"In Care and Equality: Inventing a New Family Politics, social critic Mona Harrington addresses a huge contradiction at the center of American life: how our present caretaking system still depends heavily on women's at-home work, yet women's equality depends on their ability to engage fully in all of society's work and governance.

In an acute re-reading of the political landscape, Harrington reveals this knotted problem, which, gone unrecogniized, has set off a series of major controversies- from Zoe Baird, Jocelyn Elders, and Hillary Clinton and health care, to women in combat. She argues that, until we can see and respond to the complex conflicts of care and equality, we will face a mounting caretaking deficit and persistent inequality for women."

What makes this book particularly meaningful for working women is that the author details so precisely what the effects are on them when such a void in the national care system exists. Women who are already working longer and harder in the workplace, trying to keep pace with men who are paid more for the same work, must bear the brunt of caring for children and often elders at the same time. The support system of the past - grandmothers, aunts and sisters - the substitute caregivers, are also away from home and in the work place. Many women literally try to stretch their day to perform both jobs.

The author gives an example of a woman who left a high paying job in Silicon Valley to return home and care for her father who'd had a stroke. Her work included doing 4 loads of laundry a day, showering and diapering her father, struggling to fend off Medicare cut backs on his care, and finding herself "physically and emotionally exhausted, and professionally derailed for several years as the irregular hours of needed care compromised job opportunities."

The lack of care problem also affects children and spills over to the education system which now must assume new responsibilities of "baby sitting" children after school when there is no parent at home ; tutoring children whose parents don't have time to read to them; and taking on the tasks of teaching them about computer and phone safety and nutrition, since children are often left to make their own choices.

There must be a better way.

Author Harrington takes a broad based, societal view of the forces which brought about this care void women and our society as a whole, face today. She examines the attitudes and institutions which must be at the focus of change, if it is to come. Harrington points out provacative but enduring stereotypes which permeate our culture, such a that of the "warrior leader" whose masculine qualities of toughness are equated with leadership. She discusses the possibility of a shift in thinking about our leaders, moving away from the "warrior leader", an ancient ideal thought necessary for the survival of nations, ensuring a country will be not only combat ready, but "enemy-focused" to a new ideal of being "care-focused", building our own human resources to achieve strength.

This is a book working women should take to heart, because if we who are most affected by the problem, do not attempt to address it, who will do it for us, and when?

Mona Harrington, the author of three previous books, was educated at the Univeristy of Massachussetts and at Harvard University, where she received a law degree and a doctorate in political science. She has served as a lawyer in the State Department, raised three children, and taught political science and women's studies before turning to writing full-time. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.