Forgotten Families Ending the Growing Crisis Confronting Children and Working Parents in the Global Economy

In the last half-century, radical changes have rippled through the workplace and the home from Boston to Bombay. In the face of rapid globalization, these changes affect us all, and we can no longer confine ourselves to addressing working and social conditions within our own borders withoutsimultaneously addressing them on a global scale. Based on over a thousand in-depth interviews and survey data from more than 55,000 families spanning five continents, Forgotten Families is the first truly global account of how the changing conditions of work threaten children, women and men, andthe infirm. It addresses problems faced by working families in industrialized and developing countries alike, touching on issues of child health and development, barriers to parents getting and keeping jobs, problems families confront daily and in times of crisis, and the roles of growinginequalities. Rich in individual stories and deeply human, Heymann's book proposes innovative and imaginative ideas for solving the problems of the truly belabored together as a global community.

Jody Heymann M.D, Ph.D., holds a Canada Research Chair in Global Health and Social Policy at McGill University where she is the founding director of a university-wide Institute for Health and Social Policy, and a Professor of Political Science and Epidemiology. The founder and director of the Project on Global Working Families at Harvard University, Heymann is also author of The Widening Gap: Why America's Working Families Are in Jeopardy and What Can Be Done About It (Basic Books, 2000), among other books.