Equal Partners? - by Jaclyn S Wong (Paperback)

About the Book

"Many young professionals seek egalitarian partnerships in which both partners work for pay and share unpaid housework and childcare. Yet working couples' realities often deviate from this ideal, with women trading off employment for family care. Will contemporary young adults repeat this pattern, or will they come closer to achieving equality in work and family? Equal Partners? seeks to explore this question. Drawing on six years of interviews with the partners of 21 different-gender couples, Jaclyn Wong documents how supportive workplaces, partners' steadfast gender-egalitarian attitudes, and partners' jointly coordinated actions all need to come together for couples to experience gender equality in work and family. The book offers a compelling study of the dynamics of couples who aspire to equality while navigating the external pressures that come with life planning in ambitious partnerships"--

Book Synopsis

Many young professionals seek egalitarian partnerships in which both partners work for pay and share unpaid housework and childcare. Yet working couples' realities often deviate from this ideal, with women trading off employment for family care. Will contemporary young adults repeat this pattern, or will they come closer to achieving equality in work and family? Equal Partners? seeks to explore this question.

Drawing on six years of interviews with the partners in twenty-one different-gender couples, Jaclyn S. Wong documents how supportive workplaces, partners' steadfast gender-egalitarian attitudes, and partners' jointly coordinated actions all need to come together for couples to experience gender equality in work and family. This book offers a compelling study of the dynamics of couples in ambitious partnerships who aspire to equality as they navigate the external pressures that come with life planning.

From the Back Cover

"Jaclyn Wong uses compelling interviews in Equal Partners? to highlight the challenges of creating a more equal relationship and encourages us to reflect on the lessons we can take away from those who have been the most successful in this endeavor."⎯Amanda Jayne Miller, coauthor of Cohabitation Nation: Gender, Class, and the Remaking of Relationships

"Wong's use of the work-family ecosystem as a frame allows her to investigate both structure and agency in the couples' choices in a way that has rarely been done in sociological work-family studies. Equal Partners? makes an outstanding contribution using novel data collection. An original and compelling insight into dual-earning professional couples."⎯Sarah Damaske, author of The Tolls of Uncertainty: How Privilege and the Guilt Gap Shape Unemployment in America

"Through illuminating interviews with dual-career couples, Wong's timely work reveals the many moving pieces that need to align for partners to turn their egalitarian goals into a reality. Emphasizing the need for broad-scale structural and cultural changes combined with partner-level joint action, this must-read sheds new light on the meaning of equality and the future of the gender revolution."⎯Ellen Lamont, author of The Mating Game: How Gender Still Shapes How We Date

Review Quotes

"This book is also a must-read for anyone wondering how much, if anything, has changed in a critical arena of life--and why. Unsurprisingly, I strongly recommend this book to researchers, policymakers, students, and the public."-- "Social Forces"

About the Author

Jaclyn S. Wong is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Faculty Affiliate in the Women's and Gender Studies Program at the University of South Carolina.