A Reading Vocation

Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family by Anne-Marie Slaughter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Read Harder Challenge Item: Read a book about feminism or with feminist themes

This book tackles the evergreen topic of interest in feminist circles of "balancing work and family." While it treads a lot of familiar ground -- the cost to a woman's career when she prioritizes care-giving, envy of the Scandinavian countries that have this all figured out, etc. -- I liked that it framed the dilemma as a problem of "undervaluing care," and that it called on both women and men to change these cultural values. I also appreciated that it held women to task for valuing caregiving behaviors and tendencies in men, challenging readers to root out their conscious or unconscious biases when it comes to the assigning worth to an individual based on earning capacity.

I also appreciated that the book at least attempted to lay out some potential solutions to the problem, although I fear it may rely a bit too much on asking the government to take over the work of caregiving in various ways. It also purported to be a book for "all caregivers," but it really did focus on women (and men) in professional fields, giving the barest mention of working class families before once more ignoring their particular needs and challenges for the rest of the book. So it remains a book primarily for the "more privileged" workers -- those who have some kind of sick time, those who may have the option for flexibility and some leverage with their employers, etc.

As useful as this book can be in challenging caregivers and potential caregivers to give serious thought to how they might combine work and family life, I can't help but feel the people who REALLY need to read this book are the business owners and the bosses, those who can make a real impact on changing work culture one company at a time.

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