IRP Book Talk: A Conversation With Jessica Calarco, Author Of Holding It Together

Jessica Calarco, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Alia Wong, Education Collaborations Editor, The Associated Press
In her new book, Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net, sociologist Jessica Calarco argues that instead of investing in a robust safety net of government programs and supports, the United States relies on the unpaid and undervalued of women to hold together families, communities, and society as a whole. Calarco draws on over 400 hours of interviews with families across the socioeconomic, racial, and political spectrums, along with original surveys of more than 4,000 U.S. parents to paint a picture of the precarity that threatens to upend families as they struggle to make ends meet.
In this webinar, education journalist Alia Wong joins Calarco to explore the many challenges that parents-and in particular women-face each day, and what policy and practice solutions have the potential to lighten the load.