About the Contributors

Maria Shriver is First Lady of California, an award-winning journalist and producer, best-selling author and mother of four. As First Lady, Shriver has created groundbreaking programs and initiatives that empower people to become “architects of change” in their own lives and in the lives of others. Shriver has used her voice to advocate on behalf of women, the working poor, the intellectually disabled and families like hers who are struggling with Alzheimer's disease.

Under Shriver's leadership, The Women's Conference has grown into the nation's premier forum for women, annually uniting more than 100 internationally acclaimed leaders and visionaries with 20,000 women from all walks of life to share enriching stories of transformation and success, inspirational life lessons, practical tips and life-changing tools. The Women's Conference expanded in 2009 to two full days. In 2004, Shriver created The Minerva Awards—named after the goddess Minerva on the California State Seal who epitomizes courage, wisdom, and strength—given annually at the conference to recognize and reward the achievements of women who make extraordinary contributions to their communities and the state. To extend the reach of the conference, Shriver also launched a dynamic online community at WomensConference.org with the goal of providing a daily gathering place for women everywhere to become architects of change.

With a career in journalism spanning more than two decades, Shriver has been a network news correspondent and anchor for CBS and NBC, winning Peabody and Emmy Awards. She is the author of six New York Times best-selling books. She recently executive produced HBO's “The Alzheimer's Project,” an Emmy Award-winning four-part documentary series that took a close look at cutting-edge work being done in the country's leading Alzheimer's laboratories and examined the effects of this disease on patients and families. Shriver is a graduate of Georgetown University, with a degree in American Studies.

Heather Boushey is senior economist at the Center for American Progress. Boushey studies working families and trends in the U.S. labor market. She has written extensively on labor issues, including tracking the recession and its impact on workers and their families, women's labor force participation, trends in income inequality, and work-family policy issues. She has testified for Congress and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about issues facing working families in this recession.

Prior to joining the Center, Boushey was a senior economist with the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress. She was formerly a senior economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Boushey received her Ph.D. in economics from the New School for Social Research and her bachelor's degree from Hampshire College.

Ann O'Leary is a senior fellow at American Progress and is the executive director of the Berkeley Center for Health, Economic & Family Security at University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. CHEFS' mission is to develop and advance creative solutions to address the economic risks faced by working Americans, with a focus on improving access to health care, developing better protections for workers who are voluntarily or involuntarily on leave from their jobs, and supporting working parents in a flexible workplace.

O'Leary previously served as a deputy city attorney for the City of San Francisco and clerked for the Honorable John T. Noonan Jr. on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. From 2001 through 2003, she served as legislative director for then-Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and from 1994 through 2000 she served in a number of positions in the Clinton administration, including as special assistant to the president on the Domestic Policy Council and as senior policy advisor to the deputy secretary of education. O'Leary received her bachelor's degree from Mount Holyoke College, her master's degree from Stanford University, and her law degree from UC Berkeley School of Law.

Karen Skelton is the executive co-producer and program director for the California Governor and First Lady's Women's Conference, managing all aspects of programming for the world's premier live event for women. She founded the California office of the Dewey Square Group, one of the country's leading public affairs firms, growing this multimillion dollar consulting practice from the ground up—specializing in political strategies and communications, energy and environmental policy, and government relations.

Skelton previously worked in the White House during the Clinton administration on the political staff and as a member of the defense team that argued against the impeachment of the president of the United States. Skelton served as the first director of political affairs for then-Vice President Al Gore, initiating and managing his first national political program in preparation for his 2000 election campaign. As a lawyer, Skelton prosecuted criminal cases at the U.S. Department of Justice as a special assistant U.S. attorney, and as a trial lawyer in the Division of Environmental Enforcement.  She was named chief counsel of the Federal Highway Administration in January 1999.  Skelton received her bachelor's degree with honors in English from UCLA, a master's from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. She currently serves on the boards of the California Arts Council and the UC Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies. 

Ed Paisley is vice president for editorial at the Center for American Progress. He is a 20-year veteran of business and finance journalism who joined the Center after successfully launching the specialist Wall Street print and Web publication The Deal as its managing editor. At The Deal, he was also responsible for the publication's award-winning coverage of technology finance and international finance.

Before moving to New York to launch The Deal in 1999, Paisley spent a decade in East Asia as an editor and journalist covering business, finance, and politics for the Far Eastern Economic Review and Institutional Investor magazine. Prior to that, he worked for American Banker newspaper in Washington, DC, covering domestic and international financial regulation. Paisley earned a master's degree in East Asian history from Georgetown University in 1984 and a bachelor's degree in American studies from George Mason University in 1982.

