What is missing from the literature and for that matter, from policy discussions, is a wider, more comprehensive picture and deeper understanding of work-family conflicts experienced by the millions of less privileged Americans who want to work more but cannot. Jacobs and Gerson address this lacuna, examining five overlapping time divides based on large-scale quantitative data sets and cross-national comparisons of American workers and workplaces with their counterparts in America and Europe. While the intersections of time, work, family, and gender have been articulated by a number of sociologists, Jacobs and Gerson fill an important void in work-family conflict scholarship, both methodologically and substantively . Refraining from indulgent idealisms of total system overhauls, the authors present material solutions that are both feasible and promising . This book presents an original thesis supported with extensive quantitative research, cross-national data, and an incisive analysis of the key debates and issues surrounding work-family conflict in the academic and policy arenas Jacobs and Gerson have produced a useful piece of scholarship that will inform scholars in the fields of family, gender, and work, as well as public policy analysts. This is a thoughtful, coherent, and accessible book that is required reading for those interested in the balances of work and family; they should make time for The Time Divide .