New book from Harrington Meyer looks at growing role of grandmothers in caring for grandchildren
Young working mothers are not the only ones who are
struggling to balance family life and careers. Madonna Harrington Meyer, professor of sociology, has written a new
book, Grandmothers at Work: Juggling
Families and Job (NYU Press), which examines how many grandmothers’ roles
in the lives of their grandchildren have changed from voluntary joy to stressful
obligation.
Many middle-aged American women face this dilemma as they
provide routine care for their grandchildren while simultaneously pursuing
careers and trying to make ends meet. Grandmothers
at Work is based primarily on 48 in-depth interviews conducted in 2009-2012
with grandmothers who juggle working and minding their grandchildren. Harrington Meyer writes that all of the grandmothers
interviewed for the book are pleased to spend time with their grandchildren, but
many are finding that taking on more responsibility for caring for their
grandchildren requires them to readjust their own work schedules, use vacation time
and sick leave, gut retirement accounts, and postpone retirement.
While most research has focused on young working mothers,
Meyer’s work provides a unique perspective on a phenomenon faced by millions of
women in America today. 05/12/14