Download or read book Making Motherhood Work written by Caitlyn Collins and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The work-family conflict that mothers experience today is a national crisis. Women struggle to balance breadwinning with the bulk of parenting, and social policies aren't helping. Of all Western industrialized countries, the United States ranks dead last for supportive work-family policies. Can American women look to Europe for solutions? Making Motherhood Work draws on interviews that Caitlyn Collins conducted over five years with 135 middle-class working mothers in Sweden, Germany, Italy, and the United States. She explores how women navigate work and family given the different policy supports available in each country. Taking readers into women's homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces, Collins shows that mothers' expectations depend on context and that policies alone cannot solve women's struggles. With women held to unrealistic standards, the best solutions demand that we redefine motherhood, work, and family.
Download or read book Families That Work written by Janet C. Gornick and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2003-08-28 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Parents around the world grapple with the common challenge of balancing work and child care. Despite common problems, the industrialized nations have developed dramatically different social and labor market policies—policies that vary widely in the level of support they provide for parents and the extent to which they encourage an equal division of labor between parents as they balance work and care. In Families That Work, Janet Gornick and Marcia Meyers take a close look at the work-family policies in the United States and abroad and call for a new and expanded role for the U.S. government in order to bring this country up to the standards taken for granted in many other Western nations. In many countries in Europe and in Canada, family leave policies grant parents paid time off to care for their young children, and labor market regulations go a long way toward ensuring that work does not overwhelm family obligations. In addition, early childhood education and care programs guarantee access to high-quality care for their children. In most of these countries, policies encourage gender equality by strengthening mothers' ties to employment and encouraging fathers to spend more time caregiving at home. In sharp contrast, Gornick and Meyers show how in the United States—an economy with high labor force participation among both fathers and mothers—parents are left to craft private solutions to the society-wide dilemma of "who will care for the children?" Parents—overwhelmingly mothers—must loosen their ties to the workplace to care for their children; workers are forced to negotiate with their employers, often unsuccessfully, for family leave and reduced work schedules; and parents must purchase care of dubious quality, at high prices, from consumer markets. By leaving child care solutions up to hard-pressed working parents, these private solutions exact a high price in terms of gender inequality in the workplace and at home, family stress and economic insecurity, and—not least—child well-being. Gornick and Meyers show that it is possible–based on the experiences of other countries—to enhance child well-being and to increase gender equality by promoting more extensive and egalitarian family leave, work-time, and child care policies. Families That Work demonstrates convincingly that the United States has much to learn from policies in Europe and in Canada, and that the often-repeated claim that the United States is simply "too different" to draw lessons from other countries is based largely on misperceptions about policies in other countries and about the possibility of policy expansion in the United States.
Download or read book Working Families and Growing Kids written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-05-15 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An informative mix of data and discussion, this book presents conclusions and recommendations for policies that can respond to the new conditions shaping America's working families. Among the family and work trends reviewed: Growing population of mothers with young children in the workforce. Increasing reliance of nonparental child care. Growing challenges of families on welfare. Increased understanding of child and adolescent development. Included in this comprehensive review of the research and data on family leave, child care, and income support issues are: the effects of early child care and school age child care on child development, the impacts of family work policies on child and adolescent well-being and family functioning, the impacts of family work policies on child and adolescent well-being and family functioning the changes to federal and state welfare policy, the emergence of a 24/7 economy, the utilization of paid family leave, and an examination of the ways parental employment affects children as they make their way through childhood and adolescence. The book also evaluates the support systems available to working families, including family and medical leave, child care options, and tax policies. The committee's conclusions and recommendations will be of interest to anyone concerned with issues affecting the working American family, especially policy makers, program administrators, social scientists, journalist, private and public sector leaders, and family advocates.
