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February 4, 2010 | Print

The Three Faces of Work-Family Conflict

The Three Faces of Work-Family Conflict: The Poor, the Professionals, and the Missing Middle evaluates the current strain on American families. Written by Joan Williams and Heather Boushey, a law professor and an economist, the study divides families into three socioeconomic groups with different challenges: low-income mothers struggling to find jobs that cover their childcare costs, middle income parents working themselves to the bone juggling work and childcare shifts, and professionals working part-time for low pay and no benefits or squeezed out completely because their jobs demand long hours and at least one parent needs to be available for the kids.

The Three Faces of Work-Family Conflict explains how the media misconstrues work-family issues by focusing either on upper middle-class mothers opting out or lazy welfare mothers dependent on government aid–when the reality for these families is far different, and middle class struggles are ignored. Williams and Boushey argue that work-family strains can be resolved for all of these families with short-term and extended paid leave, work flexibility rules, high-quality, affordable childcare, and ending discrimination against workers with family responsibilities.

The report summary is short and worth the read, we were struck by the economic data and started to feel like these public policy changes might one day be possible.