Work and FamiliesMothers enter labor force

Implications for family life

Marital power and work

Role overload, conflict, and spillover

Work-family life cycle patterns

Shift work and child care

Working families and low wages

Mothers’ Labor Force Participation, 1948 - 2001

• Expansion of service sector

• Working hours beyond 9-5

• Increased demand for workers

• Fewer children

• Families need two incomes

Why women entered labor force

• changed balance of power in marriage

• shift to individual marriage

• women’s earnings still only 77% of men’s

• single mothers still disadvantaged

A Profound Change in Family Life

Bases of Power in Marriage

• Legitimate – Authority, traditional roles – most affected by women’s employment

• Referent – Identify with spouse, want to please

• Expert –Knowledge of specific issue

• Others (less common) - coercion, reward, informational

• Wives who earn more have more power

• Still have childcare and household responsibilities

• Family work is relationship-specific

• Limits ability to compete in job market

“Legitimate” Power and Wage Work

• Less traditional division of labor

• Total housework has declined

• Hire help if affordable

• Men do more housework than previous generation

• Still do much less than women

“Legitimate” Power and Housework

• Face to face, meeting another’ s needs

• “Women’s work:” women are– 97% of childcare workers– 79% of healthcare workers– Often undervalued, underpaid, unpaid

• Less status in marriage

• Some control over specific decisions

• High proportion are minority women

Care Work

Role Overload, Conflict, and Spillover

• Role overload: too many roles at once

• Role conflict: different roles conflict

• Greater in some life stages

• Greater for women

• Not always stressful

• Increased stress w/ long hours, low benefits

Spillover

• Spillover: Stressful events in one part of life spill over into others

• Wives may protect husbands from stress

• Men more likely to withdraw from families

• Women feel more spillover of family into work

How couples cope: 3 life cycle paths

Work Stage (his)• Novitiate• Early Career• Mid-Career• Late Career• Retirement

Family Stage (hers)• Beginning marriage• Childbearing• Teenage children• Launching children• Aging family

1. Simultaneous-Traditional Work-Family Life 1. Simultaneous-Traditional Work-Family Life CycleCycle

2. Sequential Work-Family Life Cycle

• More typical of women

• Work fulltime, cut back during childbearing, then more work, etc.

• May make prioritizing easier

• Works better in some jobs

• Not all families can afford

• May involve career sacrifices

• True 50-50 sharing

• Idealized, but not common

3. Symmetrical Work-Family Life Cycle

Shift Work and Child Care

• Child care may be handled by parents:– Flexible hours—different shifts– May turn down job opportunities– May be stressful on marriage

• Single parents can’t use this

Child care arrangements of

employed mothers of

children under 5, 1999

Parents 21.5

Mother while working 3.1

Father 18.5

Relatives 28.8

Grandparent 20.8

Sibling and other relative 8.0

Organized facility 22.1

Day care center 17.9

Nursery/preschool 3.8

Federal Head Start program 0.4

Other nonrelative care 20.3

In child's home 3.3

In provider's home 16.9

Family day care 10.9

Other nonrelative 6.0

Other 7.3

Annual Expenditures on Child Care, by Parents’ Income and Child’s Age, 2002

Parents’ Income Under 2 2 to 5

under 40,700 $950 $1080

40,700-68,400 $1570 $1740

over 68,400 $2370 $2580

Child’s Age

• Flextime: Allows flexible hours

• Family leave: Time off to care for child or other dependent

• Part-time work with benefits

• Job Sharing

Toward a Responsive Workplace

Summary

• Mothers entered labor force since 1970

• Changed balance of power in marriage

• Sometimes results in overload, spillover

• Changed experience of family life cycle

• Involves child care decisions

• Workplace has not responded greatly to needs of families