The Baby Boon: How Family-Friendly America Cheats the Childless

by Elinor Burkett

Book Overview

Americans are on a demographic collision course between the growing numbers of mothers in the workforce and the swelling ranks of a new interest group: childless adults. Armed with hard data and grassroots reporting, Elinor Burkett points the way to a more equitable future.

With an inside look at what some companies are already doing to redress the grievances of childless workers and a hard assessment of what the truly needy -- children...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743242645
• ISBN13: 9780743242646
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Required Reading

Preaching to the choir of the childfree, this book should be required reading for every CEO and politician touting "family-friendly" policies within a very narrow definition of what constitutes a "family," and for every parent who thinks that their rights include stepping on everyone else "for the good of the (my) children."There's a revolution brewing, and Burkett is the leading the charge. No longer will the childfree sit back and take it while parents run roughshod over them.

A must read for both parents and the childfree!

Elinor's book is a real eye-opener, pointing out the inequalities which exist in our child worshipping society today that affect not only the childfree, but the lower income families as well. Her facts and figures point to a trend in America which has been in the making for nearly 30 years. A trend which shows the changes in parental values from children once being considered a privilege and a responsibility to being viewed by wealthy "gotta have it all" parents as a loss in careers, time and money. Losses which the middle and upper income parents expect to be compensated for at the expense of the lower-income families and the childfree. The Baby Boon explains how the poor families and their children gain nothing from all the sugar-coated "family-friendly" policies being offered by the politicians and how the childfree have been reduced to second-class citizens.

It's About Time!

This book was highly recommended by the posters on the many Childfree bulletin boards available online. The author addresses many issues the childfree have noticed for years, and also uncovers other shocking inequities most of us never considered. For example, she reports that in the state of Oregon, there are higher penalties for domestic violence against a mother than against a childfree woman! She also explores the origins of the entitlement mentality that middle and upper class parents have assumed in the last 30 years. I bought not one, but TWO copies. One copy was placed in the reading rack in the breakroom at my work. After my husband finishes reading the second copy, he's going to put it in the lending library in the lounge at his Union Hall. If you feel you encounter discrimination at work, and your workplace has a lounge or break area, make sure to leave the book there after you read it. Libraries could use copies too! It's a progressive, highly researched piece. BUY EXTRA COPIES, FRIENDS! This is our chance to do something!

Politicians Take Note

Every politician and CEO in the country should read this book. Elinor Burkett does an excellent analysis of allegedly "family-friendly" and "for the children" policies, exposing the underlying hypocrisy of the people espousing these policies. Burkett sounds the wake-up call for this country to realize that "family friendly" means middle and upper-middle class parent friendly and "for the children" means middle and upper-middle class children. The truly needy continue to go hungry and uneducated while politicians fall over themselves to offer "breaks" to those who can well afford to raise their own children. And of course, all these "breaks" are paid for by those without children. Burkett does a wonderful job in detailing how affirmative action for parents results in discrimination against those without children and the demise of the concept of equal pay for equal work. Everyone, those without children and those with children, should read this book and decide whether this country can continue to support such rampant discrimination against those without children.

Finally! The book for which I have been wishing!

I just received my copy of this book tonight and I'm already half-way through it. Hats off to Elinor Burkett for researching so thoroughly and writing so compellingly about the coming social battle growing in the United States and elsewhere around the world. In an era of rampant pro-natalism and selfish 'gotta-have-it-alls', Burkett examines the moralistic rhetoric used by parents to obfuscate the truth and by politicians to justify blatant discrimination against the childless. For any of you tired of being shortchanged - financially, emotionally, politically, etc. - just because you don't have children, this book will be 'preaching to the choir', but very informative and enjoyable, nonetheless. Send a copy to your congressional representatives and remind them that childless people are the fastest-growing demographic in this country!