Overview

A moving account of working mothers' daily lives-and the revolution in public policy and culture needed to improve themThe 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.This edition includes discussion questions for reading groups.

Full Product Details

9780691202402

Table of Contents

Reviews

Winner of the Bronze Medal in Women / Minorities in Business, Axiom Business Book Awards Winner of the PROSE Award in Anthropology, Criminology, and Sociology, Association of American Publishers Co-Winner of the William J. Goode Book Award, Family Section of the American Sociological Association

Winner of the Bronze Medal in Women / Minorities in Business, Axiom Business Book Awards Winner of the PROSE Award in Anthropology, Criminology, and Sociology, Association of American Publishers

Collins, a sociology professor, draws on interviews with working mothers in four different countries in this evenhanded, discerning exploration of work-family balance. Organizing her research by country, Collins finds that balance requires a harmonious confluence of workplace accommodations, government policies, and supportive cultural attitudes. . . . Collins suggests that policies must be passed in packages, rather than piecemeal--for example, making sure that daycare is available for children at the age when parental leave ends--to be most useful. This study, whose comparative approach illuminates how cultural norms affect policies and economic results, is intelligent, thought-provoking, and clarifying. --Publishers Weekly, starred review This ambitious and beautifully written book considers how women manage work and family in varying contexts. Carrying out wide-scale interviews in multiple settings and countries, Making Motherhood Work shows how differences in work-family policies lead to differences in the challenges that women face. An impressive contribution. --Joya Misra, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Comparing women in Europe and the United States and how they combine work and motherhood, Making Motherhood Work is the first cross-cultural investigation of what it feels like to live within different cultural and policy worlds. Mothers (and fathers)--even future ones--need to read this fascinating, thought-provoking, and illuminating book. --Allison J. Pugh, author of The Tumbleweed Society: Working and Caring in an Age of Insecurity Making Motherhood Work is destined to become a classic. Caitlyn Collins conducted in-depth interviews with 135 employed, middle-class mothers in the United States and in three European countries. She finds that mothers face conflict between their work and family responsibilities in all four countries, even gender-egalitarian Sweden. Collins points to European policies that could positively impact mothers and families in the United States. Yet she notes the pervasive influence of cultural expectations of mothers that are coercive and unattainable. All four countries need a cultural redefinition of motherhood that describes and honors what is possible. --Mary Blair-Loy, author of Competing Devotions: Career and Family among Executive Women Through insightful interviews with employed mothers living in diverse national contexts, Caitlyn Collins demonstrates clearly and convincingly that our growing caregiving crisis stems from unjust social arrangements, not irresponsible individuals. The breadth and depth of Making Motherhood Work make it a unique and invaluable contribution that calls for nothing less than a worldwide movement for work-family justice. --Kathleen Gerson, author of The Unfinished Revolution: Coming of Age in a New Era of Gender, Work, and Family Ultimately, this book is a rallying cry to value 'caregiving, as well as the people who provide that care'. ---Emma Jacobs, Financial Times Making Motherhood Work . . . surveys the state of affairs in Sweden (long heralded as a bastion of gender equality and a paradise for working moms); the former East Germany (where you see vestiges of a communist system that encouraged mothers to work); western Germany (where culture hasn't caught up with pro-mom policies); Italy (where women seem supported by family and the state but don't feel that way) and the United States (where because we get the least organizational and governmental help, we are 'drowning in stress'). . . . Collins's theme is that, while progressive policies can improve the lives of working mothers, cultural beliefs and narratives must move in tandem. And lawmakers and organizations must beware of unintended consequences; for example, long maternity leaves are nice but also reinforce the idea that women should be primary caregivers. ---Allison Beard, Harvard Business Review

Author Information

Caitlyn Collins is assistant professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis. Her work has been covered by the New York Times, NPR, and the Washington Post.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available