Download or read book Who Will Mind the Baby written by Kim England and published by Routledge. This book was released on 1996 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most significant social and economic changes in recent years has been the explosion in the number of mothers in the work place and in paid employment generally. Child care policy, provision and funding has in no way kept up with this change. Who Will Mind the Baby? explores how working mothers negotiate their responsibilities in the face of these difficulties. Child care arrangements greatly influence the everyday geographies of working mothers. A wealth of case studies - drawn from the national, regional, rural, metropolitan and local levels - illustrates the real impact of these arrangements on working mothers. The book contrasts the limited child care policies of the United States and Canada with the more advanced situation in Europe and Australia, focusing in particular on the coping strategies of working mothers.
Download or read book Parenting Stress written by Kirby Deater-Deckard and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All parents experience stress as they attempt to meet the challenges of caring for their children. This comprehensive book examines the causes and consequences of parenting distress, drawing on a wide array of findings in current empirical research. Kirby Deater-Deckard explores normal and pathological parenting stress, the influences of parents on their children as well as children on their parents, and the effects of biological and environmental factors. Beginning with an overview of theories of stress and coping, Deater-Deckard goes on to describe how parenting stress is linked with problems in adult and child health (emotional problems, developmental disorders, illness); parental behaviors (warmth, harsh discipline); and factors outside the family (marital quality, work roles, cultural influences). The book concludes with a useful review of coping strategies and interventions that have been demonstrated to alleviate parenting stress.
Download or read book Parenting Matters written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2016-11-21 with total page 525 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.
Download or read book A New Contract with the Middle Class written by Richard V. Reeves and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 51 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A better future for the middle class is no longer an aspiration. It is a necessity. The disintegration of the American Dream is more visible than ever before. The understanding—the contract—that existed between individuals willing to work and contribute and a society willing to support those individuals when they needed it is falling apart. Now is the time to draft a new contract with America's middle class. One that rewards work and service, improves upward mobility, and reduces inequality. In A New Contract with the Middle Class Brookings senior fellows Isabel Sawhill and Richard Reeves outline the foundations of what that new contract should be, based on discussions they had across the country with middle-class Americans. Sawhill and Reeves' recommendations provide solutions to issues that came up time and time again in these conversations: money, time, relationships, health, and respect. Some of the bold recommendations included in A New Contract with the Middle Class: • Eliminate virtually all income taxes paid by the middle class. • Raise the minimum wage and subsidize wages below the median with a worker tax credit. • Offer scholarships for those who undertake at least a year of national service. • Ensure four weeks of paid leave per year. • Align school and working hours and boost child care to help working parents. America is only as strong as the American middle-class. A New Contract with the Middle Class proposes a new way forward.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Women and the Economy written by Susan L. Averett and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 889 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The transformation of women's lives over the past century is among the most significant and far-reaching of social and economic phenomena, affecting not only women but also their partners, children, and indeed nearly every person on the planet. In developed and developing countries alike, women are acquiring more education, marrying later, having fewer children, and spending a far greater amount of their adult lives in the labor force. Yet, because women remain the primary caregivers of children, issues such as work-life balance and the glass ceiling have given rise to critical policy discussions in the developed world. In developing countries, many women lack access to reproductive technology and are often relegated to jobs in the informal sector, where pay is variable and job security is weak. Considerable occupational segregation and stubborn gender pay gaps persist around the world. The Oxford Handbook of Women and the Economy is the first comprehensive collection of scholarly essays to address these issues using the powerful framework of economics. Each chapter, written by an acknowledged expert or team of experts, reviews the key trends, surveys the relevant economic theory, and summarizes and critiques the empirical research literature. By providing a clear-eyed view of what we know, what we do not know, and what the critical unanswered questions are, this Handbook provides an invaluable and wide-ranging examination of the many changes that have occurred in women's economic lives.
Download or read book The Second Shift written by Arlie Hochschild and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-01-31 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An updated edition of a standard in its field that remains relevant more than thirty years after its original publication. Over thirty years ago, sociologist and University of California, Berkeley professor Arlie Hochschild set off a tidal wave of conversation and controversy with her bestselling book, The Second Shift. Hochschild's examination of life in dual-career housholds finds that, factoring in paid work, child care, and housework, working mothers put in one month of labor more than their spouses do every year. Updated for a workforce that is now half female, this edition cites a range of updated studies and statistics, with an afterword from Hochschild that addresses how far working mothers have come since the book's first publication, and how much farther we all still must go.
