Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0774808497, Paperback)

We think of our family life as very personal, but in fact it is shaped by influences well beyond our control. Families, Labour and Love identifies the ways in which family and personal life in three ‘settler’ societies, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, have been shaped by colonization, immigration, globalization, demographic changes, law and policy.

Baker shows that these three countries, each a former colony, developed similar family trends and similar family policies. The family practices of indigenous people were largely overlooked, as were those of recent immigrant groups. Strongly gendered patterns of paid and unpaid work played a major role in family life. Nevertheless, local conditions also produced significant differences in family experiences among the three countries.

Containing numerous examples, comparative data and textual sources, Families, Labour and Love provides a broad-ranging analysis of the family that will appeal to students, researchers, and policy-makers.