Work-Family Balance in the United States
Encyclopedia
Work-family balance in the United States refers to the specific issues that arise when men and women in the United States attempt to balance their occupational lives with their family lives. This differs from work-life balance: while work-life balance may refer to the health and living issues that arise from work, work-family balance refers specifically to how work and families intersect and influence each other. Work-family balance in the U.S. differs significantly for families of different social class, with middle-class family issues centering around dual-earner spouses and parents and lower-class issues centering around problems that arise due to single parenting. The occupational context also differs by class, since middle-class occupations provide more benefits and family support while low-wage jobs are less flexible with benefits. Solutions for helping the work-family balance in the U.S. include legislation, workplace policies, and marketization of care work
.
forces, many of them economic. According to family historian Stephanie Coontz
, marriage and family formation in the 17th century
was heavily influenced by desires to form economic and political alliances. Children was seen as a method of ensuring the passage of political and economic power to future generations of the family.
The 18th century
saw the Englightenment as creating structural changes in marriage: the move toward individualism and the loosening of church influence over families after the Protestant Reformation
resulted in the flourishing of the two-parent farm families. Prior to theIndustrial Revolution
, the two-parent farm family was the dominant family model, which both parents working side by side on family farms The two-parent farm family ceased to be the dominant family model after the Industrial Revolution
occurred. The 1920s was the first time that the majority of children lived in two-parent breadwinner-homemaker families.
In 19th century farm settings, children were an important part of their families' agricultural livelihoods. As industrialization occurred and families shifted from rural agricultural settings to urban ones for occupational purposes, the number of children per household also declined. Children become less of an economic benefit in previous agricultural settings and more of a cost: urban life necessitated educating children which was costly.
During the 1910s
and 1920s
, women delayed childbirth because of the economic opportunities that were present in urban areas. However, this trend reversed during the Great Depression
because of the lower number of economic opportunities for women. Depression era women were more likely to marry and have children earlier as a result.
The breadwinner-homemaker
model flourished during the twenty-year period immediately after World War II
. The economy
relied upon the male breadwinner to earn the income to support his family financially, while women were relied upon to do the care work
and other forms of domestic work to support her husband's earnings.
As the economy went into recession during the 1970s, women entered the workforce in large droves. Families could no longer survive on the single income of the male breadwinner—both sexes were relied upon to work and bring home income for financial support. The dominant family model starting in the 1970s was the dual earner family. Women also entered college in higher and higher percentages. However, the economy was still assumed to run on an outdated breadwinner-homemaker model as evidence by the following things: women made significantly less income than men, they were still expected to do the majority of domestic work, and the nine to three school schedule of children still existed. The recession of the 1970s also further pushed the correlation between income and family structure. As more and more previously lucrative manufacturing jobs were sent overseas, uneducated men could no longer support their families on a single wage. Women's labor force participation rates have steadily increased since the 1940s Since the 1970s, the relationship between marriage and college education has been positive.
, gender discrimination in hiring and firing, and the occupational rights of workers in taking family and medical leave. Despite these significant legislative efforts, the U.S. still lags behind other developed countries in progressive family-friendly work policies.
attempted to abolish wage and payment discrimination between men and women.
and childbirth
illegal. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 is an amendment to Title VII that explicitly prohibits discrimination against pregnant women.
requires employers to provide job-protected unpaid leave for certain family and medical reasons. Family reasons include pregnancy, childbirth, adoption
, foster care
placement, and care for an ill family member. However, this legislation is limited: coverage is only extended for twelve weeks and or employees who have worked for at least twelve months at the same job. Short-term medical illness and routine medical checkups are not covered until the FMLA, and family members other than parents, spouses, and children are not covered. Some states have extended the definition of family on their own, and therefore extended the coverage of FMLA.
and lower-class
families very differently in many aspects, especially since the 1970s economic recession. These family inequalities
significantly affect the intersection of Race (United States Census)
and Social class in the United States as well.
, many middle-class American families must deal with the ultimate decision between balancing their families with their jobs.
