Mothers unite!: organizing for workplace flexibility and the transformation of family life

Excerpt] But what if mothers could come together as a unified group and demand flexibility? In this book I examine the interesting phenomenon of women joining the largest and most influential mothers' organizations in the United States, groups that, although presenting different approaches to the issue of workplace flexibility, all implicitly or explicitly endorse it. Not surprisingly, groups with a higher percentage of mothers who work for pay tend to stress in their policy positions an activist role for firms and the government regarding workplace flexibility, while groups with more stay-at-home mothers tend to advocate more individual responsibility in establishing satisfactory work-life arrangements. Despite these public positions, however, little is known about group members true opinions on this critical employment issue. The puzzle that I seek to solve is whether support for workplace flexibility as a general principle can unite members across these divergent groups, potentially creating a viable mothers' movement. If so, all these groups can then become vehicles for mobilizing action as they strive to make the lives of all American mothers more productive, sustainable, and meaningful over time.