Abstract
Joan C. Williams takes on a considerable task in attempting to change the way we think about—and talk about—work–family conflict. Reshaping the Work–Family Debate is a pragmatic book that calls to action all parties engaged in the debate—workers, unions, fathers, mothers, feminists, reform-minded elites, and most certainly journalists whose popular opt-out stories have sold papers but distorted the real reasons for mothers’ exit from the workplace. In six chapters that cut across the key issues and constituents, Williams theorizes the processes that maintain gender inequality at work and outlines inventive solutions to the main problems.
The book begins with a debunking of “the opt-out revolution” as a myth created by journalists. Williams argues that it is the workplace, and not the home, that is the “gender factory,” reproducing the separate-spheres ideology that depicts mothers as selfless caregivers. Mothers do not opt out because of natural instincts as news stories would have us believe but because they are pushed out by masculine norms and inflexibility built into performance expectations and work norms that are increasingly difficult to meet by any employee—male or female. The fact that men still try hard to meet these requirements reveals how closely their identities are tied to breadwinning.
The power of this connection is illustrated in the following chapters, where Williams cites arbitration resolutions to illustrate how gender identity and class matter in the work–family conflict. Middle-class men claim gender equality, although their work hours remain unaffected by family responsibilities. On the other hand, working-class men participate in child care but do not call attention to it. Sadly, when requesting release time, working-class fathers are reluctant to disclose family responsibilities and end up reprimanded or, as court documents show, fired for missing work. For Williams, this is a job for unions who should reframe the conflict as a “family values” issue—not workers’ rights. This would bring the American workplace to the twenty-first century where all adults are employed and where employers should not have the right to keep workers from caring for their family.
At the center of Williams’ action plan is the need to understand how each group of workers in the new economy sees the other. The second half of the book examines the many “culture gaps” that continue to produce misunderstanding, resentment, and division among American workers at the time when cooperation is critically needed for genuine workplace transformation. One such culture gap exists between two groups of women at work—the career-focused “tomboys” who assimilate to the masculine work norms and the “femmes” who embrace both career and motherhood, the latter of which continue to be seen as “different” in the workplace. Williams painstakingly demonstrates how that “difference” is nothing more than a product of the outdated masculine workplace norms.
Similarly, she also takes on the culture gap between the professional-managerial class and the working class. Having endured stagnant incomes for decades, members of the working and middle classes (or the “Missing Middle”) are now showing their economic dissatisfaction through the culture wars over abortion, gun control, and gay marriage. For Williams, a genuine transformation toward family-friendly policies and the “balanced worker ideal” hinges on ending the class-culture war. For that, she recommends that all parties engage in critical self-examination and show mutual respect. From the reform-minded, professional-managerial elite (whose forte is self-examination), she asks for a stop to the condescending commentary about the working-class lifestyle (hunting, teenage motherhood, and the like) and a more acute awareness of how their own high-cultured lifestyle may be viewed by the working class. In a surprise conclusion to the book, Williams demonstrates how skillfully Sarah Palin has managed to gain working-class popularity by not alienating them with culture. Williams is refreshingly—and sometimes uncomfortably—direct in pointing out that the reform-minded elite, despite its best intentions, will not get very far without finding a way to engage the working class in a mutually respectful effort toward a change that will benefit all workers and families.
In the end, Williams achieves what she sets out to accomplish in reaching multiple audiences. The writing is clear and cogent, although its scope is overwhelming at times. The book is based on a lecture series, which explains its breadth and occasional overreliance on anecdotes and surface-level description. However, the goal of collective action makes the book thoroughly compelling reading for a broad audience, from students and scholars to union organizers. Finally, it is an especially important book to read for journalists, who have a great deal of influence in reshaping the work–family debate.