"This book, which is based on solid research by an all-star cast of experts, provides important and timely findings about current welfare issues, some of which are remarkable. The bottom line for the editors of this valuable book is that the country is on the right track, but staying the course will be a challenge in the years ahead."
-Richard P. Nathan, The Rockefeller Institute of Government, SUNY

"This is an indispensable, comprehensive study of the problems and prospects of low-skilled workers, especially welfare recipients who have been entering the labor market in vast numbers. Impressive for the breadth of its research and the depth of its analyses, the book will be a major resource for policymakers, administrators, and researchers-anyone seeking to redesign programs and policies for the working poor."
-Judith M. Gueron, Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation

"In a field replete with puzzles, this collection of new empirical research confirms some past knowledge and it solves some old mysteries. But it deepens other mysteries and contains some striking new data. Finding Jobs reminds us that the most powerful assistance program for low-skilled workers is a strong economy. It removes any remaining doubt about whether wage subsidies, public service employment, and financial incentives in general can raise employment and earnings of low skill workers-they can."
-Henry J. Aaron, The Brookings Institution

Do plummeting welfare caseloads and rising employment prove that welfare reform policies have succeeded, or is this success due primarily to the job explosion created by today's robust economy? With roughly one to two million people expected to leave welfare in the coming decades, uncertainty about their long-term prospects troubles many social scientists. Finding Jobs offers a thorough examination of the low-skill labor market and its capacity to sustain this rising tide of workers, many of whom are single mothers with limited education. Each chapter examines specific trends in the labor market to ask such questions as: How secure are these low-skill jobs, particularly in the event of a recession? What can these workers expect in terms of wage growth and career advancement opportunities? How will a surge in the workforce affect opportunities for those already employed in low-skill jobs?

Finding Jobs offers both good and bad news about work and welfare reform. Although the research presented in this book demonstrates that it is possible to find jobs for people who have traditionally relied on public assistance, it also offers cautionary evidence that today's strong economy may mask enduring underlying problems. Finding Jobs shows that the low-wage labor market is particularly vulnerable to economic downswings and that lower skilled workers enjoy less job stability. Several chapters illustrate why financial incentives, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), are as essential to encouraging workforce participation as job search programs. Other chapters show the importance of including provisions for health insurance, and of increasing subsidies for child care to assist the large population of working single mothers affected by welfare reform.

Finding Jobs also examines the potential costs of new welfare restrictions. It looks at how states can improve their flexibility in imposing time limits on families receiving welfare, and calls into question the cutbacks in eligibility for immigrants, who traditionally have relied less on public assistance than their native-born counterparts.

Finding Jobs is an informative and wide-ranging inquiry into the issues raised by welfare reform. Based on comprehensive new data, this volume offers valuable guidance to policymakers looking to design policies that will increase work, raise incomes, and lower poverty in changing economic conditions.

REBECCA M. BLANK is dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and Henry Carter Adams Collegiate Professor of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She is also research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

DAVID E. CARD is Class of 1950 Professor of Economics and head of the Center for Labor Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

CONTRIBUTORS: Patricia Anderson, Timothy Bartik, Kristin Butcher, Janet Currie, Stacy Dickert-Conlin, David T. Ellwood, Tricia Gladden, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Harry J. Holzer, Hilary Hoynes, Luojia Hu, Robert J. LaLonde, Phillip B. Levine, Susan E. Mayer, Robert A. Moffitt, LaDonna A. Pavetti, Philip K. Robins, Christopher Taber, Jane Waldfogel, Elisabeth D. Welty, Aaron Yelowitz

Often described as an emergency, homelessness in America is becoming a chronic condition that reflects an overall decline in the nation's standard of living and the general state of the economy. This is the disturbing conclusion drawn by Martha Burt in Over the Edge, a timely book that takes a clear-eyed look at the astonishing surge in the homeless population during the 1980s.

Assembling and analyzing data from 147 U.S. cities, Burt documents the increase in homelessness and proposes a comprehensive explanation of its causes, incorporating economic, personal, and policy determinants. Her unique research answers many provocative questions: Why did homelessness continue to spiral even after economic conditions improved in 1983? Why is it significantly greater in cities with both high poverty rates and high per capita income? What can be done about the problem?

