A Sociologist and Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jessica is an award-winning teacher, a leading expert on inequalities in family life and education, and the author of Holding it Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net (Portfolio/Penguin, 2024).
Her previous books include Qualitative Literacy: A Guide to Evaluating Ethnographic and Interview Research (with Mario Small; University of California Press, 2022), Negotiating Opportunities: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School (Oxford University Press, 2018), and A Field Guide to Grad School: Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum (Princeton University Press, 2020).
Jessica has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and CNN. She also writes the Hidden Curriculum newsletter and is a mom of two young kids.
Holding It Together
How Women Became America’s Safety Net
Other countries have social safety nets. The U.S. has women.
Tracing present-day policies back to their roots, Holding It Together reveals a systematic agreement to DIY society and persuade Americans to accept precarity while women bear the brunt. Drawing on more than five years of research, including 400 hours of interviews and surveys with more than 4000 families, Calarco leads us to see how women's labor allows the US to get by without the social safety nets that our peer nations take for granted and challenges the myths intended to delude us into believing that we don't need a social safety net and divide us by race, class, gender, religion, and politics in ways that prevent us from coming together to demand dignity and care for all.
America runs on women—women who are tasked with holding society together at the seams and fixing it when things fall apart. A widowed single mother struggles to patch together meager public benefits while working three jobs; an aunt is pushed into caring for her niece and nephew at age fifteen once their family is shattered by the opioid epidemic; a daughter becomes the backstop caregiver for her mother, her husband, and her child because of the perceived flexibility of her job; a well-to-do couple grapples with the moral dilemma of leaning on overworked, underpaid childcare providers to achieve their egalitarian ideals. Stories of grief and guilt abound. Yet, they are more than individual tragedies, and these stories also offer reasons for hope.
Weaving eye-opening original research with revelatory sociological narrative, Holding It Together is a bold call to demand the institutional change that each of us deserves, and a warning about the perils of living without it.
Read excerpts of the book on how our DIY Society hurts women and how the Mars/Venus myth allows men to exploit women without guilt.
Read reviews of the book in The Atlantic, Kirkus Reviews, and Early Learning Nation.
books
featured writing
media appearances
recent and upcoming events
September 25, 2024
Institute for Public Knowledge, New York, NY
Join the Institute for Public Knowledge on September 25th at 5:30 PM for a book talk with Jessica Calarco. She will discuss her new book Holding it Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net with Kathleen Gerson and Rhacel Salazar Parreñas.
Date and Time: September 25, 2024, 5:30-7pm Eastern Time
Location: register here for the free virtual event
September 26, 2024
Library of Congress, Washington, DC
“Other countries have safety nets. The United States has women.” —Jessica Calarco
How did we get here? And what will it take to make the policy changes that American women need to stop being the safety net and start thriving?
Join Vote Mama Foundation and The Century Foundation on Thursday, September 26, at the Library of Congress for the launch of Vote Mama's newest report, Politics of Parenthood: State Legislatures 2024, featuring a discussion with author Jessica Calarco on her new book, Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net.
We will share the latest data on the representation of moms in state legislatures across the country and lead a hopeful discussion on the breakthrough structural solutions that will allow us not only to increase representation for women and moms but also finally invest in the care economy and other family-friendly policies that America needs.
Coffee and breakfast will be provided.
All public areas of the venue are accessible. Accessible restrooms are located in the building.
If you would like to request accommodations to ensure maximum inclusion or have questions about accessibility, please note in your RSVP.
Speakers:
Representative Jennifer McClellan (D-VA)
Jessica Calarco, professor of sociology, University of Wisconsin and author of Holding It Together: How Women Became America's Safety Net
Liuba Grechen Shirley, founder & CEO, Vote Mama Foundation
Julie Kashen, director, women's economic justice and senior fellow, The Century Foundation
Victoria Pelletier, national partnerships manager, RepresentWomen and Portland City Councilor
Presented by Vote Mama Foundation and The Century Foundation.
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FIRST-COME, FIRST-SEATED. RSVP is required. We generally overbook to ensure a full house. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 minutes before the start time. After the event starts all registered seats are released regardless of registration, so we recommend that you arrive early. Please do not hold seats. Please note: policy is subject to change.
Date and Time: Thursday, September 26, 9-11am Eastern
Location: Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street Southeast, Room LJ-162 Washington, DC 20003
Register: the event is free, but RSVPs are required
September 30, 2024
Family Action Network Virtual Event
Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net
America runs on women—women who are tasked with holding society together at the seams and fixing it when things fall apart. In this tour de force, acclaimed sociologist Jessica Calarco, Ph.D. lays bare the devastating consequences of our status quo.
Calarco will be in conversation with Heidi Stevens, Director of External Affairs for the University of Chicago’s TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health, and creative director for Parent Nation, an initiative of the TMW Center. Prior to joining TMW, Stevens worked at the Chicago Tribune for 23 years, where she wrote a daily column called “Balancing Act.” She maintains a weekly nationally syndicated column. Stevens also serves as a FAN board member.
This event suitable for youth 12+. It will be recorded and available on FAN’s website and YouTube channel.
BONUS AFTER-HOURS EVENT: Attendees who purchase a copy of Holding It Together from FAN’s partner bookseller The Book Stall are invited to attend an AFTER-HOURS event hosted by Calarco and Stevens that will start immediately after the webinar. Details on the webinar registration page
Date and Time: Monday, September 30th at 7pm Central