Review Of "Forgotten Families: Ending The Growing Crisis Confronting Children And Working Parents In The Global Economy" By J. Heymann

Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

9-1-2006

Published In

Choice

Abstract

Heymann (McGill Univ.) provides a richly detailed and enlightening picture of the challenges faced by working parents and their families around the world and highlights how parents care for their children, the problems they face in doing so, and how the children fare, all in a world shaped by globalization. The findings are analyzed with sensitivity to both existing public policies and how policies need to change to provide superior solutions. The research is based on national household surveys of a set of seven geographically dispersed countries (US, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Botswana, and Vietnam) that vary along multiple dimensions. Survey data are enriched by interviews with parents, teachers, and others; the interwoven quantitative and qualitative data document working families' problems and their often-imperfect solutions. The book calls for more supportive and integrated public policies to help working families, and it challenges countries to adopt a collective approach to finding solutions that acknowledge the interdependence associated with globalization. Although barriers to international cooperation may cause some readers to question the feasibility of meeting this challenge, Heymann makes a compelling case for the need to do so. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections.

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