Laura Nichols is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a member of the Center's executive team. As one of the original architects of American Progress, she has contributed to building the institution, overseeing the construction of its communications operations, and leading its strategic planning since its founding in 2003. As senior fellow, she contributes to the Center's new media efforts and serves as a liaison to the progressive community, donors, and Capitol Hill. She is also a partner in First Tuesday Media, a media company based in Los Angeles that organizes the entertainment industry to produce political and advocacy media.

Nichols spent eight years as advisor, strategist, and spokesperson for former House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt. In those roles, she served as Gephardt's spokesperson and was responsible for developing and managing communications strategies on a wide variety of policy issues for House Democrats. Nichols also served as press secretary to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and former U.S. House Rep. Vic Fazio. She began her career in politics as the Iowa press secretary in 1988 for Gephardt's presidential campaign. Nichols is a graduate of the University of Missouri.

Leslie Miller is the co-executive director of “A Woman's Nation” project. She created, built, and managed the cultural components, media partnerships, and national reach of The Shriver Report. She is a veteran communications and political strategist and has worked for some of the most respected and high-profile organizations around the globe, including being a part of a senior communications team with the Obama presidential campaign.

Prior to joining the campaign, Miller led the Dewey Square Group's California practice in San Francisco for six years, where she specialized in government affairs and was strategic communications counsel. While there, Miller advised Fortune 500 companies and national foundations to develop internal community affairs programs and external affairs plans, and was a co-strategist in developing a bipartisan organization focused on transforming the political process in California. Miller also is a former producer for NBC News in Washington, DC. She covered the 1996 and 1998 elections, Congress, and the Clinton administration. Miller received her bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and resides in California.

Chapter Contributors

Jessica Arons is the director of the Women's Health and Rights Program at American Progress and a member of the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative. Prior to joining American Progress, she worked at the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, the labor and employment law firm of James & Hoffman, the Supreme Court of Virginia, the White House, and the 1996 Pennsylvania Democratic Coordinated Campaign. She currently serves on the boards of the DC Abortion Fund and the ACLU of Virginia. Arons is an honors graduate of Brown University and the William & Mary School of Law.

Stephanie Coontz teaches history and family studies at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, and is director of research and public education for the Council on Contemporary Families, which she chaired from 2001 to 2004. She is the author of several books, including Marriage, A History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage (Viking Press, 2005) and The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (Basic Books, 1992 and 2000). She recently completed a new book on the history of women from the 1920s through the 1960s and the impact of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (forthcoming 2010, Perseus Books). Coontz has testified about her research before the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families in Washington, DC, and addressed audiences across America, Japan, and Europe. Coontz received her bachelor's degree in American History at the Honors Program at the University of California Berkeley and her master's degree in European History at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Kelly Daley is a senior analyst at Abt SRBI, where she specializes in survey questionnaire design and data analysis across a variety of subject matters including public health, civic engagement, and women's studies. Prior to joining Abt SRBI, she was co-director of the University of Chicago Survey Lab. She has been responsible for multiple survey research projects, cognitive testing, pilot studies and qualitative work including focus groups, observational field work, and in-depth interviews. Daley holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago and a master's degree in policy studies from The Johns Hopkins University. Her Ph.D. dissertation examined the impact of the women's movement and the sexual revolution on the attitudes and behaviors of women who came of age prior to 1960. Prior to her graduate studies, she worked with numerous San Francisco nonprofit organizations to help improve access to health care and raise awareness of women's health issues.

Susan Douglas is the chair of the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Michigan, as well as the Catherine Neafie Kellogg Professor and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Communication Studies. She is author of a number of books, including most recently Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message That Feminism's Work Is Done (Henry Holt, forthcoming, March 2010), as well as The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How it Has Undermined Women (with Meredith Michaels, The Free Press, 2004). Douglas received her bachelor's degree from Elmira College (Phi Beta Kappa) and her master's degree and Ph.D. from Brown University. She has lectured at colleges and universities around the country and was the media critic for The Progressive from 1992 to 1998.