Burt points to the significant catalysts of homelessness—the decline of manufacturing jobs in the inner city, the increased cost of living, the tight rental housing market, diminished household income, and reductions in public benefit programs—all of which exert pressures on the more vulnerable of the extremely poor. She looks at the special problems facing the homeless, including the growing number of mentally ill and chemically dependent individuals, and explains why certain groups—minorities and low-skilled men, single men and women, and families headed by women—are at greatest risk of becoming homeless. Burt's analysis reveals that homelessness arises from no single factor, but is instead perpetuated by pivotal interactions between external social and economic conditions and personal vulnerabilities.

From an understanding of these interactions, Over the Edge builds lucid, realistic recommendations for policymakers struggling to alleviate a situation of grave consequence for our entire society.

MARTHA R. BURT is director of the Social Services Research Program at the Urban Institute.

A Volume in the American Sociological Association’s Rose Series in Sociology

Most Americans agree on the necessity of education reform, but there is little consensus about how this goal might be achieved. The rhetoric of standards and vouchers has occupied center stage, polarizing public opinion and affording little room for reflection on the intangible conditions that make for good schools. Trust in Schools engages this debate with a compelling examination of the importance of social relationships in the successful implementation of school reform.

Over the course of three years, Bryk and Schneider, together with a diverse team of other researchers and school practitioners, studied reform in twelve Chicago elementary schools. Each school was undergoing extensive reorganization in response to the Chicago School Reform Act of 1988, which called for greater involvement of parents and local community leaders in their neighborhood schools. Drawing on years longitudinal survey and achievement data, as well as in-depth interviews with principals, teachers, parents, and local community leaders, the authors develop a thorough account of how effective social relationships—which they term relational trust—can serve as a prime resource for school improvement. Using case studies of the network of relationships that make up the school community, Bryk and Schneider examine how the myriad social exchanges that make up daily life in a school community generate, or fail to generate, a successful educational environment. The personal dynamics among teachers, students, and their parents, for example, influence whether students regularly attend school and sustain their efforts in the difficult task of learning. In schools characterized by high relational trust, educators were more likely to experiment with new practices and work together with parents to advance improvements. As a result, these schools were also more likely to demonstrate marked gains in student learning. In contrast, schools with weak trust relations saw virtually no improvement in their reading or mathematics scores.

Trust in Schools demonstrates convincingly that the quality of social relationships operating in and around schools is central to their functioning, and strongly predicts positive student outcomes. This book offer insights into how trust can be built and sustained in school communities, and identifies some features of public school systems that can impede such development. Bryk and Schneider show how a broad base of trust across a school community can provide a critical resource as education professional and parents embark on major school reforms.

ANTHONY S. BRYK is Marshall Field IV Professor of Urban Education and Sociology, University of Chicago.

BARBARA SCHNEIDER is professor of sociology and human development, University of Chicago.

A Volume in the American Sociological Association’s Rose Series in Sociology

"Anthony Bryk and Barbara Schneider argue a novel idea: that the extent of trust among the adults in schools is a crucial influence on how well schools work for children. They use a variety of research methods to probe the role that trust plays in the life of schools, and in students' learning. This is an important, original, and lucidly written contribution to understanding the processes of schooling, and a telling analysis of the requirements for school improvement."
-DAVID K. COHEN, University of Michigan

"Trust in Schools presents a compelling case of real world school reform. A must read for educators, administrators, and legislators working in the field today."
-RAMON CORTINES, New York City School System, Los Angeles School System

"Recent conceptual analyses of social capital bear fruit in Anthony Bryk and Barbara Schneider's insightful study of effective social relationships in school. The authors provide theoretical insights into how trust acts as a dimension of social capital and provide empirical evidence that trusting relationships among teachers, parents, and students promote school improvement. Their study expands the current debate on educational reform by stressing the central importance of social exchange in the process of school reform. This important work has immediate implications for educational policy and practice."
-MAUREEN T. HALLINAN, University of Notre Dame

