June 13, 2002 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Taking Parenting Public: the Case for a New Social Movement
edited by Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Nancy Rankin, and Cornel West
Child rearing gets too little attention, support, and status in today’s world, says Nancy Rankin, former executive director of the National Parenting Association, in this book’s introduction.
“You need only listen to the language we use to describe the daily dilemmas facing parents today — the juggling act, the moral meltdown, the time crunch, toxic entertainment, the sandwich generation — to know that these are stressful times,” she writes.
A collection of essays by academic and policy experts and business leaders, this book proposes a new social movement that would make child rearing a higher priority, both in the lives of individual Americans and among policy makers.
Authors offer insights into familiar work-family tensions, examine social and economic forces that undermine child rearing in today’s society, and propose strategies for change.
David Elkind, a child-studies professor at Tufts University, describes contemporary parenthood as “devoid of moral and spiritual authority, its child-rearing powers, its gender and occupational defining roles,” and says that as a result, society has devalued parenthood while other institutions like schools have taken over many parental functions.
Raymond Seidelman, a political-science professor at Sarah Lawrence College, discusses strategies for building a parents’ movement, such as relying on the financial contributions of affluent and activist parents to buy the lobbying power needed to gain access in Washington.
Ruth Wooden, former president of the Advertising Council, explains what it means to “take parenting public”: to bring the work of parents more fully into public discussion and to challenge public attitudes and images of child rearing. She predicts that the process will require at least a decade to yield significant changes.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Md. 20706; (717) 794-3800 or (800) 462-6420; http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com; 295 pages; $22.95; I.S.B.N. 0-7425-2111-7.
