 The economic disadvantages of women at work are reinforced by domestic disadvantages, either as a formal matter of family law or in the implicit biases in how apparently neutral rules are applied. While most societies idealize the role of the mother, her domestic work is consistently undervalued or unpaid. As a result, often when mothers seek divorce, child custody, and property settlements they are gravely disadvantaged (Fineman 2004; Williams 2001; Weitzman 1992, 1987). In some societies the de-valued status of wives and daughters leaves them without inheritance, property, or even without adequate food, health care, or education (Carr et al. 1996; Okin 1995; Sen 1995; Chen 1995,1983). Many feminist legal scholars have offered proposals for revising some family laws with some modest success. Some have suggested pay scales for traditional domestic duties and alternative models for custody suits and property settlements (Williams 2001; Jain 1995; Olsen 1983). And some feminists have analyzed the domestic ideal itself, suggesting an alternative legal model of the family. Martha Fineman (2004, 1995) has argued that the state has no reason to reinforce and privilege the sexual family—the sexual relation between a man and a woman that is the traditional basis of marriage as a legal institution. Rather, the care-giving relation is what should be encouraged and supported by the state. One problem with the care-giving role is that it makes the care-giver dependent on another source of income, typically and traditionally a breadwinner. It is this dependent status of the care-giver that needs to be addressed in law and public policy, assuming that care-giving is a positive and indeed a crucial role in human life. According to this view, the myth of autonomy is an unfortunate side effect of a male perspective that tends to make the private domestic sphere both invisible and de-valued (Fineman 2004, 1995). And this issue is further complicated by the intersection of gender with race and class (Roberts 2002).