The Politics of Parenthood: 2child Care, Women's Rights, and the Myth of the Good Mother

Berry, a lawyer, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and a University of Pennsylvania history professor, follows her Why ERA Failed with this absorbing book, a rallying cry for making child care the equal province of both parents. Using interesting historical detail from colonial times to the present, the author shows how gender politics have shaped the practice of American child care, and she lays out society's rationales for absolving men of responsibility for child care. Berry maintains that fathers played a more important role in their children's upbringing prior to the 20th century. She also offers the African American perspective. Included in the chronicle are slaves and slave mistresses, Jane Addams, Phyllis Schlafly, Thomas Jefferson, Reagan, Bush, the present Supreme Court and a litany of bills and laws that have failed to solve the problems. Berry makes a strong case that women must lobby to have men assume an equal share of child rearing if women are to pursue careers. (Mar.)