Jessica Calarco

Jessica Calarco, PhD, is a sociologist and Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is an expert on family, education, and inequality. Her research often focuses on how privileged families use their knowledge and resources to maintain their advantages in schools and society. Calarco is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and The Atlantic.\n\nShe is the author of Holding It Together: How Women Became America's Safety Net. In this book, Calarco investigates the systemic failures that force women to bear the brunt of caregiving and crisis management. She argues that the United States relies on the unpaid labor of women to fill the gaps left by a hollowed-out social safety net. Her work is a data-driven critique of the "DIY society" that leaves families to fend for themselves.