Families at Work: Expanding the Bounds

Rating:
Summary: Great set of readings!
Review: Two years ago, many of us were at a conference in San Francisco that led to the new book, "Families at Work: Expanding the Bounds," edited by Naomi Gerstel, Dan Clawson, and Robert Zussman (Vanderbilt Press, 2002,[$$$]+shipping from amazon.com). I thought the conference was great, but the book is even better. Whether due to the judicious selection of chapters, or superb editing, the book serves as a great reader on work/family research, and particularly for qualitative research (I know,
some of the quant folks hit the ceiling when an 'N' of 36 pops up, but I find much of it very insightful). Many of the chapters are on topics where little is otherwise known -- including the division of labor among lesbigay couples, the meanings of reciprocity among single moms, how moms think about the needs of teenagers, how work & family have fit into the lives of political activists, and how being a 'nerd' translates into masculinity in
high-tech jobs. Two of the papers have already become classics of some sort -- a chapter from Francine Deutsch's "Halving It All" on blue-collar couples, and a chapter by Gerstel and Clawson on unions and w/f. A majority of the chapters have admittedly been published elsewhere already, but it would be very difficult to put all of the articles together yourself for, say, a course, and the book would work very well at the senior undergrad or grad level. Great work & congrats to the editors!