Everything Is Broken - by Jennifer Woltil Bouek (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

In the United States, childcare is presented in law and policy as a matter of "parental choice." Mothers, however, experience it differently. Instead of empowering families, childcare today often functions as an "invisible system" or a missing market--and one in which mothers find few good options. Yet because most mothers are also employed, they must still find a way to make do.

Based on years of ethnographic and administrative research, sociologist Jennifer Woltil Bouek explores how mothers search for, secure, and maintain care for their children within this complex organizational field--and the heavy costs they bear in the process. Her work illustrates just how the American childcare system sorts and stratifies, leading to disparate (and sometimes surprising) outcomes. Grounded in personal narratives drawn from a diverse sample of mothers, childcare providers, bureaucrats, and policy advocates, Everything Is Broken tells a striking story of access and exclusion from the inside out.

From the Back Cover

"Jennifer Woltil Bouek beautifully weaves multiple forms of data with historical perspective and intersectional analysis to show how the childcare crisis arose and still shapes the lives of contemporary families in profound ways. This book will be a significant contribution to our understanding of parenting, care work, and family inequality."--Jennifer Randles, author of Living Diaper to Diaper: The Hidden Crisis of Poverty and Motherhood

"Everything Is Broken provides a well-researched, sensitive, and revealing analysis of why American childcare cannot be called a system, given its disorder and lack of transparency. Bouek offers an absorbing account of what it means to expect mothers to work--as indeed many want to do--while quality care remains unavailable and unreliable."--Allison Daminger, author of What's on Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life

"Bouek provides one of the first in-depth looks at how contemporary mothers navigate a system known for being flawed and incomplete. Her writing about individual women's stories is incredibly compelling, painting vivid pictures of their trajectories with great sensitivity and empathy."--Julia Wrigley, Professor of Sociology, Graduate Center, CUNY

About the Author

Jennifer Woltil Bouek is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Delaware.