NEL NODDINGS
Stanford University

The Mismatch Between Work and Family

Work, Family, Health, and Well-Being.
Edited by Suzanne M. Bianchi, Lynne M. Casper, and Rosalind Berkowitz King. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2005. xv + 583 pp. Hardcover, $69.95.

This is a highly useful "all you ever wanted to know" book that readers will often reach for on their reference shelf. It provides statistics and research summaries on the number and ages of women working, incomes, benefits, government policies, flexible work arrangements, the sharing of domestic work, effects of working mothers on children, time management, health effects, and international comparisons. Contributions come from prestigious scholars in a variety of disciplines: sociology, psychology, economics, epidemiology, management, anthropology, demography, and family medicine. The interdisciplinary character of the book is a great strength, although it causes some inevitable redundancy. (This is not a complaint. Indeed, it is a help to readers who cannot possibly be familiar with all of these fields.)