With the Michelle R. Clayman Center for Gender Research, the Center on the Legal Profession will co-host Joan C. Williams of UC Hastings College of the Law as she discusses her new book, “Reshaping the Work-Family Debate:  Why Men and Class Matter.”

Work-family conflict remains a central fact of American life: Americans report much higher levels than exist elsewhere, and men now report more work-family conflict than women. Corporate workplace flexibility policies are widely touted but little used, and the U.S. has the most family-hostile public policy in the developed world. Williams argues that jump-starting the stalled revolution in work and family roles requires adding men and class to the discussion. The first step is to open up a national conversation about the gender pressures on men that make it risky for them to change their work commitments in ways that will allow them to play an equal role in family life. The second, necessary step is to recognize that the “culture wars” that have driven American politics so far to the right reflect class conflict stemming from a broken relationship between professional-managerial progressives and the white working class.

Professor Williams will be speaking at Tresidder Student Union Oak Room East on October 28th at 4:15-5:45pm

Read the complete event listing from the Clayman Center here.