The delay in fertility becomes a problem among middle-class women when they delay childbirth past their fertility peak. Since fertility peaks at a certain age, pushing childbirth past that age significantly decreases the probability of women to have children. There is a growing number of women who do not realize that their fertility peaks. The media
has been an influence on women's fertility choices: popular celebrities who have managed to have children well into their 40s and other medical miracles covered in the media oftentimes give women false hope that they themselves will also be successful later in life. For every success story, however, there are many more disappointments.
". The media is a culprit in this depiction: A study examining the portrayal of mothers in magazines showed that the most popular magazines in the U.S. still continue to promote the traditional role of motherhood
while undermining homemakers by portraying them as superficial and negative
. Instead, only the Supermom type is portrayed and rarely critiqued.
As a result of this Supermom ideal, cultural contradictions of motherhood widely exist. Working mothers are often critiqued for being selfish and not spending enough time with their children. They defend their position by saying they work to support their children economically. Homemakers are often critiqued for not making careers in their lives and being superficial. They respond by saying that the childcare and other domestic work they do for their families is much more important. Only the unrealistic depiction of the supermom
can balance these two ideological extremes, but that ideal is an unrealistic solution for most women.
completed at home. Women in the developed world, including the U.S., still do hours more of housework than their male counterparts, despite their success in the workplace. Working mothers on average do more work and sleep less than their husbands. The perception of who does more housework is also skewed by whether or not the husband or the wife is reporting.
Unsurprisingly then, working mothers do not spend a significantly lower amount of time with their children compared to women who do not work—working mothers simply sleep less on average.
As a result, many middle class families have resorted to alternative methods of child care. A common option is to buy market versions of child care, such as day care
providers and centers.
similar in the ways middle-class families have. As a result, lower-class families have a different set of work-family balancing issues - many of which are much more difficult to solve than those of middle-class families.
for more quality prospects. Unlike middle-class women, lower-class women do not have the same financial and marriage incentives to marry especially in the face of likely divorce. As a result, lower-class mothers have less incentive to delay their childbearing to later years. Many of the problems shared by single parents are disproportionately felt by the lower-class for these very reasons.
The inability to use the income and time of two spouses has a harmful effect upon the work opportunities of lower-income mothers. Another factor is income: single-mothers tend to work lower income wage, which come with few benefits such as maternity leave, health insurance
, childcare
, and flexibility in time. Low-wage work oftentimes is characterized by weekly shift work
changes, little flexibility, and extreme short notice for changes
. As a result, lower-class mothers have even more of a time crunch and more conflict in balancing their work needs with those of their children. Single mother home environments are much poorer because of nonstandard hours and schedules.
or finding sustainable childcare options. The breadwinner-homemaker family and economic model does not apply to single-parent families because the single-parent must be both roles at all times. Because child care services
cost a substantial amount, low-income mothers pay a higher percentage of their income on child care than middle-class mothers do. Few low-income mothers are happy with their childcare arrangements, especially in light of the fact that low-income childcare arrangements suffer from frequent disruptions. In the United States, state assistance for childcare is nowhere near the level of other developed countries and has actually decreased.
in the United States refers to the lack of care work as the result of globalization
. For the middle class, there has been an ongoing debate over who should take care of children: family members or child care providers However, the debate is slowly shifting to one concerning parents and child care providers to domestic workers. Globalization
and the entrance of women into the workforce has prompted the mass immigration
of transnational care chains - poor women who leave their home countries and go to developed countries to work specifically as domestic workers This has risen as an option for middle and upper-class families and a way of selling labor for many immigrant women.