"Anthony Bryk and Barbara Schneider have produced a work that genuinely deserves to be foundational. The arguments they lay out here, strongly supported with longitudinal data, both quantitative and qualitative, will affect the way we think about the problems of urban schools and about possible solutions for years to come. More forcefully than any work in many years, they remind us that we cannot frame the issues just in terms of organizational issues, pedagogical issues, and governance issues. The reality is that many urban schools are bedeviled by a set of social issues, centered on trust, which, if left unaddressed, will continue to frustrate our best efforts."
-CHARLES M. PAYNE, Duke University

Most Americans agree on the necessity of education reform, but there is little consensus about how this goal might be achieved. The rhetoric of standards and vouchers has occupied center stage, polarizing public opinion and affording little room for reflection on the intangible conditions that make for good schools. Trust in Schools engages this debate with a compelling examination of the importance of social relationships in the successful implementation of school reform.

Over the course of three years, Bryk and Schneider, together with a diverse team of other researchers and school practitioners, studied reform in twelve Chicago elementary schools. Each school was undergoing extensive reorganization in response to the Chicago School Reform Act of 1988, which called for greater involvement of parents and local community leaders in their neighborhood schools. Drawing on years longitudinal survey and achievement data, as well as in-depth interviews with principals, teachers, parents, and local community leaders, the authors develop a thorough account of how effective social relationships—which they term relational trust—can serve as a prime resource for school improvement. Using case studies of the network of relationships that make up the school community, Bryk and Schneider examine how the myriad social exchanges that make up daily life in a school community generate, or fail to generate, a successful educational environment. The personal dynamics among teachers, students, and their parents, for example, influence whether students regularly attend school and sustain their efforts in the difficult task of learning. In schools characterized by high relational trust, educators were more likely to experiment with new practices and work together with parents to advance improvements. As a result, these schools were also more likely to demonstrate marked gains in student learning. In contrast, schools with weak trust relations saw virtually no improvement in their reading or mathematics scores.

Trust in Schools demonstrates convincingly that the quality of social relationships operating in and around schools is central to their functioning, and strongly predicts positive student outcomes. This book offer insights into how trust can be built and sustained in school communities, and identifies some features of public school systems that can impede such development. Bryk and Schneider show how a broad base of trust across a school community can provide a critical resource as education professional and parents embark on major school reforms.

ANTHONY S. BRYK is Marshall Field IV Professor of Urban Education and Sociology, University of Chicago.

BARBARA SCHNEIDER is professor of sociology and human development, University of Chicago.

One of Choice magazine's Outstanding Academic Books of 1999
 

"Latinas and African American Women is an exemplary volume. It provides an outstanding overview and evaluation of past research on women of color in the labor force, and more important, it presents many significant findings and boldly points to new directions for future research on this topic. Hence, it will be of great value to all social scientists who study gender and racial inequality in American society."
-Work and Occupations

"The research assembled in this volume is rich and convincing. Aside from readers with a special interest in the labor market of the United States-for whom the book is a must-it is a safe bet that anyone concerned with gender and/or equality issues, even in the broadest possible sense, will find the book a valuable reference and stimulus to future research on account of the important methodological and conceptual questions it addresses."
-International Labour Review

"Essential for a complete collection on women and work."
-Choice

Accepted wisdom about the opportunities available to African American and Latina women in the U.S. labor market has changed dramatically. Although the 1970s saw these women earning almost as much as their white counterparts, in the 1980s their relative wages began falling behind, and the job prospects plummeted for those with little education and low skills. At the same time, African American women more often found themselves the sole support of their families. While much social science research has centered on the problems facing black male workers, Latinas and African American Women at Work offers a comprehensive investigation into the eroding progress of these women in the U.S. labor market.

The prominent sociologists and economists featured in this volume describe how race and gender intersect to especially disadvantage black and Latina women. Their inquiries encompass three decades of change for women at all levels of the workforce, from those who spend time on the welfare rolls to middle class professionals. Among the many possible sources of increased disadvantage, they particularly examine the changing demands for skills, increasing numbers of immigrants in the job market, the precariousness of balancing work and childcare responsibilities, and employer discrimination. While racial inequity in hiring often results from educational differences between white and minority women, this cannot explain the discrimination faced by women with higher skills. Minority women therefore face a two-tiered hurdle based on race and gender. Although the picture for young African American women has grown bleaker overall, for Latina women, the story is more complex, with a range of economic outcomes among Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and Central and South Americans.

