The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood
With more than half of all American mothers working outside the home, the conflicts of time management and behavior in the differing environments of home and workplace are important contemporary issues. Hays (sociology and women's studies, Univ. of Virginia) examines these conflicts by looking at the history of child-rearing practices, analyzing three popular current child care manuals (Spock, Brazelton, and Leach), and conducting in-depth interviews with 38 mothers of toddlers from diverse social classes and ethnic backgrounds. Her conclusion: modern parenting is a child-centered, emotionally, financially, and labor-intensive process that is not cost-effective. Women bear the major responsibility for this work because it is beneficial to the white male capitalist political establishment. A revolution that will transform parenting into shared work among social equals, she notes, will give women greater power and make men more active participants in child rearing. This book makes good points, but it is laborious. Arlie Hochschild's The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution (LJ 4/15/89) is easier to read and understand. Women's studies collections will want to add this book. It is not a necessary purchase for others.?Barbara M. Bibel, Oakland P.L., Cal.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.