Work and Family

1. Work and Family

2. Lecture Outline The Labor Force - A Social Invention Provider Role Systems History of Work and Families The Traditional Model: Provider Husbands Homemaking Wives Women in the Labor Force Two-Earner Marriages - Work/Family Options Unpaid Family Work Juggling Employment and Unpaid Family Work Social Policy, Work and Family The Two-Earner Marriage and the Relationship

3. The Labor Force 80% of America�s jobs are in the service sector. Many of the jobs pay less, are part time and offer no employee benefits. American workers� earnings for all but the college-educated have declined since 1973. One way that families have adapted is for both wives and husbands to be employed.

4. Provider Role Systems Main/Secondary provider couple - providing is the man�s responsibility, the home is the woman�s. Co-provider couple - both partners are equally responsible for providing.

5. Provider Role Systems Ambivalent provider couple - wife�s providing responsibilities are not clearly acknowledged. Role-reversed provider couple - husband is responsible for homemaking and child care while the wife is the principle breadwinner.

6. Historically Paid work is seen as important Unpaid work is less important Women do this work Division of labor divides family work Breadwinner-homemaker model Began in mid-nineteenth century Ended in mid-twentieth century

7. From Single-Earner to Dual-Earner Marriages In early twentieth century, few wives worked outside home Earned money�boarders, lodgers, piecework By mid-twentieth century women withdrew from any outside work Only one paid worker�the man 1950s high point of single-earner, two parent family

8. Husbands and the Provider Role The �good provider role� emerged in the the 1830�s and lasted through the late 1970�s. In 2000, only 20% of men in married-couple families were the sole breadwinner compared with 42% in 1960.

9. Mothers Enter the Labor Force 1948 in Figure 8.1 shows 25% of women with children over 6 years in labor force 10% of women with children under 6 years in labor force 2001 in Figure 8.1 shows 80% of women with children over 6 years in labor force 63% of women with children over 6 years in labor force

10. Service sector: Workers doing personal services like education, health care, communication, food industry, entertainment, etc. Service sector and outside forces caused a need for women in the workforce Fewer children, less need to stay home As demand in service sector increased, wages increased High divorce rate made it risky to leave job market Behind the Rise

11. Great movement of married women into labor force is one of most important changes in American family life in past century Affected balance of power between men and women Instrumental in shift from companionship to independent marriage Provides backdrop to issues such as abortion Change less pronounced for poor or minority women A Profound Change

12. The Current Situation Common for women to work outside the home from young adulthood to retirement Large number of unmarried mothers that need income Women still earn substantially less than men Parity: Equal work for equal wages 77% in today�s dollars (2001)

13. Earnings did not raise as much for women without college educations Women without college educations tend to marry men of the same level Since men earned less due to economic circumstances, women looked like they were earning more African American women�s wages in ratio to African American men�s are about 87% today The Current Situation (cont.)

14. Participation of Women Over Age 16 in the Labor Force

15. Participation in the Labor Force by Married Women

16. Occupational Segregation The tendency for men and women to be employed in different types of jobs. In 1980, 2/3 of employed women were clerical workers, saleswomen, or service personnel, and only 7% were managers. In 2002, 40% of employed women were clerical or service workers, 15 % were in executive, managerial,or administrative positions. �Pink-collar jobs�

17. Jobs Women Hold, 2002.

18. The Wage Gap Women who worked full time in 2000 earned 76 cents for every dollar earned by men. (77 cents/dollar in 2002) Among managers and specialists, women earned 71% of average male wages. Childless women earn 90% of what males with comparable experience and education earn while mothers at the same level earn only 79%.

19. Reasons for the Wage Gap Concentration of women in lower-paying occupations and lower-status positions. Employers continue to stereotype women as lacking in career commitment.

20. Reasons for the Wage Gap Women may aspire to traditional female occupations because they believe these are the only ones open to them. Married men may have wives who contribute to their careers directly or indirectly, by doing the domestic work. Motherhood has a tremendous lifetime impact on earnings.