Download or read book Family responsive Workplace Policies Parenting and Children s Well being written by Sarah Beth Estes and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Caring and Counting written by Reynolds, Tracey and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2003-07-25 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The main work-life balance policies promoted by government focus on the amount of time mothers spend at work. This report challenges this approach. It suggests that what happens inside the workplace and how this interacts with family life is just as important.
Download or read book Work family Policy and Working Mothers written by Caitlyn McKenzie Collins and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 668 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the industrialized west, working mothers face common struggles to balance the demands of caring for their children with their pursuit of paid work. However, nations vary widely in their support for these women. This study compares the work-family policies in four countries that exemplify each of the western welfare regimes: Germany, Sweden, Italy, and the United States. Using 135 in-depth interviews, I examine how these policies play out in the daily lives of middle-income working mothers in each country. Drawing on theories of gendered governance, I show how policies intended to help women balance work and family reflect distinctive cultural ideals of motherhood, employment, and gender equality. In countries with policies rooted in strong maternalist traditions, like areas of western Germany and Italy, working mothers experienced stigma for pursuing careers and substantial work-family conflict. In the former East Germany, with its history of mandated full employment, mothers did not face stigma for working, but tended to curtail their career ambitions. Working mothers in Sweden – renowned for its extensive, gender-equal support system – seemed the most contented with their work-family balance. American working mothers received the least policy support and experienced the most guilt and strain in my sample. However, in all cases, working mothers felt that they were held to unrealistic standards at home and/or at work, suggesting that even the most progressive social policies are not enough. Lessening the work-family conflict faced by working mothers will require both cultural changes in the definition of motherhood and fatherhood and the structural reorganization of work and family.
Download or read book Handbook of Family Policy written by Guðný Björk Eydal and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2018-11-30 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Handbook of Family Policy examines how state and workplace policies support parents and their children in developing, earning and caring. With original contributions from 44 leading scholars, this Handbook provides readers with up-to-date knowledge on family policies and family policy research, taking stock of current literature as well as providing analyses of present-day policies, and where they should head in the future.
Download or read book Working Mothers and the Child Care Dilemma written by Lisa Pasolli and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2015-05-15 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the twentieth century, child care policy in British Columbia matured in the shadow of a political uneasiness with working motherhood. Working Mothers and the Child Care Dilemma examines how ideas about motherhood, paid work, and social welfare influenced universal child care discussions and consistently pushed access to child care to the margins of BC’s social policy agenda. Charting the growth of the child care movement in this province, Lisa Pasolli examines the arrival of Vancouver’s first crèche in 1912, the teetering steps forward during the debates of the interwar years, the development of provincial child care policy, the rebellious advancements of second-wave feminists in the 1960s and 1970s, and the maturation of provincial and national child care politics since the mid-70s. In addition to revealing much about historical attitudes toward women’s roles, Working Mothers and the Child Care Dilemma celebrates the efforts of mothers and advocates who, for decades, have lobbied for child care as a central part of women’s rights as workers, parents, and citizens.
Download or read book Family Policy written by Shirley L. Zimmerman and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2001-05-24 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The latest work from respected family policy expert Shirley Zimmerman. Family Policy offers the only single-authored reference book to provide a comprehensive and coherent introduction to the topic. The author clearly and cogently guides students through the foundations, policy frameworks, and implications of policy decisions for family well-being, ending with a carefully considered set of conclusions and implications for policy practice.
Download or read book Women s Quest for Economic Equality written by Victor R. Fuchs and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores reasons for women's continued economic disadvantage and the conflicts women feel between career and family, which men do not. Offers proposals that would help society overcome these discrepancies. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book Families that Work written by Sheila B. Kamerman and published by Washington, D.C. : National Academy Press. This book was released on 1982 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Study of the social implications of dual career couple labour force participation, especially the impact of working mothers on children in the USA - covers trends in female arrangement of working time, economic implications, management attitudes to family responsibilities, children' s attitudes, and the influence on children's educational level; notes research needs. Graphs, references.
