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Striking a Balance: Work, Family, Life | 
 enlarge | Author: Robert W. Drago
Publisher: Dollars & Sense
Category: Book
Buy New: $18.95
New (3) Used (1) from $8.15
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 163431
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Pages: 183
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.6
ISBN: 1878585622
EAN: 9781878585622
ASIN: 1878585622
Publication Date: January 29, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
In this provocative book, economist and work/life expert Robert Drago constructs a unique vision of the meaning of balance, unmasking the real reasons most Americans lead unbalanced lives. Sifting through the vast body of relevant research from a range of academic disciplines, including new findings from the author's own studies, Striking a Balance: Work, Family, Life examines the deeply held but unexamined beliefs about work, womanhood, and society that are responsible for our out-of-balance lives. In his optimistic final chapter, Drago calls on us to challenge those beliefs, and provides a road map for change. If we take this path, he argues, we will not only improve our life balance, but also address the nearly one-fifth of our population who require but do not receive adequate care, the "new gender gap" between women who care for others and women who succeed in high-powered careers, and even the rise in income inequality. With a forward by Juliet B. Schor, author of The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
A persuasive academic treatise July 10, 2007
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Written by Robert W. Drago (Professor of Labor Studies and Women's Studies, Penn State University), Striking a Balance: Work, Family, Life is not a self-help book for the individual, but rather a scholarly examination of the modern societal problems of the care gap (too many children, elderly, and disabled, particularly among the poor, are not getting the care they need), the gender gap (women are forced to choose between success in their careers and providing adequate care to their children, or any other form of care work for low or no pay) and the income gap (the rich get richer and the poor get poorer). At the heart of these problems is not just cold hard economics, but also societal norms - the "motherhood norm" that insists women should provide care for little or no pay; the "ideal worker norm" that conditions employers to expect their workers to put in long hours up to an inhuman level; and the "individualism norm", a society-infused belief that the government should not help those needing care. Striking a Balance prescribes society-wide remedies to these growing problems: paid family leave, early childhood education and child care financing, guaranteed health insurance, and a minimum wage increase indexed to inflation, and the simple importance of allowing men and women from all walks of life to have their voices heard. Extensively researched, Striking a Balance: Work Family Life is a persuasive academic treatise about the need for social change, and highly recommended for reading for not only college library shelves, but also anyone looking for a better understanding of why the government needs to pay more attention to minimum wage, health care, and paid family leave issues.
The way out of the work vs. life box May 9, 2007
Joe Robinson (Santa Monica, CA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
This excellent analysis of the current state of working and trying to live at the same time in America is a great wakeup call from the overwork hypnosis reining for too long. Unlike in other advanced nations, we've never had a real national conversation about the impacts of large numbers of caregivers in the workplace and skyrocketing workweeks. Drago makes those repercussions of work without end very clear, in imploding families, skyrocketing health costs and absentee lives. Armed with a trove of research, he shows us not only the downside, but also a way out, when we can see the unconscious norms that skew our value system and sanity--the ideal worker norm, the motherhood norm, and the individualism norm. This much-needed book should should be required reading for every exec, congressperson, and presidential-candidate policy guru in the land.
Wonderful guide to the challenge and promise of balanced living May 8, 2007
John W. Curtis (Washington, DC USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is one of the best sociological books I've read in years--which is saying quite a bit, since the author is an economist! Bob Drago's latest book is both scholarly and eminently readable. He pulls together the best analysis of the challenges confronting women, families, and workers--which pretty much includes all of us, now doesn't it?--with the most enlightened thinking about what we need to do to change the structures that produce those challenges. The book is written in very clear prose and presents a persuasive argument that gets right to the point. I think just about any reader concerned with social problems (the working poor, strains on families, gender inequalities) will find plenty of cause for optimism here. And readers who just want to make sense of why life is so hectic for themselves, their co-workers, family members, and neighbors will come away from this book with a clearer understanding and ideas for action. I highly recommend this book.
Points the way toward work-life balance April 19, 2007
John de Graaf (Seattle)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Bob Drago has long been recognized as a leader in the work-life balance world through his work with Take Care Net and on the Work and Family Bill of Rights. After decades in the wilderness, many of us have reached a shared vision of what does and doesn't help us to lead balanced lives. Drago captures this new consensus, explains why it has taken so long for us to reach this point, and provides a blueprint for change. Anyone stressed about their own lives, and what to do about it, should read this interesting, insightful, wise, and humorous work, and then join with Drago and others to change things.
Striking a Balance March 21, 2007
Lotte Bailyn
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
This book is for anyone who feels that life is complicated and getting more so all the time. In clear language Drago gives data to show that Americans are working more and defines 3 important gaps Americans face: a care gap, a gender gap, and an income gap. These are interrelated, of course, as Drago makes clear. And he contributes to our understanding of the gender gap by expanding it to include the gap between women who are involved in actual care work (whether paid or not) and those successful in professional jobs and hence not directly involved in care. He anchors his discussion in three norms, all of which contribute to these gaps: motherhood, ideal worker, and individualism, and supports his discussion with both data and stories. A particularly interesting formulation is his definition of balance, by which he means involvement in all three of paid work, unpaid work, and leisure. He describes the kind of social infrastructure necessary to support such balance for all people in our society and ends with a work and family bill of rights. A great discussion of the challenges we all face.
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