Latinas and African American Women at Work reveals differences in how professional African American and white women view their position in the workforce, with black women perceiving more discrimination, for both race and gender, than whites. The volume concludes with essays that synthesize the evidence about racial and gender-based obstacles in the labor market.

Given the current heated controversy over female and minority employment, as well as the recent sweeping changes to the national welfare system, the need for empirical data to inform the public debate about disadvantaged women is greater than ever before. The important findings in Latinas and African American Women at Work substantially advance our understanding of social inequality and the pervasive role of race, ethnicity and gender in the economic well-being of American women.

IRENE BROWNE is associate professor of sociology and women's studies at Emory University.

CONTRIBUTORS: Delores P. Aldridge, John Bound, Camille Z. Charles, Karen Christopher, Aixa N. Cintron-Velez, Mary Corcoran, Laura Dresser, Kathryn Edin, Paula England, Susan Gonzalez Baker, Colleen M. Heflin, Elizabeth Higginbotham, Ivy Kennelly, Joya Misra, Kathleen Mullan Harris, Lori L. Reid, Barbara F. Reskin, Belinda L. Reyes, Lynn Weber.

"Prismatic Metropolis is destined to become a standard reference for students of urban inequality. Based on thoughtful analysis of very rich and original data sets, this authoritative volume demonstrates the important interplay of structural conditions and cultural-psychological factors in generating and sustaining inequality in one of the nation's most important metropolises."
-WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON, Harvard University

"Far too much of what we think we know about urban poverty stems from studies of blacks and whites in older industrial cities, yet the urban future will increasingly unfold in dynamic, post-industrial agglomerations inhabited by a diverse array of racial and ethnic groups. In their comprehensive analysis of inequality in Los Angeles, the contributors paint a startling picture of the urban future, one increasingly segmented by race, place, ethnicity, and class. Prismatic Metropolis points the way to a new urban sociology for a new century."
-DOUGLAS S. MASSEY, University of Pennsylvania

"In documenting the dynamics of race, ethnicity, and gender in access to housing, jobs, and advancement at work, Prismatic Metropolis maps the contours of social and economic inequality in the nation's foremost "global city." Chapters provide wide-ranging coverage, from a pathbreaking analysis of the reproduction of housing segregation patterns, to detailed accounts of the ways that racial attitudes, social networks, childcare obligations, transportation systems, and ethnic economic enclaves link race and gender to economic success. This extraordinary volume, while based on analyses of one city, has lessons for all U.S. cities. Prismatic Metropolis is the essential starting place for understanding how race, ethnic, and gender inequality play out in contemporary cities and for discovering pathways toward economic and social justice."
-BARBARA RESKIN, Harvard University

This book cuts through the powerful mythology surrounding Los Angeles to reveal the causes of inequality in a city that has weathered rapid population change, economic restructuring, and fractious ethnic relations. The sources of disadvantage and the means of getting ahead differ greatly among the city's myriad ethnic groups. The demand for unskilled labor is stronger here than in other cities, allowing Los Angeles's large population of immigrant workers with little education to find work in light manufacturing and low-paid service jobs.

A less beneficial result of this trend is the increased marginalization of the city's low-skilled black workers, who do not enjoy the extended ethnic networks of many of the new immigrant groups and who must contend with persistent negative racial stereotypes.

Patterns of residential segregation are also more diffuse in Los Angeles, with many once-black neighborhoods now split evenly between blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and other minorities. Inequality in Los Angeles cannot be reduced to a simple black-white divide. Nonetheless, in this thoroughly multicultural city, race remains a crucial factor shaping economic fortunes.

LAWRENCE D. BOBO is professor of sociology and Afro-American studies at Harvard University.

MELVIN L. OLIVER is vice president of the Ford Foundation. He is responsible for overseeing the Asset Building and Community Development Program.

