In Our Hands

A call for better child care policies, exploring the reasons why there has been so little headway on a problem that touches so many families. Working mothers are common in the United States. In over half of all two-parent families, both parents work, and women’s paychecks on average make up 35 percent of their families’ incomes. Most of these families yearn for available and affordable child care—but although most developed countries offer state-funded child care, it remains scarce in the United States. And even in prosperous times, child care is rarely a priority for U.S. policy makers. In In Our Hands: The Struggle for U.S. Child Care Policy, Elizabeth Palley and Corey S. Shdaimah explore the reasons behind the relative paucity of U.S. child care and child care support. They examine the history of child care advocacy and legislation in the United States, from the Child Care Development Act of the 1970s that was vetoed by Nixon through the Obama administration’s Child Care Development Block Grant. The book includes data from interviews with 23 prominent child care and early education advocates and researchers who have spent their careers seeking expansion of child care policy and funding and an examination of the legislative debates around key child care bills of the last half-century. Palley and Shdaimah analyze the special interest and niche groups that have formed around existing policy, arguing that such groups limit the possibility for debate around U.S. child care policy.

Palley and Shdaimah's book is at its best in revealing the tensions among child care advocates., Adeep dive into the history of child care policy in the United States and an examination of the cultural forces which have influenced the debate as well as the lawmakers, advocates and stakeholders who have shaped the availability of child care in America today., [T]he book makes a scholarly contribution with its comprehensive approach and rich detail regarding the history and current status of child care policy. Use of policy theories, furthermore, contributes to our understanding of policymaking more broadly., This books main contribution, and it is a valuable one, is to illuminate some of the specific organizational and strategic hurdles that lie in the way of a universal, government-supported child care system. Many commentators have lamented the United States failure to establish such a system, and indeed, as noted above, the first part of the book is mainly a synthesis of the substantial literature examining child care policy both outside and inside the U.S. However, Palley and Shdaimahs research into what child care advocates actually think about their own work brings a unique perspective on this issue. Their discussion of these interviews, which happily includes a number of quotes from subjects, is both interesting and thought-provoking. Based on this research, the authors are able to offer a remarkably fine-grained critique of current advocacy efforts, along with very specific recommendations for change. In Our Hands was clearly a labor of love for its two authors . . . . The book is scholarly in tone and scope, but there is an underlying note of urgency that amplifies the authors arguments., This book offers an approachable, intelligent treatment of child care that is suitable for undergraduate and graduate academic audiences, activists, policymakers, and the general public.

Elizabeth Palley is Professor at the Adelphi School of Social Work. Corey S. Shdaimah is Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, School of Social Work.