Kidding Ourselves: Breadwinning, Babies, and Bargaining Power

Lawyer and freelance journalist Mahony argues that women will attain high-skill, high-wage, high-status jobs only after the unequal gender division of labor in the home has melted away. Both a stimulating feminist critique and an empowering handbook for those seeking real, practical equality between women and men, this highly accessible book uses game theory and case histories of marriages to show how women can change the balance of power through negotiating strategies to persuade their men to do more housework and accept parenting responsibilities. Mahony also uses cross-cultural studies of fathers in traditional cultures (Malaysia, Trobriand Islands, etc.) and of babies raised by men in two-parent families in Sweden, Australia, the U.S. and Israel in support of her thesis that men can be just as tender and competent parents as women. (June)