The work/life collision : what work is doing to Australians and what to do about it / Barbara Pocock.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The work/life collision -- Mapping labour, households and care -- Work is reconfiguring our communities -- Mother wars : the market meets sacred motherhood -- The hidden costs of work : love, intimacy and work -- Long hours : family unfriendliness at work -- Short hours : choice and security at work -- Caring for those who depend on us -- Combining work and life: the role of leave -- Countering the collision: what we can do now.

"Longer working hours, insecure jobs, child care, declining birth rates, parental leave, the 'mummy track', the success or failure of feminism - the levels of passion, vitriol, despair and guilt these subjects engender attest to the importance Australians place on them, and rightly so. Their effects go beyond how we feel: they affect vital economic and demographic trends. The Work/Life Collision, grounded in thorough quantitative and qualitative research, analyses how these factors affect each other, in particular the collision of work and care and its implications for how we live. Pocock demonstrates how the existing 'work/care' regime that shapes how we live and work has high social costs - for mothers, fathers, families and those who want to be both workers and carers. She weighs the hidden costs of how we live and work now - costs that can be measured in bedrooms, kitchens, workplaces and streetscapes - and in our declining birth rate and embedded gender inequality"--Provided by publisher.

Goes further than just explaining our growing anxiety about quality of life, despite the evidence of unmatched material wealth. Pocock proposes ways in which a new work/care regime can be built.

Machine converted from AACR2 source record.