21. Female-to-Male Earnings Ratio and Median Earnings: 1960�2003

22. Two-Earner Marriages� Work/Family Options Marriages in which both partners are in the labor force are the statistical norm among married couples. Options for Working Couples: Two career marriage Part-time employment Shift work Working at home Temporarily leaving the labor force

23. Care work is often undervalued, underpaid, and demeaned compared to other types of work Often considered �women�s work;� women comprise: 97% of childcare workers 79% of healthcare workers Valuing Care Work

24. Who Does Housework? Data from about 8,500 participants in a 2003 University of Michigan study found: Women spend 27 hours a week on housework compared to 40 hours in 1965. Men increased their housework time from 12 hours in 1965 to 16 hours in 1999.

25. Hours Spent on Housework by Women and Men, 25 to 64

26. Hours Spent on Housework by Women and Men, 25 to 64

27. Theories: Why Women Do Housework Conflict and feminist - women have less power in their families. Ideological - cultural expectations of household labor. Rational investment - couples maximize the family economy by trading off between time and energy investments in paid market work and unpaid household labor.

28. Theories: Why Women Do Housework Resource hypothesis - a spouse�s household labor is a consequence of his/her resources compared to those of the other spouse. Gender construction - studies the meaning of housework, rather than the practicalities of time and income.

29. Reinforcing Cycle Men with full-time employment earn more than women who work full-time. In a couple, the wife�s (lower) paid work role is more vulnerable than the husband�s. As a result, the wife will spend less time and energy in the labor force, giving employers a reason to pay women less than men.

30. Reinforcing Cycle This encourages husbands to see their wives work as less important and conclude that they shouldn�t take responsibility for homemaking. Burdened with household labor, wives find it difficult to invest themselves in the labor market to the same degree as their husbands.

31. Approaches to Child Care (Hertz) Mothering - couple prefers that the wife care for the children. Parenting - family care is shared by parents, who structure their work to this end Market - career oriented couples hire other people to care for their children.

32. Amount of Time Parents Spend with Children: National Survey of Parents

33. Amount of Time Parents Spend with Children: National Survey of Parents

34. Amount of Time Parents Spend with Children: National Survey of Parents

35. Marital Power and Authority The Meaning of Power Power: Ability to force a person to do something when he/she earns less Women have less when they earn less Authority: Acknowledged right to control and supervise other�s behavior

36. Patriarch rules through �traditional authority� Difficult to distinguish between power and authority Greater power for those who work for wages in a family than those who work at home Marital Power and Authority

37. Wives� ability to exchange labor for goods and services may be limited because they must also carry out childcare and household responsibilities. Relationship specific investment: Time spent on activities such as childrearing that are valuable only in a person�s current relationship Marital Power and Wage Work

38. Time spent in earning outside the home make investments in earning power regardless of marriage Women with children typically earn less than women without children Women who earn outside the home and control their earnings have more power Marital Power and Wage Work

39. Working Wives Power and Authority: The Stalled Revolution? Employed men and women do less housework If there are children, housework increases more for women.

40. Married women do twice as much housework as men Arlie Hochschild referred to this as �stalled revolution� Husbands have not yet adjusted Men may be doing more housework and child care than before Working Wives Power and Authority: The Stalled Revolution?

41. Overload and Spillover Between Paid Work and Family Role overload: State of having too many roles with conflicting demands Concern for role overload Work, household work, children, parents, etc. Support or not from spouse Most adults have to juggle demands

42. No correlation found with number of roles and stress Multiple roles may increase sense of meaning and purpose Overload and Spillover Between Paid Work and Family

43. Balancing Work and Family May be more difficult because people are working longer hours Those with a college education are working more hours Those with non-college education are working fewer hours More part-time workers without fringe benefits

44. Balancing Work and Family Regardless of change of hours worked, many still feel overloaded Result of the faster pace of combining paid employment and raising children

45. Spillover Spillover: Stressful events in one part of a person�s daily life often spill over into other parts of his/her life Wives cast in supportive role and may butter husbands from further stress Men more likely to withdraw from families if stressed

46. Shift Work and Child Care Child care may be handled by parents by Flexible hours�different shifts Woman turning down opportunities more than men Single parents do not have this luxury May rely on relatives Have fewer buffers

47. Unemployment Creates stress Causes marital strife Presence of angry, irritable, hostile behavior triggers problems

48. Resolving Work-Family Issues Families need: Adequate provision for quality child and elder care Family leave Flexible employment scheduling (Lamanna & Riedmann 2006)