If I had a dollar, or maybe only a dime, for every word that has been penned about solutions for “balancing work and family,” my personal wealth would be approaching that of Alice Walton. As with many dilemmas central to capitalism, the policy solutions offered over the past thirty years appear sensible; yet, like the carousel’s brass ring, they remain ever beyond our grasp.

The Nordic welfare states appeared for a while to provide a shining example of family-friendly capitalism. There is no doubt that this model benefited working-class women and single mothers.

Yet while appreciating the high-quality childcare, paid parental leave, and other policies that facilitated mothers’ engagement in paid labor, feminist critics argued that these measures tended to aggravate occupational segregation along gender lines, limit women’s employment in the private sector, and reproduce the gender division of labor in the household. This held true even in Sweden, where additional months of parental leave were offered if taken by men.