The balance gap : working mothers and the limits of the law / Sarah Cote Hampson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hampson, Sarah Cote, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mothers--Employment--Law and legislation--United States.

Mothers.

Working mothers--Legal status, laws, etc--United States.

Working mothers.

United States--Armed Forces--Women--Legal status, laws, etc.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (185 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford Law Books, 2017.

Summary:

In recent decades, laws and workplace policies have emerged that seek to address the "balance" between work and family. Millions of women in the U.S. take some time off when they give birth or adopt a child, making use of "family-friendly" laws and policies in order to spend time recuperating and to initiate a bond with their children. The Balance Gap traces the paths individual women take in understanding and invoking work/life balance laws and policies. Conducting in-depth interviews with women in two distinctive workplace settings—public universities and the U.S. military—Sarah Cote Hampson uncovers how women navigate the laws and the unspoken cultures of their institutions. Activists and policymakers hope that family-friendly law and policy changes will not only increase women's participation in the workplace, but also help women experience greater workplace equality. As Hampson shows, however, these policies and women's abilities to understand and utilize them have fallen short of fully alleviating the tensions that women across the nation are still grappling with as they try to reconcile their work and family responsibilities.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Acknowledgments

Contents

Introduction: In Pursuit of “Balance”

1. Navigating the Rules in Public Universities

2. Navigating the Rules in the U.S. Military

3. Looking Out and Speaking Up: Individual Agency and Networks

4. Status Speaks: The Importance of Rank

5. In the Shadow of the Ideal Worker

Conclusion: Can Mothers Ever Be Ideal Workers?

Appendix: Participant Information

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781503602175

1503602176

OCLC:

1198930790