Family Policy and the American Safety Net

Janet Zollinger Giele (AB, Earlham College; PhD, Harvard University) is Professor Emerita of Sociology, Social Policy, and Women¿s Studies at Brandeis University.  She was the founding director of the Family and Children¿s Policy Center in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management (1990-1996) and Acting Dean of the Heller School in 1993-94. In the 1960s, she taught at Wellesley College and in the 1970s was a Bunting Fellow at Radcliffe and Principal Consultant to the Ford Foundation Task Force on Women. She has received grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation, National Institute on Aging, Lilly Endowment, Rockefeller and Ford Foundations.  In 2000, she was honored by Radcliffe with the Graduate Society Medal.  The author or editor of ten books, her special areas of interest are  women¿s changing roles, methods of life course research, and sociology of the family and family policy. Since 1976 when she joined the faculty of the Heller School, she has directed over thirty doctoral dissertations and is currently writing a guidebook on doctoral research and the earmarks of a good dissertation.

Family Policy and the American Safety Net shows how families adapt to economic and demographic change. Government programs provide a safety net against the new risks of modern life. Family policy includes any

IntroductionChapter 1: The Emergence of Family Policy in AmericaChapter 2: Defining the FamilyChapter 3: The Gender FactorChapter 4: The Re-Invention of CaregivingChapter 5: Family Income and Economic SecurityChapter 6: Housing, Neighborhoods, and Life ChancesChapter 7: Family Heritage, Identity, and CitizenshipChapter 8: Family, Government, and the Safety Net