Under the Bus

February 15, 2015
Examination of the inequalities women still face in the workforce.As president of the American Constitution Society and former director of the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union, Fredrickson understands the complex laws regarding fairness in labor practices. In this extensive analysis of gender equity and protection in the workplace, the author exposes the large proportion of workers, primarily women of color, who have slipped through the grid of legislative laws and who do not receive the same rights as other working women and, particularly, men. This large group consists of women working part-time or as independent contractors, domestic help taking care of children and/or the elderly, waitresses, hairstylists, office cleaners, receptionists and secretaries, and any others who fill many of the minimum-wage jobs in the United States. Fredrickson examines how current laws have undoubtedly helped many women but still allow this section of society to be excluded from basic practices such as child care and paid maternity. The author uses personal stories to demonstrate the widespread unfairness found in the workforce-e.g., women being fired for getting pregnant or requesting time off to take care of a sick child, those who have suffered sexual harassment, then are fired when they instigate lawsuits against the perpetrator. "We have definitely not reached the promised land," writes the author. "More and more of our jobs lack benefits; fewer of us are part of a union; almost none of us have decent or affordable child care; many are denied sick days or family leave and are forced to sign away their remaining protections to get or keep a job." Women comprise 63.9 percent of "breadwinners or co-breadwinners," and Fredrickson effectively bares all the loopholes and fallacies in America's policies toward this significant, but often underappreciated and underrepresented, piece of the national workforce. Informative, occasionally shocking exploration of the state of women's rights in the workplace.

April 1, 2015

A legal advocate for women in Washington, DC, Fredrickson (president, American Constitution Soc.) shifts the current focus on professional women to those working in the lowest tier of the labor force, who are disproportionately women of color: caregivers, domestic workers, sales clerks, and farm laborers. Despite a considerable number of labor laws and antidiscrimination statutes passed since the 1930s, which Fredrickson describes briefly, these workers still do dangerous work for small wages, without benefits or protection from illegal practices and sexual harassment, thanks to loopholes and lax enforcement. Employers can reclassify workers as part-time or contract labor, eliminating the need to pay benefits. To accommodate family needs, federal law requires only unpaid leave (and for only 12 weeks) for health, family care, or pregnancy; women often can't afford to take this leave. Childcare is unregulated, unreliable, expensive, or unavailable. Fredrickson offers the standard solutions: closing loopholes, more unionization, increased expansive laws, larger investments in early childhood education, and a more effective social movement. She also proposes "shaming" the United States by emphasizing how meager are the benefits offered to families compared to other nations (alas, an unsuccessful tactic so far). VERDICT A readable and concise summary for the curious layperson.--Cynthia Harrison, George Washington Univ., Washington, DC

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2015
Fredricksonreports that most references to women and their struggle to combine work and family are implicitly limited to professional women. Our culture allows us to blame women for their status, saying they must lean in because they aren't tough enough and need to change themselves to succeed. Or, women leave the workforce, opting out because they can't have it all. Rather, the author indicates that most women juggle their desperate need to earn money with costly child care, noting that the law does not protect certain groups of workers, including domestic-service and minimum-wage earners. Overall, the working population has grown significantly more female, diverse in race and ethnicity, and older, writes Fredrickson, who recommends leaning together and urges modernizing the definition of employee so the law applies to any designationtemp, independent contractor, or part-timer. Also, family leave should be available for all parents, and child care for all children. This excellent book will contribute to ongoing discussions concerning women in the workplace.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)