Poor families, however, still do not have the same care work markets that middle class families do. Relying on formal child care providers is less disruptive and risky, but providers still pose a significant price problem.
that can alleviate the burden of work-family balance for many middle-class families. Some options in family-friendly workplaces include providing paid leave or options for reduced hours. Workplaces are realizing that employees with well balanced family and work lives are actually valuable to firms : workplace childcare assistance can increase productivity productivity
and morale
among employees, as well as lessen turnover
, accidents, and absenteeism
. Childcare options for working parents can be key in workplace satisfaction
. Workplace supports such as personal time off, paid leave, on-site or nearby childcare, financial assistance for childcare, and other family-friendly policies are Western European workplace norms that could solve the work-family balance problem in the United States.
However, many constrains still exist. These workplace policies are largely only offered at higher salary jobshigher salary jobs
, which are once again out of reach for the poor. The huge lack of government funding at the state and federal levels also make these workplace policies unrealistic at this point.
Time bind
Work-family conflict
Work-life balance (United States)
Child care
Work-life balance
Double burden
Care work
Intra-household bargaining
Care work
Care work is a sub-category of work that includes all tasks that directly involve care processes done in service of others. Oftentimes, it is differentiated from other forms of work because it is intrinsically motivated, meaning that people are motivated to pursue care work for internal reasons,...
.
History
Family structure has historically been influenced by structuralStructural change
Structural change of an economy refers to a long-term widespread change of the fundamental structure, rather than microscale or short-term output and employment. For example, a subsistence economy is transformed into a manufacturing economy, or a regulated mixed economy is liberalized...
forces, many of them economic. According to family historian Stephanie Coontz
Stephanie Coontz
Stephanie Coontz is an author, historian, and faculty member at The Evergreen State College. She teaches history and family studies and is Director of Research and Public Education for the Council on Contemporary Families, which she chaired from 2001-2004. Coontz has authored and co-edited...
, marriage and family formation in the 17th century
17th century
The 17th century was the century which lasted from 1601 to 1700 in the Gregorian calendar.The 17th century falls into the Early Modern period of Europe and in that continent was characterized by the Dutch Golden Age, the Baroque cultural movement, the French Grand Siècle dominated by Louis XIV, the...
was heavily influenced by desires to form economic and political alliances. Children was seen as a method of ensuring the passage of political and economic power to future generations of the family.
The 18th century
18th century
The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar.During the 18th century, the Enlightenment culminated in the French and American revolutions. Philosophy and science increased in prominence. Philosophers were dreaming about a better age without the Christian fundamentalism of...
saw the Englightenment as creating structural changes in marriage: the move toward individualism and the loosening of church influence over families after the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
resulted in the flourishing of the two-parent farm families. Prior to theIndustrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, the two-parent farm family was the dominant family model, which both parents working side by side on family farms The two-parent farm family ceased to be the dominant family model after the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
occurred. The 1920s was the first time that the majority of children lived in two-parent breadwinner-homemaker families.
In 19th century farm settings, children were an important part of their families' agricultural livelihoods. As industrialization occurred and families shifted from rural agricultural settings to urban ones for occupational purposes, the number of children per household also declined. Children become less of an economic benefit in previous agricultural settings and more of a cost: urban life necessitated educating children which was costly.
During the 1910s
1910s
File:1910s montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Model T Ford is introduced and becomes widespread; The sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic causes the deaths of nearly 1,500 people and attracts global and historical attention; Title bar: All the events below are part of World War I ; French Army lookout...
and 1920s
1920s
File:1920s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Third Tipperary Brigade Flying Column No. 2 under Sean Hogan during the Irish Civil War; Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol in accordance to the 18th amendment, which made alcoholic beverages illegal throughout the entire decade; In...
, women delayed childbirth because of the economic opportunities that were present in urban areas. However, this trend reversed during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
because of the lower number of economic opportunities for women. Depression era women were more likely to marry and have children earlier as a result.
The breadwinner-homemaker
Homemaker
Homemaking is a mainly American term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping or household management...
model flourished during the twenty-year period immediately after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The economy
Economy of the United States
The economy of the United States is the world's largest national economy. Its nominal GDP was estimated to be nearly $14.5 trillion in 2010, approximately a quarter of nominal global GDP. The European Union has a larger collective economy, but is not a single nation...
relied upon the male breadwinner to earn the income to support his family financially, while women were relied upon to do the care work
Care work
Care work is a sub-category of work that includes all tasks that directly involve care processes done in service of others. Oftentimes, it is differentiated from other forms of work because it is intrinsically motivated, meaning that people are motivated to pursue care work for internal reasons,...
and other forms of domestic work to support her husband's earnings.
