ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The purpose of this book is to work toward gender justice and equality by exploring organizational work-life policies and practices. The use of work-life policies is highly dependent on gender, race, and class. Focusing on men in a gender justice project about work-life issues may seem counterintuitive, as most research presents work-life as a concern of women. A dramatic increase of women into the paid workforce created shockwaves in the demographics of U.S. workers. In U.S. organizations, the few women who have achieved executive status most often do not have children and, as such, have a different understanding of work-life balance than working mothers. New family patterns including dual-income families, single-parent families, and female-breadwinner families exist in the context of increases in women in the workplace, a rising divorce rate, a rising number of never-married parents, and male unemployment.
