Mothers Unite! Organizing for Workplace Flexibility and the Transformation of Family Life,by J. E. Crowley

Reviewed by: Naomi Gerstel, Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA DOI: 10.1177/0730888414534625

Workplace flexibility is a much discussed topic nowadays, especially among those who analyze the needs and practices of mothers and the policies that might serve them. Most studies look at individual attitudes and preferences. A few look at employers’ provisions. Political scientist Crowley, in her book Mothers Unite, brings another perspective to this discussion. She examines organizations.

The book addresses five diverse national organizations which vary in activities, foci, and size (from 900 to 16,000 members), but all aim to serve mothers. These organizations include Mocha Moms, which addresses women of color; Mothers of Preschoolers, which strives to support mothers with Christian values; Mothers and More, a group that emphasizes support for mothers who move in and out of the workplace; the National Association of Mothers’ Centers, which emphasizes community networking; and MomsRising, an Internet-based group that explicitly focuses on mothers who work for pay and the politics that they believe should serve them. Crowley argues that all these groups address issues of flexibility, even if that is not their most explicit aim.

To study these organizations, Crowley uses multiple methods, including a random sample web-based survey of each group’s members, 25 in-depth interviews with members of each group, as well as an observation at a meeting of each group. She uses these methods to good effect in each chapter—beginning many chapters with notes from meeting observations, presenting survey data on the distribution of member characteristics and views, or using the interviews to flesh out the meanings and experiences that mothers in each group attach to their views.

The main contribution of this book is its sustained critique of the much touted Mommy Wars. In that view, working mothers are at war with stay-at-home moms, mothers who de-emphasize structured activities deride helicopter moms, and mothers who keep their children at home complain about those who abandon their kids to nannies or day care. Crowley insists—based on a careful analysis of her multiple data sets—that mothers are not at war. Although some disagree, these mothers are not judgmental of one another. Rather, mothers from diverse backgrounds can and do come together and support one another especially around the galvanizing issue of paid workplace flexibility, which she defines broadly to include flexible work arrangements (which address the schedules and location of work), time-off options (for planned or unplanned events), and career pathways (including exit, maintenance, and reentry).

Part of what makes this book interesting is that the author does not simply examine the mothers’ explicit use of the concept of flexibility. She instead shows that broad support for flexibility pervades the actions and talk across the five groups because motherhood becomes a time of political awakening. Most mothers initially join and stay in the groups for emotional support and, secondarily, to obtain parenting information. Crowley suggests ways that the seeming divisions between these mothers can be bridged, if we and they recognize that a focus on workplace flexibility can serve the interests of mothers who choose to leave the workplace for a period as well as mothers who choose to stay on the job and seek support for their choice. Though she recognizes some costs that employers might face if they implement these flexibility policies, Crowley insists that the development of a flexible workplace is a win–win proposition—employers also win because workers are more satisfied. Mobilization, she argues, depends on that consensus—among mothers and between employers and employees.

Crowley recognizes some limits to those she studied and the propositions they develop. It is women with resources who speak for this agenda (the women she studied are highly educated married mothers who have the time and clout to insist on a flexible response from employers or opt out). The book focuses on women, though there is a bit at the end suggesting advocates should also insist men become flexible enough to take up some of the slack at home. While most work by family scholars, like Crowley, now defines flexibility as rooted in the needs and demands of employees, some sociologists—typically those who study work and organizations—emphasize a different kind of flexibility that is employer driven and suggest that the win–win view is too optimistic; they argue that especially in times of economic downturns, employers want and can find workers who must be flexible in response to organizational demands. Overall, though, this book can and should serve multiple audiences—from family members who need to find ways to simultaneously be mothers and workers, to historians who someday are looking for useful data on the kinds of political groups that existed in the early 21st century, to politicians who someday will recognize the power of motherhood as a real, not just metaphorical, source of political clout.