Work and Family - Allies or Enemies?: What Happens When Business Professionals Confront Life Choices - Hardcover

"A reasoned and brave book that looks squarely at the tensions between family and work, gives us the facts, and suggests new ways to be good at both. Its creative research and reasoned recommendations should make our choices much easier."―Roger Brown

"A comprehensive and seminal contribution to the research on work and family life. By providing a conceptual framework, it makes sense of the lives of business school graduates-revealing how their personal resources and choices as well as the resources provided by their families and workplaces affect their personal and family success. More importantly, it reads like a research adventure story, exploring the questions that are hotly debated today, such as whether and-under what circumstances-women experience a career jeopardy. Additionally, it breaks new ground by including children as the unseen stakeholders of their parents' work. ―Ellen Galinsky, President, Families and Work Institute, Author,Ask the Children: What America's Children Really Think AboutWorking Parents

"By providing us with fresh data on alumni of two top business schools, Work and Family-Allies or Enemies? makes a significant contribution not only to the work-life field, but also to employers trying to reach their own balance between the needs of their people and the exigencies of business today."―Phillip A. Laskaway, Ernst & Young

"Stewart Friedman and Jeff Greenhaus have produced a work that sets a new standard for research on work-family balance.... This work is required reading for CEOs and managers who must win the war for talent if their firms are to survive in the 21st century.... This book should have a permanent place in the curriculum of graduate and professional programs that train MBAs and other future leaders.... It is a tour de force that will define the discourse on this topic for decades to come."―David A. Thomas, Professor, Harvard Business School and author of Breaking Through: The Making of Minority Executives in Corporate America

We've come a long way since the classic book The Organization Man first introduced the 'ideal' two-person career: a full-time male breadwinner and a stay-at-home wife. What typified the '50s good life is in stark contrast to contemporary reality: in the USA 63% of all married women with children under six years old are in the workforce and 40% of all workers are part of a dual-earner couple.

Work and Family - Allies or Enemies? offers a new lens for viewing the real struggles that business professionals - particularly women - face in their daily battle to find ways of 'getting a life' and 'having it all'. Based on a pioneering study that surveyed more than 800 business professionals, this volume will help readers understand and deal with the effects of gender, professional culture, and social expectations, on the evolving roles of men and women in crafting an integrated life.

In this rich, inspiring, and at times disturbing look at how work and family affect the lives of men and women trying to manage the complexities of modern living, the authors argue that it is critical to learn how to manage the boundaries between work and family, to handle ambiguity, to manage multiple tasks simultaneously, and to build networks of support at work and in the community. Work and Family - Allies or Enemies? offers a prescription for success that requires that all parties - individuals, employers, and society - clarify what is important, recognize and support the whole person, and continually experiment with new ways to achieve meaningful goals.