Sharon Lerner

Sharon Lerner a journalist focusing on work-life balance, education, health equity and other issues affecting families in the United States. While at Demos, she is writing a book, “Chutes and Ladders: Learning from the Best – and Worst – Places to Raise Children in America.” She has also written extensively about reproductive politics.

Lerner’s first book, "The War on Moms: On Life in a Family-Unfriendly Nation" (Wiley, 2010), put a human face on American family policy. NPR called it “A stinging account of how public policy and private businesses have failed to adapt to working mothers. ” “The Los Angeles Times” described it as “An infuriating, galvanizing read — a page-turner for working moms.”

Lerner has worked as a writer, reporter and public radio producer. A former Village Voice columnist, she has also written for The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The American Prospect, The Nation, Salon.com, DoubleX/Slate.com, and Ms, among other publications.

Lerner is the recipient of numerous journalism awards, including the Front Page Award for News Coverage, and the Jane Cunningham Croly/GFWC Print Journalism Award, and a special award from the Women and Politics Institute. She went to Brown University and the Columbia School of Public Health. Before coming to Demos, she was a senior fellow at the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs.