Judith Warner - the author of the best-selling "Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety," and a former contributing columnist for The New York Times - is one of our most eloquent and candid commentators on hot-button issues affecting parents and children. On our cover this week she considers two books that take forceful stands on the topics of motherhood and family policy: "The Conflict," Elisabeth Badinter's report on the state of French motherhood, and "The New Feminist Agenda," Madeleine M. Kunin's critical survey of how American women and their families are faring some 40 years after the women's movement. "Kunin makes the very good point that individual women have accomplished a lot since the 1970s, but that we haven't successfully brought change that affects the collective," Warner said via e-mail. What would that kind of change look like? "An ideal basket of reforms would incorporate paid family leave, including time for fathers; measures to promote flexible schedules and protect workers who take advantage of them; the development of meaningful part-time work so that "part time" doesn't mean working full time for less pay and no benefits. We need universal pre-K education, top-notch day care with a sliding scale of fees for families depending on income, extensive background checks for child-care workers, and decent salaries and benefits for those workers. A longer school day, with study hall time and after-school programs like those in well-off public school districts, so that all kids have access to sports, arts, music and academic support. "Our focus should be on making life better and easier for families generally," Warner concluded. We need a new movement, made up of multiple constituencies working strongly together, that puts the needs of children, parents and other caregivers, men and women, front and center.