By Kathleen Christensen, Ph.D. Kathleen Christensen, Ph.D. is the Program Director for the Workforce, Workplace and Working Families Program at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Dr. Christensen has articulated funding strategies designed to have an impact on our understandings of work and family issues and to promote innovative approaches to research. Over the past six years, Dr. Christensen has continued to refine these strategies so that they continue to challenge research, practice, teaching, and policy. In each issue of the Work-Family Research On-line Newsletter, Dr. Christensen shares her insights about research trends and emergent work and family challenges. In addition, her column discusses the cutting-edge strategies developed by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to enhance the well-being of today's working families. For the past few decades, scholars have questioned and de-con- structed the myth of the American melting pot. As we replaced the melting pot metaphor with an image of a complex mosaic, researchers increasingly focused their attention to the some- times dramatic, sometimes nuanced differences in the work and family experiences of ethnic groups, socio-economic groups, age cohorts, religious groups, and residents of particular geo- graphic regions. Kathleen Christensen, Ph.D. EXPANDING THE WORK-FAMILY RESEARCH LENS table of contents reflections from sloan by Kathleen Christensen, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation ................................................1 introduction to the issue by Mark Auslander, Emory University ................................................................1 work-family research lens: focusing on women of color , Jennifer Tucker and Leslie Wolfe, Center for Women Policy Studies ........................................5 conducting applied research to create change for women of color Katherine Giscombe, Catalyst ......7 observations on work/family research on gay and lesbian couples: Christopher Carrington, San Francisco State University ............................................9 families and social capital: moving outside the standard focus Ros Edwards, ESCR Research Group ..............................................................................11 “expanding the horizons”: center for working families, berkeley Barrie Thorne, UC Berkeley ..............13 studying diverse populations A Conversation with Author Lynet Uttal ( Making Care Work , 2002) ..................15 recent events..............................................................17 upcoming events........................................................19 research updates ...................................................... 21 continued, p2 Work-Family Kaleidoscopes reflections from the sloan foundation Sloan Work and Family Research Network Providing resources ■ Supporting a community ■ Building knowledge Fall 2002 ■ Volume 4(3) boston college expanding the work-family research lens About the issue For this issue, we posed the following question to a number of scholars: “Please consider the importance of expanding the work and family research lens to include various population groups, in particular those that are understudied.” We are grateful for the thought-provoking responses that we received. We extend a special thanks to Mark Auslander, guest writer, for writing the introduction to the issue. Auslander skillfully weaves the work and family experiences of people of color with a call for researchers to take difference seriously. We are confident this issue will provoke some interesting discussions and hopeful that it will stimulate some useful research questions. introduction to the issue continued, p2 www.bc.edu/wfnetwork How much of a difference does race make in the study of work-family relations among the American middle class? The question makes many scholars uncomfortable, as well it should, for “race” (whatever this complex term is taken to mean) remains not only the outstanding conundrum of American public life but is among the most difficult problems to theorize in the social sciences. Most white Americans assume that several decades of affirmative action programs and Taking Difference Seriously: Considering Race in Work-Family Studies By Mark Auslander Mark Auslander, Ph.D. Emory University