Maria Echaveste joined University of California's Berkeley School of Law as a lecturer after co-founding a strategic and policy consulting group, serving as a senior White House and U.S. Department of Labor official, and working as a community leader and corporate attorney. She is also a senior fellow with the Law School's Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity. From 1998 to 2001, she served as assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. Echaveste is also a non-resident fellow of the Center for American Progress working on issues such as immigration, civil rights, and education. She continues to provide strategic and policy advice to a variety of corporate, non-profit and union clients through her consulting firm, NVG, LLC. Echaveste received a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from Stanford University in 1976 in 1980, and her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

John Halpin is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress focusing on political theory, communications, and public opinion analysis. He is the co-director and creator of the Progressive Studies Program at CAP, an interdisciplinary project researching the intellectual history, foundational principles, and public understanding of progressivism. Halpin is the co-author with John Podesta of The Power of Progress: How America's Progressives Can (Once Again) Save Our Economy, Our Climate, and Our Country, a 2008 book about the history and future of the progressive movement. Prior to joining CAP, he was a senior associate at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, providing strategic guidance and public opinion research for political parties and candidates including Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, the British Labor Party, the Austrian Social Democrats, and a range of congressional, state legislative, and initiative campaigns. Halpin received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and his master's degree in political science from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Brad Harrington is the executive director of the Boston College Center for Work & Family and an associate professor of organization studies in the Carroll School of Management. Prior to his arrival at Boston College, Harrington was an executive with Hewlett-Packard Company for 20 years. His roles there included global director of management and organization development, chief quality officer and member of the executive committee for HP's Medical Products Business, and quality director for Hewlett-Packard United Kingdom, Ltd., as well as a number of human resource management positions. Along with Professor Douglas T. Hall of Boston University, he is the author of Career Management & Work/Life Integration: Using Self-Assessment to Navigate Contemporary Careers (Sage Publications, 2007). Harrington holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Stonehill College, a master's degree in psychology from Boston College, and a Ph.D. in human resource development and organization development from Boston University.

Michael Kimmel is among the leading researchers and writers on men and masculinity in the world today. A professor of sociology at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, his many books include The Politics of Manhood (1995), The Gender of Desire (2005), and The History of Men (2005). His documentary history, Against the Tide: Pro-Feminist Men in the United States, 1776-1990 (Beacon, 1992), chronicled men who supported women's equality since the founding of the country. His most recent best-selling book, Guyland (HarperCollins, 2008), charts the emergence of a new stage of development among young people. Kimmel consults regularly with non-governmental organizations, corporations, and governments concerning men's issues. He was in the first coeducational class at Vassar College, where he received his bachelor's degree. He received his master's degree at Brown and his Ph.D. at the University of California Berkeley.

Karen Kornbluh was a visiting fellow at the Center for American Progress working on environmental technology financing and work-family policies when she wrote this chapter. Previously, she served as policy director in then-Sen. Obama's Senate office, beginning in 2005. Prior to that, Kornbluh founded the Work and Family Program at the New America Foundation, where she was also a Markle technology fellow and published widely on the need to update government policies for the new family and new economy. From 1994 to 1997, she filled several roles at the Federal Communications Commission, including assistant chief of the International Bureau, director of the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs, and deputy chief of the Mass Media Bureau. Kornbluh received a master's degree from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor's degree from Bryn Mawr College.

Jamie J. Ladge is a faculty member in the College of Business at Northeastern University, where she teaches in the areas of management and organizational development. Ladge is a faculty affiliate of the Boston College Center for Work and Family and an Alfred P. Sloan Work-Family Career Development Award Grantee for the 2009-2011 academic years. Her primary research interests are at the intersection of careers, identity, and work-life integration. Her most recent research work has been published in academic journals such as Organizational Dynamics, Journal of Vocational Behavior, and Negotiation and Conflict Management Research Journal. She also has published a number of Harvard Business School cases and was recently cited in a 2009 article in The Wall Street Journal on parents re-entering the workplace. Ladge earned her B.S. from Babson College, an M.B.A. from Simmons College, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Boston College.

Courtney E. Martin is the award-winning author of Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: How the Quest for Perfection is Harming Young Women (Berkley Books, 2008). She is also a widely-read freelance journalist and regular blogger for Feministing. She is a senior correspondent for The American Prospect and her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Newsweek, and The Christian Science Monitor, among others. In addition, Martin consults with social justice organizations, including the Ms. Foundation for Women, the National Council for Research on Women, and the Bartos Institute for the Constructive Engagement of Conflict. Martin has a master's degree from the Gallatin School at New York University in writing and social change and a bachelor's degree from Barnard College in political science and sociology. She is a fellow of both the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership and the Women's Media Center.