As the economy went into recession during the 1970s, women entered the workforce in large droves. Families could no longer survive on the single income of the male breadwinner—both sexes were relied upon to work and bring home income for financial support. The dominant family model starting in the 1970s was the dual earner family. Women also entered college in higher and higher percentages. However, the economy was still assumed to run on an outdated breadwinner-homemaker model as evidence by the following things: women made significantly less income than men, they were still expected to do the majority of domestic work, and the nine to three school schedule of children still existed. The recession of the 1970s also further pushed the correlation between income and family structure. As more and more previously lucrative manufacturing jobs were sent overseas, uneducated men could no longer support their families on a single wage. Women's labor force participation rates have steadily increased since the 1940s Since the 1970s, the relationship between marriage and college education has been positive.
Legislation
Historically significant pieces of legislation has been enacted at the federal level to address the sex disparities in the workplace. These pieces of legislation attempt to address the wage gap in the U.S.Male-female income disparity in the USA
Male–female income diference, also referred to as the "gender gap in earnings" in the United States, and as the "gender wage gap", the "gender earnings gap" and the "gender pay gap", refers usually to the ratio of female to male median yearly earnings among full-time, year-round workers.The...
, gender discrimination in hiring and firing, and the occupational rights of workers in taking family and medical leave. Despite these significant legislative efforts, the U.S. still lags behind other developed countries in progressive family-friendly work policies.
Equal Pay Act of 1963
The Equal Pay Act of 1963Equal Pay Act of 1963
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is a United States federal law amending the Fair Labor Standards Act, aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex . It was signed into law on June 10, 1963 by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Frontier Program...
attempted to abolish wage and payment discrimination between men and women.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Title VII mandates against gender discrimination in the workplace. It makes gender discrimination on the basis of pregnancyPregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
and childbirth
Childbirth
Childbirth is the culmination of a human pregnancy or gestation period with the birth of one or more newborn infants from a woman's uterus...
illegal. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 is an amendment to Title VII that explicitly prohibits discrimination against pregnant women.
Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 is a United States federal law requiring covered employers to provide employees job-protected unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons. These reasons include personal or family illness, military service, family military leave, pregnancy,...
requires employers to provide job-protected unpaid leave for certain family and medical reasons. Family reasons include pregnancy, childbirth, adoption
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
, foster care
Foster care
Foster care is the term used for a system in which a minor who has been made a ward is placed in the private home of a state certified caregiver referred to as a "foster parent"....
placement, and care for an ill family member. However, this legislation is limited: coverage is only extended for twelve weeks and or employees who have worked for at least twelve months at the same job. Short-term medical illness and routine medical checkups are not covered until the FMLA, and family members other than parents, spouses, and children are not covered. Some states have extended the definition of family on their own, and therefore extended the coverage of FMLA.
Effects on Families
The structural economic changes have influenced specific aspects of the family. However, not all families are affected in the same way. In the U.S. income and family structure correlates significantly. The economic changes in the past couple of decades have affected middle classAmerican middle class
The American middle class is a social class in the United States. While the concept is typically ambiguous in popular opinion and common language use, contemporary social scientists have put forward several, more or less congruent, theories on the American middle class...
and lower-class
Poverty in the United States
Poverty is defined as the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. According to the U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday September 13th, 2011, the nation's poverty rate rose to 15.1% in 2010, up from 14.3% in 2009 and to its highest level...
families very differently in many aspects, especially since the 1970s economic recession. These family inequalities
Social inequality
Social inequality refers to a situation in which individual groups in a society do not have equal social status. Areas of potential social inequality include voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, the extent of property rights and access to education, health care, quality housing and other...
significantly affect the intersection of Race (United States Census)
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
and Social class in the United States as well.