JAMES H. JOHNSON JR. is William Rand Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Management, Sociology, and Public Policy and director of the  Urban Investment Strategies Center in the Kenan Institute in the Kenan-Flager Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

ABEL VALENZUELA JR. is assistant professor of urban planning and Chicana/o studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also associate director of the Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, Institute for Social Science Research.

CONTRIBUTORS:  Elisa Jayne Bienenstock, Camille Zubrinksi Charles, Walter C. Farrell Jr.,  Jennifer L. Glanville,  Elizabeth Gonzalez,  David M. Grant,  Tarry Hum, Devon Johnson,  Michael I. Lichter,  Julie E. Press,  Michael A. Stoll, Susan A. Suh,  Jennifer A. Stoloff.  

A Volume in the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality

"The Boston Renaissance is a tour de force. Drawing upon a rich array of new data, Barry Bluestone and Mary Huff Stevenson provide an original and insightful analysis of Boston's remarkable triple revolution. This book is replete with information and should be read by scholars and policymakers alike."
-WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON, Harvard University

"How an old and declining northeast city transformed itself into one of the most successful urban communities in American is a story the must be told, and it is told effectively in The Boston Renaissance."
-MICHAEL S. DUKAKIS, professor of political science and former governor of Massachusetts

"Dubbed an urban disaster case only twenty years ago, Boston today is a high-tech boom town, a marvel of tight labor markets and sky rocketing real estate. How did this transformation come about and who has reaped the bounty? We learn how different ethnic groups reshaped the social landscape of the metropolitan region and how the tracks of that upheaval shaped race relations. The Boston Renaissance is essential reading for scholars, policy makers, and citizens concerned with urban change in the twenty-first century."
-KATHERINE S. NEWMAN, Kennedy School of Government

"As the authors point out, Boston was considered an economic basket case as recently as 1982. In terms of the poverty rate, violent crime, and other indexes of urban decline, Boston was at the bottom. Two decades later, employment has climbed to an all time high. The city's neighborhoods are making remarkable comebacks, and Boston's crime prevention strategy has become the model for cities across the nation. The Boston Renaissance is the story of how a struggling city grew into America's urban success story."
-THOMAS M. MENINO, Mayor of Boston

This volume documents metropolitan Boston's metamorphosis from a casualty of manufacturing decline in the 1970s to a paragon of the high-tech and service industries in the 1990s. The city's rebound has been part of a wider regional renaissance, as new commercial centers have sprung up outside the city limits. A stream of immigrants have flowed into the area, redrawing the map of ethnic relations in the city. While Boston's vaunted mind-based economy rewards the highly educated, many unskilled workers have also found opportunities servicing the city's growing health and education industries.

Boston's renaissance remains uneven, and the authors identify a variety of handicaps (low education, unstable employment, single parenthood) that still hold minorities back. Nonetheless this book presents Boston as a hopeful example of how America's older cities can reinvent themselves in the wake of suburbanization and deindustrialization.

BARRY BLUESTONE is the Russell B. and Andr`ee B. Stearns Trustee Professor of Political Economy and director of the Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University.

MARY HUFF STEVENSON is associate professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and senior fellow at its McCormack Institute of Public Affairs.

A Volume in the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality

"A high-quality collection of articles that should be of interest to scholars concerned with gender issues and labor markets."
-Industrial and Labor Relations Review

"Valuable reading ... conveys a sophistication and sense of perspective that should be constructive for many policy and personal debates on the subject of women and the workplace."
-Journal of Economic Literature

"The book is a useful addition to the library of family and consumer economists. Educators and researchers will find thoughtful, comprehensive studies that include challenging theoretical frameworks and empirical analyses."
-Journal of Consumer Affairs

Today, as married women commonly pursue careers outside the home, concerns about their ability to achieve equal footing with men without sacrificing the needs of their families trouble policymakers and economists alike. In 1993 federal legislation was passed that required most firms to provide unpaid maternity leave for up to twelve weeks. Yet, as Gender and Family Issues in the Workplace reveals, motherhood remains a primary obstacle to women's economic success. This volume offers fascinating and provocative new analyses of women's status in the labor market, as it explores the debate surrounding parental leave: Do policies that mandate extended leave protect jobs and promote child welfare, or do they sidetrack women's careers and make them less desirable employees?

