Sociology in Action
Holding It Together: How Women Became America's Safety Net
Guest Speaker
Dr. Jessica Calarco, Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
and the author of Holding it Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net (Portfolio/Penguin, 2024)
https://www.jessicacalarco.com
Event Details
Tuesday, February 17, 2026 | 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. CST | Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion in the MD Anderson Library.
About this Lecture
Women are America's crisis management team—tasked with holding society together at the seams and fixing it when things fall apart. Drawing on extensive research—including longitudinal interviews, historical and media analyses, and national surveys—Holding It Together reveals how billionaires, big corporations, and their cronies use women’s unpaid and underpaid labor to maintain the illusion of a “DIY society,” making it seem as though we don’t need more public investment in sectors like childcare, eldercare, healthcare, education, and social welfare, because women are filling in the gaps.
The department also hosts 2 student-centered events the day after the lecture: a lunch for our undergraduate students, and a methods workshop for our graduate students.
Additional SIA Events with Dr. Jessica Calarco
- Undergraduate lunch on Wednesday, February 18th from 1:00 - 2:30 pm in the Lamar Fleming, Jr. Building, F Room 154.
- Graduate student workshop on Wednesday, February 18th from 3:30 - 5:00 pm in the Philip Guthrie Hoffman Hall 4th floor, Room 449 (the Werlin Room)