Problems Affecting Middle-Class Families
Middle-class families have certain class-specific problems that arise when family and work intersects. Many of them have to do with the balance parents must create between their career aspirations and their familial desires. Because the middle-class has greater access to more stable occupations and the chances for occupational mobilityCareer Moves
Career Moves is the second live album by Loudon Wainwright III, released on July 1, 1993 on Virgin Records.The album predominantley features material culled from Wainwright's 80s output, alongside six new songs, and one track from his then-recent album, History...
, many middle-class American families must deal with the ultimate decision between balancing their families with their jobs.
Delayed Fertility
Middle-class women oftentimes delay motherhood until after the peak of their fertility at age 29-30, a delay that has become more common in the last two decades. Motherhood is delayed because of the higher educational and career aspirations middle-class women oftentimes make--the career incentives are too great to pass up. While middle-class women on average have children at age 29, lower-class women typically have children much earlier in their lives because of the lack of incentives to delay childbirth. According to Edin and Kefalas, lower-class women do not make the same delay because they are oftentimes lacking the career and educational incentives that middle-class women have.The delay in fertility becomes a problem among middle-class women when they delay childbirth past their fertility peak. Since fertility peaks at a certain age, pushing childbirth past that age significantly decreases the probability of women to have children. There is a growing number of women who do not realize that their fertility peaks. The media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
has been an influence on women's fertility choices: popular celebrities who have managed to have children well into their 40s and other medical miracles covered in the media oftentimes give women false hope that they themselves will also be successful later in life. For every success story, however, there are many more disappointments.
Ideology of Motherhood
Although Americn women have made significant strides in the workplace, they are still required to be mothers first and foremost. The cultural ideas of motherhood in the U.S. have given birth to a new ideal: a working mother who not only has a wonderful career but also manages to flawlessly balance her family and domestic duties as well known as the "supermomSuperwoman (sociology)
In sociology the term superwoman has been used to describe a Western woman who works hard to manage multiple roles of a worker, a homemaker, a volunteer, a student etc...
". The media is a culprit in this depiction: A study examining the portrayal of mothers in magazines showed that the most popular magazines in the U.S. still continue to promote the traditional role of motherhood
Homemaker
Homemaking is a mainly American term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping or household management...
while undermining homemakers by portraying them as superficial and negative
Soccer mom
The phrase soccer mom broadly refers to a middle-class suburban woman who spends a significant amount of her time transporting her school-age children to their sporting events or other activities. Indices of American magazines and newspapers show relatively little usage of the term until a 1995...
. Instead, only the Supermom type is portrayed and rarely critiqued.
As a result of this Supermom ideal, cultural contradictions of motherhood widely exist. Working mothers are often critiqued for being selfish and not spending enough time with their children. They defend their position by saying they work to support their children economically. Homemakers are often critiqued for not making careers in their lives and being superficial. They respond by saying that the childcare and other domestic work they do for their families is much more important. Only the unrealistic depiction of the supermom
Superwoman (sociology)
In sociology the term superwoman has been used to describe a Western woman who works hard to manage multiple roles of a worker, a homemaker, a volunteer, a student etc...
can balance these two ideological extremes, but that ideal is an unrealistic solution for most women.
Inequalities in Care Work
Despite the career gains women have made, their husbands have not reached parity in terms of the domestic Household choreand care workcare workCare work
Care work is a sub-category of work that includes all tasks that directly involve care processes done in service of others. Oftentimes, it is differentiated from other forms of work because it is intrinsically motivated, meaning that people are motivated to pursue care work for internal reasons,...
completed at home. Women in the developed world, including the U.S., still do hours more of housework than their male counterparts, despite their success in the workplace. Working mothers on average do more work and sleep less than their husbands. The perception of who does more housework is also skewed by whether or not the husband or the wife is reporting.