An examination of the disadvantages that women—particularly young mothers—face in today's workplace sets the stage for the debate. Claudia Goldin presents evidence that female college graduates are rarely able to balance motherhood with career track employment, and Jane Waldfogel demonstrates that having children results in substantially lower wages for women. The long hours demanded by managerial and other high powered professions further penalize women who in many cases still bear primary responsibility for their homes and children. Do parental leave policies improve the situation for women? Gender and Family Issues in the Workplace offers a variety of perspectives on this important question. Some propose that mandated leave improves women's wages by allowing them to preserve their job tenure. Other economists express concern that federal leave policies prevent firms and their workers from acting on their own particular needs and constraints, while others argue that because such policies improve the well-being of children they are necessary to society as a whole. Olivia Mitchell finds that although the availability of unpaid parental leave has sharply increased, only a tiny percentage of workers have access to paid leave or child care assistance. Others caution that the current design of family-friendly policies may promote gender inequality by reinforcing the traditional division of labor within families.

Parental leave policy is a complex issue embedded in a tangle of economic and social institutions. Gender and Family Issues in the Workplace offers an innovative and up-to-date investigation into women's chances for success and equality in the modern economy.

FRANCINE D. BLAU is Frances Perkins Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University and research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At Cornell University, she is also research director of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, director of the Institute for Labor Market Policy, faculty associate of the Cornell Employment and Family Careers Institute, and affiliate of the Women's Studies Program.

RONALD G. EHRENBERG is Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics and director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute. He is also research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and is president-elect of the Society of Labor Economists.

CONTRIBUTORS: Francine D. Blau, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Barbara R. Bergmann, Rebecca M. Blank, Ileen A. DeVault, Paula England, Marianne A. Ferber, Claudia Goldin, Jonathan Gruber, Marjorie Honig, Lawrence F. Katz, Jacob Alex Klerman, Renee M. Landers, Arleen Leibowitz, Janice Fanning Madden, Olivia S. Mitchell, H. Elizabeth Peters, Solomon W. Polachek, James B. Rebitzer, Cordelia W. Reimers, Donna S. Rothstein, Christopher J. Ruhm, Myra H. Strober, Lowell J. Taylor, Jackqueline L. Teague, Jane Waldfogel, and Michael Waldman.

"This book is full of interesting information on the long-run trends in women's work and family life, exploring the evidence behind key theories about why women's jobs have improved and why there are still large gender gaps in many areas. A major appeal is its multi-disciplinary approach, including economic, political, and organizational perspectives on gender and work. The Declining Significance of Gender? is a book that anyone interested in research on women in the labor market will want to read."
-REBECCA M. BLANK, University of Michigan

"An impressive list of sociologists and economists confront the evidence of women's progress and setbacks in work and beyond. Their authoritative treatments show how American women's common destiny of disadvantage gave way to a world in which some women have come a long way while others are being left behind."
-MICHAEL HOUT, University of California, Berkeley

"The Declining Significance of Gender? is an up-to-date collection of some of the best analyses of the causes and outcomes of gender differentiation in the paid labor force that one can find. WIth outstanding contributions by the top sociologically informed economists and economically informed sociologists working today on issues such as pay equity, glass ceilings, and culturally imposed social structures, the volume should be on the desk of scholars and policy makers, journalists, and activists alike. The work of the scholars brought together in Francine D. Blau, Mary C. Brinton, and David B. Grusky's carefully selected collection of essays brings a lucid and dispassionate perspective to a topic usually informed more by sentiment than by data."
-CYNTHIA FUCHS EPSTEIN, Graduate Center, City University of New York

The last half-century has witnessed substantial change in the opportunities and rewards available to men and women in the workplace. While the gender pay gap narrowed and female labor force participation rose dramatically in recent decades, some dimensions of gender inequality—most notably the division of labor in the family—have been more resistant to change, or have changed more slowly in recent years than in the past. These trends suggest that one of two possible futures could lie ahead: an optimistic scenario in which gender inequalities continue to erode, or a pessimistic scenario where contemporary institutional arrangements persevere and the gender revolution stalls.

