The ‘Missing Middle’ and Why We Need Smarter Work-Life Policies in the U.S.
Posted on 18. Feb, 2010 by Brian Reid in Uncategorized, legislation, research, work-like balance
One of the great risks of taking a hiatus is that you’ll miss something really important. And I did. Last month, two of my favorite thinkers on the American Family (Joan Williams of UC Hastings Law and Heather Boushey of Center for American Progress) pushed out an incredibly detailed report on the state of work-life conflict in the United States. It’s called “The Three Faces of Work-Life Conflict,” and it’s worth the read
If you’ve followed this issue at all, even causally, you know what the report says: this country’s support for working parents is dismal by the standards of any other developed nation. The incomplete victory of the Family and Medical Leave act nearly 20 years ago hardly covers the fact that we’re working harder than ever — in a more gender-equitable way than ever — and yet our laws remain mired in the idea that it’s still 1960.
It’s easy to be cynical about this kind of report, and the action called for don’t look radically different from the action that family advocates have been calling for continuously since FMLA passed. The big question is whether Williams and Boushey have framed this in a way that can make political action somehow more likely. And on this score, the report deserves kudos. For starters, they utterly dispense with rich families. As fun as the “Opt-Out Revolution” is to debate, arguing over that is like arguing over whether Merlot has been unfairly maligned. If you’re lucky enough to be rich enough to drop opt of the workforce (or opine on wine), you don’t understand the real problems.
So Williams and Boushey look at three groups: the poor, the professionals and the “missing middle.” It’s a nice way of describing the 53 percent of families that seem to be fitting the description of the American dream: mom and dad both working full-time, above the poverty line but very much at risk. These are the families that politicians celebrate as just-plain-folks, yet they are the ones that can be devastated by family un-friendly policies.
Will defining the “missing middle” change the game? Maybe not, but it’s important to keep a spotlight on this issue. Sooner or later, we’ll get the laws we need. (I hope it’s “sooner”.)
(Since she’s not my sworn enemy anymore, now that I’ve left the Post, you can check out Lisa Belkin’s take at Motherload.)