Unsurprisingly then, working mothers do not spend a significantly lower amount of time with their children compared to women who do not work—working mothers simply sleep less on average.
As a result, many middle class families have resorted to alternative methods of child care. A common option is to buy market versions of child care, such as day care
Day care
Child care or day care is care of a child during the day by a person other than the child's legal guardians, typically performed by someone outside the child's immediate family...
providers and centers.
Problems Affecting Lower-Class Families
Lower class family structure has been influenced heavily by incomeIncome
Income is the consumption and savings opportunity gained by an entity within a specified time frame, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. However, for households and individuals, "income is the sum of all the wages, salaries, profits, interests payments, rents and other forms of earnings...
similar in the ways middle-class families have. As a result, lower-class families have a different set of work-family balancing issues - many of which are much more difficult to solve than those of middle-class families.
Single-Parenting
Lower-class families are disproportionately made up of single mother households. According to Kathryn Edin, this is because of the lack of incentive to marry other lower-class men among lower-class women, and the desire to save marriageMarriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
for more quality prospects. Unlike middle-class women, lower-class women do not have the same financial and marriage incentives to marry especially in the face of likely divorce. As a result, lower-class mothers have less incentive to delay their childbearing to later years. Many of the problems shared by single parents are disproportionately felt by the lower-class for these very reasons.
The inability to use the income and time of two spouses has a harmful effect upon the work opportunities of lower-income mothers. Another factor is income: single-mothers tend to work lower income wage, which come with few benefits such as maternity leave, health insurance
Health insurance
Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...
, childcare
Childcare
Child care means caring for and supervising child/children usually from 0–13 years of age. In the United States child care is increasingly referred to as early childhood education due to the understanding of the impact of early experiences of the developing child...
, and flexibility in time. Low-wage work oftentimes is characterized by weekly shift work
Shift work
Shift work is an employment practice designed to make use of the 24 hours of the clock. The term "shift work" includes both long-term night shifts and work schedules in which employees change or rotate shifts....
changes, little flexibility, and extreme short notice for changes
. As a result, lower-class mothers have even more of a time crunch and more conflict in balancing their work needs with those of their children. Single mother home environments are much poorer because of nonstandard hours and schedules.
Care Work
Single-mother and lower-class families have a much more difficult time negotiating childcareChildcare
Child care means caring for and supervising child/children usually from 0–13 years of age. In the United States child care is increasingly referred to as early childhood education due to the understanding of the impact of early experiences of the developing child...
or finding sustainable childcare options. The breadwinner-homemaker family and economic model does not apply to single-parent families because the single-parent must be both roles at all times. Because child care services
Day care
Child care or day care is care of a child during the day by a person other than the child's legal guardians, typically performed by someone outside the child's immediate family...
cost a substantial amount, low-income mothers pay a higher percentage of their income on child care than middle-class mothers do. Few low-income mothers are happy with their childcare arrangements, especially in light of the fact that low-income childcare arrangements suffer from frequent disruptions. In the United States, state assistance for childcare is nowhere near the level of other developed countries and has actually decreased.
Solutions
The United States has lagged behind the social benefits that support work-family balance when compared to other developing countries. Many solutions to the family-work balance problem have been observed in other countries and proposed in the U.S. Solutions specific to the U.S. have also developed recently.Care Work
The care crisisCare work
Care work is a sub-category of work that includes all tasks that directly involve care processes done in service of others. Oftentimes, it is differentiated from other forms of work because it is intrinsically motivated, meaning that people are motivated to pursue care work for internal reasons,...
in the United States refers to the lack of care work as the result of globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
. For the middle class, there has been an ongoing debate over who should take care of children: family members or child care providers However, the debate is slowly shifting to one concerning parents and child care providers to domestic workers. Globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
and the entrance of women into the workforce has prompted the mass immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
of transnational care chains - poor women who leave their home countries and go to developed countries to work specifically as domestic workers This has risen as an option for middle and upper-class families and a way of selling labor for many immigrant women.