In The Declining Significance of Gender?, editors Francine Blau, Mary Brinton, and David Grusky bring together top gender scholars in sociology and economics to make sense of the recent changes in gender inequality, and to judge whether the optimistic or pessimistic view better depicts the prospects and bottlenecks that lie ahead. It examines the economic, organizational, political, and cultural forces that have changed the status of women and men in the labor market. The contributors examine the economic assumption that discrimination in hiring is economically inefficient and will be weeded out eventually by market competition. They explore the effect that family-family organizational policies have had in drawing women into the workplace and giving them even footing in the organizational hierarchy. Several chapters ask whether political interventions might reduce or increase gender inequality, and others discuss whether a social ethos favoring egalitarianism is working to overcome generations of discriminatory treatment against women.

Although there is much rhetoric about the future of gender inequality, The Declining Significance of Gender? provides a sustained attempt to consider analytically the forces that are shaping the gender revolution. Its wide-ranging analysis of contemporary gender disparities will stimulate readers to think more deeply and in new ways about the extent to which gender remains a major fault line of inequality.

FRANCINE D. BLAU is Frances Perkins Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Labor Economics at Cornell University.

MARY C. BRINTON is Reischauer Institute Professor of Sociology at Harvard University.

DAVID B. GRUSKY is professor of sociology at Stanford University.

CONTRIBUTORS: Francine D. Blau, Mary C. Brinton, Paula England, Claudia Goldin, David B. Grusky, Heidi Hartmann, Robert Max Jackson, Lawrence M. Kahn, Vicky Lovell, Eva M. Meyersson Milgrom, Trond Petersen, Solomon W. Polachek, Cecilia L. Ridgeway, and Stephen J. Rose.

"This book goes beyond the rhetoric that characterizes most child care debates, and relies on data to describe the market for child care and on the results of serious evaluations to describe the effect of child care policies. David Blau has done more research on the economics of child care than anyone else and this book distills his findings. It is balanced and comprehensive. The Child Care Problem should be required reading for everyone who wants to understand what does and does not work in the market for child care."
-Rebecca M. Blank, University of Michigan

"Simply the best treatment of the economics of child care. Before blaming the 'system' (or politicians), see how market forces shape the nature and quality of contemporary child care. Only in that way is true reform possible."
-Douglas J. Besharov, American Enterprise Institute

The child care system in the United States is widely criticized, yet the underlying structural problems are difficult to pin down. In The Child Care Problem, David M. Blau sets aside the often emotional terms of the debate and applies a rigorous economic analysis to the state of the child care system in this country, arriving at a surprising diagnosis of the root of the problem.

Blau approaches child care as a service that is bought and sold in markets, addressing such questions as: What kinds of child care are available? Is good care really hard to find? How do costs affect the services families choose? Why are child care workers underpaid relative to other professions? He finds that the child care market functions much better than is commonly believed. The supply of providers has kept pace with the number of mothers entering the workforce, and costs remain relatively modest. Yet most families place a relatively low value on high-quality child care, and are unwilling to pay more for better care. Blau sees this lack of demand—rather than the market's inadequate supply—as the cause of the nation's child care dilemma. The Child Care Problem also faults government welfare policies—which treat child care subsidies mainly as a means to increase employment of mothers, but set no standards regarding the quality of child care their subsidies can purchase.

Blau trains an economic lens on research by child psychologists, evaluating the evidence that the day care environment has a genuine impact on early development. The failure of families and government to place a priority on improving such critical conditions for their children provides a compelling reason to advocate change. The Child Care Problem concludes with a balanced proposal for reform. Blau outlines a systematic effort to provide families of all incomes with the information they need to make more prudent decisions. And he suggests specific revisions to welfare policy, including both an allowance to defray the expenses of families with children, and a child care voucher that is worth more when used for higher quality care.

The Child Care Problem provides a straightforward evaluation of the many contradictory claims about the problems with child care, and lays out a reasoned blueprint for reform which will help guide both social scientists and non-academics alike toward improving the quality of child care in this country.

DAVID M. BLAU is professor economics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.