Can Working Families Ever Win?

Taking on the American belief that creating a better life for your children is simply a matter of working hard, Jody Heymann argues that poor parents don't have a fair chance. Because our nation fails to provide essential supports, it is impossible for parents to succeed at work while caring well for their children. Because they can't get ahead, the health and education of their children suffers in turn. These children go without minimal standards of preschool childcare or school-age care, which reduces their own potential to succeed. Heymann shows how intergenerational poverty is perpetuated by outdated labor policies. She describes what must be done to help families. Praise for the New Democracy Forum: "The New Democracy Forum series is a civic treasure. . . . A truly good idea, carried out with intelligence and panache." -Robert Pinsky NEW DEMOCRACY FORUM A series of short paperback originals exploring creative solutions to our most urgent national concerns. The series editors (for Boston Review), Joshua Cohen and Joel Rogers, aim to foster politically engaged, intellectually honest, and morally serious debate about fundamental issues-both on and off the agenda of conventional politics.

A frequent media commentator on issues of family and work, Jody Heymann, M.D., Ph.D., is founder and director of the Project on Global Working Families at Harvard University and author of The Widening Gap. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.