Session 7: Balancing Work and Families: What Role Does the Community Play?
Monday, October 1

Major Themes to Be Covered

1. Recent trends in work and family life.
   

2. Changes in popular conceptions of work and family life in the face of new realities.
   

3. How the increase in work/family conflict affects: children, employees, employers and the community.
   

4. How to transform community values and practices to make it easier for workers to balance their responsibilities to their employers and their families.

Students Will Learn

1. Where to go to learn more about recent trends in work and family life.

2. How to critically analyze the changes in popular conceptions of work and family life.

3. State-of-the-art research on the effects of work/family conflict.

4. Concrete examples of community strategies to support workers in more effectively balancing work/family responsibilities.

Required Readings

Ehrenreich B. 2001. Evaluation. In: Nickel and Dimed (pp. 196-221). On (Not) Getting by in America. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

Fredriksen-Goldsen KI, Scharlach AE. 2001. Family Care and Work (pp.3-16). Families and Work: New Directions in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Oxford University Press.

Hochschild AR. 1997. Chapter 14: The Third Shift. In: The Time Bind. When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work. Pages 197-218. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

Rapoport R, Bailyn L. 1996. Part 2: The Strategic Linking of Work and Family (pp. 14-33). In: Relinking Life and Work: Toward a Better Future.

Shirk M, Bennett N, Aber JL. 1999. Louisville, Kentucky (pp. 109-129). Lives on the Line: American Families and the Struggle to Make Ends Meet. Boulder, CO: Westview Press

Suggested Readings

Fredriksen-Goldsen KI, Scharlach AE. 2001. Child Care and the Work Place (pp. 17-32), Adult Care and the Work Place (pp. 33-52), and Conceputal Perspectives on Family Care and Work (53-72). Families and Work: New Directions in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Oxford University Press.

Gromick JC, Meyers M. 2001. Support for working families: What the United States can learn from Europe (pp 3-7). The American Prospect. Special Report on Children and Families. January 1-15.

Heymann, J. (.Ed.) 2000. Overview (pp 1-14). The Widening Gap: Why American Working Families Are in Jeopardy and What Can Be Done About It. New York: Basic Books.

Kamerman SB, Kahn AJ. 1997. "Introduction" and "United States". In SB Kamerman and AJ Kahn (Eds), Family Change and Family Policies in Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press.