Poor families, however, still do not have the same care work markets that middle class families do. Relying on formal child care providers is less disruptive and risky, but providers still pose a significant price problem.
Workplace
There are many workplace policiesworkplace policiesFamily-friendliness
Entertainment or information is called "family friendly" if it is considered suitable for all members of the average family. In particular it means that it is not considered inappropriate for children, which may imply restrictions on engagement in, or depiction of, nudity, sex, violence, horror,...
that can alleviate the burden of work-family balance for many middle-class families. Some options in family-friendly workplaces include providing paid leave or options for reduced hours. Workplaces are realizing that employees with well balanced family and work lives are actually valuable to firms : workplace childcare assistance can increase productivity productivity
Productivity
Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Usually this ratio is in the form of an average, expressing the total output divided by the total input...
and morale
Morale
Morale, also known as esprit de corps when discussing the morale of a group, is an intangible term used to describe the capacity of people to maintain belief in an institution or a goal, or even in oneself and others...
among employees, as well as lessen turnover
Turnover
-Business:*Turnover is sometimes a synonym for revenue , especially in European and South African usage.Services sold by a company during a particular period of time....
, accidents, and absenteeism
Absenteeism
Absenteeism is a habitual pattern of absence from a duty or obligation. Traditionally, absenteeism has been viewed as an indicator of poor individual performance, as well as a breach of an implicit contract between employee and employer; it was seen as a management problem, and framed in economic...
. Childcare options for working parents can be key in workplace satisfaction
Job satisfaction
Job satisfaction describes how content an individual is with his /her job. The happier people are within their job, the more satisfied they are said to be. Job satisfaction is not the same as motivation or aptitude, although it is clearly linked...
. Workplace supports such as personal time off, paid leave, on-site or nearby childcare, financial assistance for childcare, and other family-friendly policies are Western European workplace norms that could solve the work-family balance problem in the United States.
However, many constrains still exist. These workplace policies are largely only offered at higher salary jobshigher salary jobs
White-collar worker
The term white-collar worker refers to a person who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work, in contrast with a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor...
, which are once again out of reach for the poor. The huge lack of government funding at the state and federal levels also make these workplace policies unrealistic at this point.
Government Support
If government support for workplace family-friendly policies or childcare subsidies was stronger, many solutions could be attempted. For example, child are subsidies by the government actually result in less childcare and work disruptions and could impact low-income families as well by making childcare more affordable. However, government support is not at the level of other developed countries. Legislation such as the Family and Medical Leave Act had little impact on gender inequality in care work and was strongly opposed by businesses.See also
Sociology of the familySociology of the family
The Sociology of the family examines the family, as an institution and a unit of socialisation, through various sociological perspectives, particularly with regard to the relationship between the nuclear family and industrial capitalism, and the distinct gender roles and concepts of childhood which...
Time bind
Time bind
Time bind is a concept introduced by sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild in 1997 with the publication of her The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work...
Work-family conflict
Work-family conflict
Work–family conflict is “a form of interrole conflict in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect. That is participation in the work role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the family role”...
Work-life balance (United States)
Child care
Work-life balance
Work-life balance
Work–life balance is a broad concept including proper prioritizing between "work" on the one hand and "life" on the other. Related, though broader, terms include "lifestyle balance" and "life balance".-History:The work-leisure dichotomy was invented in the mid 1800s...
Double burden
Double burden
Double burden is a term describing the workload of men and women who work to earn money, but also have responsibility for unpaid, domestic labor. According to studies done dealing with a stressful environment chronically, such as a stressful job or household due to overwhelming responsibilities, is...
Care work
Care work
Care work is a sub-category of work that includes all tasks that directly involve care processes done in service of others. Oftentimes, it is differentiated from other forms of work because it is intrinsically motivated, meaning that people are motivated to pursue care work for internal reasons,...
Intra-household bargaining
Intra-household bargaining
Intra-household bargaining refers to negotiations that occur between members of a household in order to arrive at decisions regarding the household unit....