Michael Itagaki
Sociology 275, Marriage and Family

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Workplace/family Linkages
The Familial Division of Labor: Women in the Labor Force
Dual-earner Marriages
Atypical Dual-earners: Shift Couples and
Peer Marriages

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Employment and the Family Life Cycle
Family Issues in the Workplace
Living Without Work: Unemployment and
Families
Poverty
Workplace and Family Policy

Families and Work
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Families—Economic units bound by emotional ties.
Two types of work in families:
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Paid work at the workplace
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Unpaid work in the household

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Work spillover—Effect employment has on other aspects of life, i.e. the family
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For men: Excessive work time is cause of conflict
For women: Fatigue and irritability cause conflict

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Role Conflict—Juggling between responsibilities of separate roles.
Role Strain—Juggling multiple responsibilities attached to a role.
Role Overload—Responsibilities for one or more roles are greater than an individual can handle.

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Traditional
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Husband works outside home for wages
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Traditional primary role as the provider
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Wife remains home caring for children.
Two-person career model
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Women are domestic and child-rearing supports
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Men focus on wage earning and providing.

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Men’s family work
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Household maintenance and repair…, “helping” their partner in household tasks.
Women’s family work
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Homemaker role is unpaid, denigrated.
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There is seldom equality when it comes to housework.

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Men’s family work
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Household maintenance and repair…, “helping” their partner in household tasks.
Women’s family work
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Homemaker role is unpaid, denigrated.
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There is seldom equality when it comes to housework.
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Impact of employment status

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It isolates the person at home.
It is unstructured, monotonous, and repetitive.
It is often a restricted, full-time role.
It is autonomous.
It is “never done”.
It may involve child rearing.
It often involves role strain.
It is unpaid.

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Women have always been a part of the labor force: single women
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In 2002, women represented:
46.3% of labor force
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60% of adult women were employed

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Financial factors: To what extent is income significant?
Social norms
Self-fulfillment
Attitudes about employment and family

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Women’s employment:
Decreases economic hardship
Increases domestic support
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Women’s employment patterns
Women interrupt careers more than men

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ABC News, 20/20

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Economic changes led to significant increase in dual-earner marriages.
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In dual-career families (subcategory), the husband and wife have:
High achievement orientation
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Greater emphasis on gender equality
Face challenges to achieve professional/family goals

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Marital satisfaction is tied to fair division of household labor
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Housework and childcare are inseparable.
Standards of housework have changed (p. 392)
Men “pitch in,” but still disparity in housework duties
Women experience more stress, access to less leisure time than men.
Men perceive doing more housework than actually do.
If children present, men work more at jobs…less housework

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Men increasingly believe that they should be more involved as fathers than men have been in the past.

Child-Rearing Activities
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Mothers spend 3 to 5 hours of active involvement for every hour fathers spend.
Mothers’ involvement is oriented toward practical daily activities:
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Feeding, bathing, and dressing.
Fathers’ time is generally spent in play.

Findings From a Study of Two
Parent Families
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Mothers are almost entirely responsible for child care
Women are primary caretakers
Men are secondary caretakers.

Marital Power
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Increases with wife’s employment status
Wife’s reluctance to insist on husband’s contribution to housework (Pleck)
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Cultural norms
Fears demands will lead to conflict
Belief that husbands are not competent

Atypical Dual Earner Households
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Shift Couples - Where spouses work opposite shifts and alternate domestic and caregiver responsibilities.
Role Reversal - Households in which men stay home with children while women support the family financially.

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Class discussion:
How many of you grew up in a dual earner family? Single-earner family?
What did you like/dislike about growing up in these situations?
Future plans…what are benefits problems of each arrangement?

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Aspects of a family’s economic life that may cause stress:
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Unemployment, poverty, and economic strain.
Unemployment causes family roles to change.
Unemployment most often affects female-headed single-parent families, African-American and
Latino families, and young families.

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Almost 14% of the population of the United States lives in poverty.
Poverty generally occurs due to:
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Divorce
Birth of a child to an unmarried mother
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Unemployment
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Illness, disability, or death of the head of the household

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Poverty is associated with:
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Marital and family stress
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Increased divorce rates
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Homelessness
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Poor health, depression
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Lowered life expectancy

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Poverty is a major contributing factor to family dissolution.
Majority of the poor, and of welfare recipients, are white.
Spells of poverty tend to be temporary rather than permanent.

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Largest increase has been number of working poor.
Feminization of poverty