Marriage, Work

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Marriage, Work Economics

• Michael Itagaki
• Sociology 275, Marriage and Family

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Chapter Outline

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

3
Chapter Outline

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

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Families and Work

• FamiliesEconomic units bound by emotional ties.
• Two types of work in families
• Paid work at the workplace
• Unpaid work in the household

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Workplace/Family Linkages

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

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Workplace/Family Linkages

• Role ConflictJuggling between responsibilities
  of separate roles.
• Role StrainJuggling multiple responsibilities
  attached to a role.
• Role OverloadResponsibilities for one or more
  roles are greater than an individual can handle.

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Familial Division of Labor

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

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Familial Division of Labor

• Mens family work
• Household maintenance and repair, helping
  their partner in household tasks.
• Womens family work
• Homemaker role is unpaid, denigrated.
• There is seldom equality when it comes to
  housework.

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Familial Division of Labor

• Mens family work
• Household maintenance and repair, helping
  their partner in household tasks.
• Womens family work
• Homemaker role is unpaid, denigrated.
• There is seldom equality when it comes to
  housework.
• Impact of employment status

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Characteristics Of Housework

• 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 in the Labor Force

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

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Womens Decision to Enter the Labor Force

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

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Women in the Labor Force

• Womens employment
• Decreases economic hardship
• Increases domestic support
• Womens employment patterns
• Women interrupt careers more than men

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Women in the Labor Force

• ABC News, 20/20

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Dual-Earner Marriages

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

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Dual-Earner Marriages

• Marital satisfaction is tied to fair division of
  household labor
• 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 jobsless
  housework

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Child-Rearing Activities

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

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Child-Rearing Activities

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

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Findings From a Study of Two Parent Families

• Mothers are almost entirely responsible for child
  care
• Women are primary caretakers
• Men are secondary caretakers.

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Marital Power

• Increases with wifes employment status
• Wifes reluctance to insist on husbands
  contribution to housework (Pleck)
• Cultural norms
• Fears demands will lead to conflict
• Belief that husbands are not competent

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Atypical Dual Earner Households

• 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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Dual-Earner Marriages

• 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 planswhat are benefits problems of each
  arrangement?

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Economic Distress

• Aspects of a familys economic life that may
  cause stress
• 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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Poverty

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

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Poverty

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

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Poverty

• 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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Poverty

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