Chapter 8: Work and Families

How does our society treat the labor of caring for others?

-Caring labor is often underpaid, undervalued, and even demeaned relative to other kinds of work -Often considered "women's work" -People who perform paid care work earn less than people who do comparable work that does not involve care -We view care work not only through the lens of private families but also public families.

How is the workplace responding to the needs of working parents? (or is it?)

-Flextime >Allows employees to choose, within limits, when they will begin and end their working hours >Allows parents to avoid stressful conflicts between childcare and job responsibilities -Parental leave >Time off from work to care for a child, with a guarantee that the employee can have her or his job back when she of he returns >Family and Medical Leave Act - requires companies with 50+ employees to provide 12 weeks of unpaid leave for birth, adoption, foster care, or personal family illness -Telecommunicating >Doing work from home using electronic communication

How has married women's work changed in the last 50 years?

-In mid-20th century, few wives worked outside the home -Rates of employed women rose sharply through the 1990s, leveled off around 2000, and declined slightly -2010: 77% of all married women with school-aged children were in the labor force -Service sector and outside forces caused a need for women in the workforce -Dual-earner married households have become more common. -Less household work to more work outside of the home

How has the division of household labor in marriages changed?

-Wives still spend more time with child care and unpaid family work than their husbands while working full-time -Fathers are taking on more responsibility in caring for their children while their wives work -Total time spent doing housework has declined, leading to couples purchasing more services.

What has caused the shift from single-earner to dual-earner households?

-Service sector expanded >Service sector (aka "women's work") consists of the workers who provide personal services such as education, healthcare, communication, restaurant meals, legal representation, entertainment, etc. -Population shifted from farms to cities >Left to fewer children in families -Rising wages of women in the labor force -Parents want to invest in more resources (job training, education) -Decline in the wages of men without college educations since the early 1970s have motivated many wives to take paying jobs -High divorce rate made it increasingly risky for married women to leave the labor force and let their job skills deteriorate

What are some of the strains working parents' experience?

-Task size: the sheer size and scope of the demands of the job >Mainly a problem for professional and managerial employees who work long hours >Family and work become "competing devotions" that are very difficult to reconcile -Task stress >Found among less-educated Americans, who perform physically difficult and dangerous work, or who have little job security and could be laid off at any time, or who work under close supervision without the ability to check on their children by calling home -The stress of one's paid job can spill over into family life and causes family conflict -Having multiple roles (worker, parent, spouse..etc) does not seem to reduce mental health → "Second shift" -Men not wanting to admit to supervisors that they need time off for their family.

What are the major problems with our current work/family boundaries and norms?

Stress on moms who work second shift → not able to invest in family time

How do families spend wives' income?

The more money the wife makes, the more the family spends on substitutes for the housework (restaurant meals) and child care (day care centers).