle the bills, deal with debt collectors, and eventually make the decision to file bankruptcy. And even when they ask for their husband's help, many men simply refuse to get involved. The upshot is that these wives are left emotionally exhausted--reporting severe depression, paranoia, and insomnia. A few even openly describe their wish for death as a way to escape the pressure of the bills.

The feminist side of me has real hope that a CFPA could rein in some of the egregious lending practices that are often at the root of many household financial pressures and thus causing the crushing strain on millions of married women in our country as they try to make ends meet. And the wife side of me, the woman who has been married for 28 years, also hopes that if a CFPA can reduce some of the everyday abusive and/or predatory lending, fewer marriages will come unwrapped. Disagreements over money are the leading cause of divorce---given that my husband and I have had our share of these types of arguments, I completely get it.

As a feminist, I typically don't align too closely with the pro-family agenda. But in this case, I do. It makes me sick and quite angry that wives are being terrorized and marriages are being undermined by debt that all-too-often results from unethical (but, unfortunately, perfectly legal) lending practices. Yep, at least in this instance, I'm placing a lot of faith in the power of a bureaucracy.

Full post as published by Credit Slips on June 29, 2010 (boomark / email).