Work and family: research informing policy.

Concerns about work and the well-being of the family continue to be central to thinking among policy analysts and welfare workers in the 21st century. Rapid changes in marriage, gender roles, education and employment are causing social and political anxiety because those with jobs seem to work harder and harder while economic gradients leave time on the hands of those without the resources to enjoy it. This new book is an in-depth analysis of the interplay between work and family processes and outcomes. It is packed with data from key social researcher workers whom the editors have drawn together from Germany and the USA. They each present their evidence in a well-structured way to address many aspects of work and family interactions in an international context. Those who believe that the feminist movement and contraceptive pill led to the changes of role for women in western society will be fascinated to find that there is much evidence to suggest an alternative interpretation. Changes to social policy after the world wars were driven by the need for a better trained workforce to compete in world markets. Men were in short supply and women were ill prepared for many industrial jobs. So social policy drove a rapid rise in childcare arrangements, particularly for the 0–3 year age group. Women were released from family duties and educated into a new workforce for the economic health of the nation. Politicians played their role by talking down traditional family duty and talking up economic and social opportunity. Women, it is implied, took the bait of opportunity, deposited their babies with day-carers and arose to tackle the new political imperative. The authors show that, by many criteria, the social manipulation of our society has been successful. Adult women now expect to enter the workforce, they expect education and they take for granted the juggle of family life and work away from home during child raising years. Young men are much more likely to expect their wives to be employed, but a substantial proportion of them do not expect their wives to continue to work after children are born. Few young men really take seriously the possibility of becoming housefathers themselves. Marriage is now a delayed event in the minds of most well educated young people. Many myths about work and family are challenged by the data in this work and, particularly intriguing, is the unravelling of the enigma of overwork and underemployment co-existing in 21st century USA. The editors have achieved a laudably consistent style in this multi-author text. It is a useful addition to the scholar's shelf.