An urgent call for real-world solutions to gender inequality: The latest volume in the acclaimed Real Utopias Project

In the labor market and workplace, anti-discrimination rules, affirmative action policies, and pay equity procedures exercise a direct effect on gender relations. But what can be done to influence the ways that men and women allocate tasks and responsibilities at home?

In Gender Equality, Volume VI in the Real Utopias series, social scientists Janet C. Gornick and Marcia K. Meyers propose a set of policies—paid family leave provisions, working time regulations, and early childhood education and care—designed to foster more egalitarian family divisions of labor by strengthening men’s ties at home and women’s attachment to paid work. Their policy proposal is followed by a series of commentaries—both critical and supportive—from a group of distinguished scholars, and a concluding essay in which Gornick and Meyers respond to a debate that is a timely and valuable contribution to egalitarian politics.

“With keen insight and passion, Gornick and Meyers show why and how ‘dual-earner/dual-caregiver’ arrangements are essential for the well-being of post-industrial societies… A wonderful book that is must-reading for experts, policymakers, and caring citizens alike.” — Kathleen Gerson, New York University

“An extremely stimulating and provocative debate.” — Jane Lewis, London School of Economics

“While sharing a common goal of greater equality among men and women, the authors critically discuss whether gender symmetry should be a goal in itself, for whom, and at what costs in terms of social inequalities … This intense and honest dialogue makes for an exciting book.”— Chiara Saraceno, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB)

Contributing to the volume are Barbara Bergmann, Johanna Brenner, Harry Brighouse, Scott Coltrane, Rosemary Crompton, Myra Marx Ferree, Nancy Folbre, Heidi Hartmann, Shireen Hassim, Lane Kenworthy, Vicky Lovell, Cameron Macdonald, Peter McDonald, Ruth Milkman, Kimberly Morgan, Ann Orloff, Michael Shalev, Erik Olin Wright, and Kathrin Zippel.

Janet C. Gornick is Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York (CUNY). Marcia K. Meyers is Professor of Social Work and Public Affairs at the University of Washington. They are also authors of Families That Work: Policies for Reconciling Parenthood and Employment (Russell Sage Foundation).

Series editor of Verso’s Real Utopias Project, Erik Olin Wright, is Vilas Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin.