2: Attorney and writer MARY FRANCES BERRY. She's also a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and a professor of history and law at the University of Pennsylvania. She was formerly the assistant secretary for education in the Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare. She's written a new book about the tradition of "mother-care" in our society, the notion that women have prinicipal responsibility for childcare. The book is, "The Politics of Parenthood: Child Care, Women's Rights, and the Myth of the Good Mother," (Viking). BERRY argues that women have not always traditionally been responsible for taking care of children, but that society has become accustomed to the arrangement and the existing power structure reinforces it.
Copyright 1993 Fresh Air