Kimberly Morgan is associate professor of political science and international affairs at The George Washington University. She received her Ph.D. in political science from Princeton University in 2001 and was a post-doctoral fellow at New York University and Yale University before coming to George Washington. She teaches courses on European politics, comparative politics, and comparative social policy. In 2008-09, Morgan was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Her book Working Mothers and the Welfare State: Religion and the Politics of Work-Family Policies in Western Europe and the United States was published in 2006 by Stanford University Press, and her articles have appeared in numerous academic journals. Currently, she and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Andrea Louise Campbell are completing a book titled The Delegated Welfare State: Medicare, Markets, and the Governance of American Social Policy (forthcoming, Oxford University Press).

Mary Ann Mason is currently professor and co-director of the Berkeley Center on Health, Economic & Family Security at the University of California Berkeley School of Law. Mason's scholarship spans working families, in particular the issues faced by the surging numbers of professional women in law, medicine, science, and the academic world. Her most recent book (co-authored with her daughter Eve Mason Ekman) is Mothers on the Fast Track: How a New Generation Can Balance Family and Careers (Oxford, 2007). Among her other books are two major works on child custody, From Father's Property to Children's Rights: The History of Child Custody in the United States (Columbia University Press, 1994) and The Custody Wars: Why Children are Losing the Legal Battle—and What We Can Do About It (Basic Books, 1999). Mason received a bachelor's degree cum laude from Vassar College, a Ph.D. in American history from the University of Rochester, and a J.D. from the University of San Francisco.

Susan H. Pinkus is the president of S.H. Pinkus Associates, a public opinion company. She was previously director of the LATimes poll at the Los Angeles Times. She is a past member of Executive Council of American Association of Public Opinion Researchers and past president of Pacific Chapter. She is also a member of the National Women's Media Foundation, the World Association for Public Opinion Research, and a trustee on the National Council on Public Polls. She is on the Board of Directors at the Roper Center and serves on the Journalism Advisory Committee at SUNY Albany. Pinkus earned her bachelor's degree at the State University of New York at Albany, and completed post-graduate work toward an MBA at City University of New York, Baruch College.

Dorothy Roberts is the Kirkland & Ellis Professor at Northwestern University School of Law, with joint appointments in African American Studies, Sociology, and the Institute for Policy Research. She is author of the award-winning books Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty (Vintage Books, 1998) and Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare (Basic Books, 2003), as well as six co-edited texts and more than 70 articles and essays in books and scholarly journals, including Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review, and Yale Law Journal. Roberts also serves on the boards of directors of the Black Women's Health Imperative, National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, and Generations Ahead, as well as on the executive committee of Cells to Society: The Center on Social Disparities and Health, the Braam foster care oversight panel in Washington State, and the Standards Working Group of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Roberts received a bachelor's degree from Yale College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Jamal Simmons emerged from the 2008 election as one of the new young voices in the world of political analysis. With an extensive background in Democratic politics and international affairs, he was a strong supporter of Barack Obama's campaign and became a fixture on CNN's political coverage. Simmons is a principal at the Raben Group, where he provides strategic and communications counsel to the firm's clients. Previously, Simmons was a senior aide to several Democratic political campaigns and served as chief of staff to Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI), senior advisor to Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA), and as a political appointee in the Clinton administration under U.S. Trade Representative and Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor. Simmons received his bachelor's degree from Morehouse College and his master's in public policy from the Kennedy School at Harvard University.

Sally Steenland is senior policy advisor to the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative at American Progress. In 2005, she organized the Initiative's “national conversations,” a series of town-hall meetings and discussions across the country on pressing issues of faith and policy. She guides the Initiative's work on a variety of policy issues, including faith and science, the role of religion in the public square, diversity and tolerance, economics, the environment, and cultural and social matters. Previously, Steenland was deputy director of the National Commission on Working Women, where she wrote major studies on women's employment and women in the media and directed projects involving women in nonprofessional jobs. Steenland received a bachelor's degree in English from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI, and a master's in education from Howard University.

Ruy Teixeira is a senior fellow at both the Century Foundation and American Progress, where he co-directs the Progressive Studies Program. He is the author or co-author of six books, including Red, Blue and Purple America: The Future of Election Demographics (Brookings Institution Press, 2008); The Emerging Democratic Majority (Scribner, 2002); America's Forgotten Majority: Why the White Working Class Still Matters (Basic Books, 2000); and The Disappearing American Voter (Brookings Institution Press, 1992), as well as hundreds of articles, both scholarly and popular. Teixeira's recent writings include “New Progressive America,” “The Decline of the White Working Class and the Rise of a Mass Upper Middle Class” (with Alan Abramowitz), “The Politics of Definition” (with John Halpin), “Back to the Future: The Emerging Democratic Majority Re-emerges” (with John Judis), and the New Politics Institute reports, “The Next Frontier: A New Study of Exurbia” and “The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation.”