Ellen Galinsky, President of the Families and Work Institute, well-known author, and leading work-family researcher, has devoted her life to improving the lives of parents and children as well as the professionals who teach and take care of children.
Ellen Galinsky takes on one after another of the problems that parents and children face—improving birth practices, child care, children’s education, and the work and family lives of parents. She has helped give parents greater support and a voice in the issues they face in raising children. Now she is working to give young people a greater voice in the issues they face growing up.
In a world where parenting and teaching are not truly valued, Ellen Galinsky has also worked to create respect for those in the fields of childcare and children’s education. And in a world where, according to a recent national study, children are seen as "rude, irresponsible, and wild," she is working to turn these attitudes around so that children and childhood are respected as well.
Where does this come from? I know she has been inspired by her mother (my grandmother) an amazing woman now almost 97 years old. I also know that Ellen was brought up to ask hard questions, to seek the truth, and to serve.
The real turning point in her life occurred when she herself became a parent. A normal pregnancy suddenly changed into a difficult one. Cut off, confined to bed for almost six months, she was dependent on the institutions that introduce women and men into parenthood—doctors, nurses, and hospitals.
When her son Philip (my brother) was born two months early, weighing two pounds fifteen ounces, he spent the first six weeks of his life in an intensive care nursery. This was 34 years ago, and most hospitals prohibited parents from having any physical contact with their babies. Ellen knew from her background in child development and from her work at Bank Street College of Education that this was wrong, but she and her husband were confined to looking at their baby through a nursery window.
That experience began her odyssey to change the way that parents are inducted into parenthood and children begin their lives. She started by bringing about improvements in smaller ways—getting her hospital to change its rules, writing a book for other parents of premature children (Beginnings) and joining forces with Bernice Weissbourd of Family Focus in Chicago and others in 1981 to help establish the Family Resource Coalition of America (now Family Support America), a leading voice for parents in this country. And she wrote the seminal book on parent development, The Six Stages of Parenthood.
Her experiences in trying to find good care for Philip when she went back to work at Bank Street College affected her life as well. This induction to another of the rites of parenthood was difficult as well, especially since choices uncovered are often grim.
Ellen set out to bring about change. Again, she wrote a book based on a study of exemplary childcare, The New Extended Family: Day Care that Works and she served as President of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (the largest professional group of early childhood educators) and worked with others to pass the most comprehensive childcare legislation in this country: the Childcare and Development Block Grant.
Ellen’s path has also included research because she sees the power of rigorous data in bringing about change in this Information Age. She has initiated many studies, including a number of studies of early education and care. Currently, she is working on a 13-part television series called “Mind in the Making”, bringing the best science to light on how young children really learn. In addition, she was a principal writer of the Business Roundtable and Corporate Voices for Working Families’ policy statement on early education.
Ellen has spent the past 20 years addressing work and family life issues. In 1989, she co-founded with Dana Friedman a non-profit organization, the Families and Work Institute and has served as President since 1996. The Institute is known for its comprehensive, cutting edge studies on employees and employers as well as on topics such as childcare and eldercare, time and leave flexibility, organizational culture, and the quality of jobs. It is known, too, for tackling controversial problems, such as that of overwork, taken up in one of Ellen’s most recent studies, Feeling Overworked: When Work Becomes Too Much.
In addition to conducting studies, Ellen works with employers to bring about change. She serves as staff for The Conference Board’s Work-Life Leadership Council, a group of employers who have literally changed the face of business in this country and abroad, making businesses more family friendly. Ellen’s path has also involved direct work with policy makers. Today, she is a frequent expert witness in Congress, in state legislators and in national policy meetings.
Ellen’s latest efforts focus on amplifying children’s voices on the issues they face growing up, beginning with the first book to ask children how they feel about the work and family lives of their parents. “Youth and Learning” is an attempt to reframe some of the current educational debates, to focus on the importance of learning in the lives of young people.
Ellen exemplifies the spirit that she is seeking to engender in others—she is curious, a question asker, a truth finder, tirelessly and deeply motivated to improve how we parent and how we care for and how we teach children.
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