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Idea

Recognizing that families that used to be of the rigid breadwinner-homemaker model had become two breadwinners or a single breadwinner, �鶹������ý Fellow Karen Kornbluh popularized the idea that American policy had not changed to keep up, proposing a series of policies to address this gap.

Incubation

Kornbluh wrote her 2001 Washington Post piece “The Mommy Tax” shortly before coming to �鶹������ý, citing the work of Joan Williams and Jane Waldfogel. While many had examined this arena, �鶹������ý was the first to frame it as part of a changing economy. �鶹������ý Senior Policy Analyst Lauren Damme proposed paid family leave as part of the Next Social Contract Initiative. Building on those foundations, �鶹������ý launched the Better Life Lab. In 2016, the program released the �鶹������ý Care Report, which maps the cost, quality, and accessibility of childcare, and it has since worked to change the way we think about the intersection of gender, work, and social and economic policy through rigorous analysis, practical toolkits, and data-driven storytelling.

Impact

Work from �鶹������ý authors has changed the national conversation around women, work, family, and care issues. In 2012, when she was still a �鶹������ý board member, current CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter wrote the groundbreaking Atlantic article, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” which re-launched a national conversation about gender equality. That same year, Fellow Liza Mundy wrote The Richer Sex, which explores how women’s rising economic power affects the dynamics of marriage, dating, work, and home life. Two years later, in 2014, Fellow Brigid Schulte wrote Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time, which argues that workplaces have created a culture that is less productive and less happy. And with her 2015 book, Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family, Slaughter argues that gender equality can never be achieved until societies value care work as much as career work, with prescriptions for government, workplaces, and couples. This work continues within our Better Life Lab program, which actively works for culture change on these issues via its channel on Slate and the Better Life Lab podcast.