Gender Equality

Gender Equality: Transforming Family Divisions of Labor by Janet Gornick and Marcia Meyers, Verso 2009

With contributions from Barbara Bergmann, Johanna Brenner, Harry Brighouse, Scott Coltrane, Rosemary Crompton, Myra Marx Ferree,  Nancy Folbre, Heidi Hartman, Shireen Hassim, Lane Kenworthy,  Vicki Lovell, Cameron MacDonald, Peter McDonald, Ruth Milkman, Kimberly Morgan, Ann Orloff, Michael Shalev, Erik Olin Wright and Kathrin Zippe. Edited with a preface by Erik Olin Wright.

In the labor market and workplace, anti-discrimination rules, affirmative action policies, and pay equity procedures exercise a direct effect on gender relations. But what can be done to influence the ways that men and women allocate tasks and responsibilities at home?

In Gender Equality, Volume VI in the Real Utopias series, social scientists Janet C. Gornick and Marcia K. Meyers propose a set of policies—paid family leave provisions, working time regulations, and early childhood education and care—designed to foster more egalitarian family divisions of labor by strengthening men’s ties at home and women’s attachment to paid work. Their policy proposal is followed by a series of commentaries—both critical and supportive—from a group of distinguished scholars, and a concluding essay in which Gornick and Meyers respond to a debate that is a timely and valuable contribution to egalitarian politics.

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“With keen insight and passion, Gornick and Meyers show why and how ‘dual-earner / dual-caregiver’ arrangements are essential for the well-being of post-industrial societies … A wonderful book that is must-reading for experts, policymakers, and caring citizens alike.”—Kathleen Gerson, NYU

“An extremely stimulating and provocative debate.”—Jane Lewis, LSE