Work-Family Balance

History

The relationship between the domains of work and family has undergone many shifts in the United States. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, families tended to work together, usually where they lived (farms, small businesses), in sustainable ways. Although men's and women's roles within those families differed (men engaged in manual labor and trade; women were in charge of sustenance, family needs, and domestic tasks), all of the duties were seen as of equal necessity and importance. Further, the education and care of children was equally divided, as children accompanied their same-sex parent in the performance of work. At this point in history, childhood was short: children became “little adults” as soon as they were able.

The Industrial Revolution and the accompanying geographic shift of work from home to cities resulted in a separation of those two domains. Sustainability was now segregated into two separate spheres and gender-specific roles. Shortly thereafter the ideology of [Page 1681]separate spheres emerged: men's sphere was public and regulated, while the domain of women remained private and unregulated. Men governed the family, social and political institutions, and the economy, while women managed the home, emotions, culture, morality, and children. This doctrine of separate spheres remained dominant until quite recently. Further, ideas about the ideal mother (careworker), ideal father (breadwinner), and the ideal worker (an employee primarily dedicated to his paid job) proliferated.

During and after World War I, women began to express interest in personal satisfaction, and ambition, but their participation in the labor force did not increase until the Great Depression and World War II. Nevertheless, the right of the married woman to work was debated vociferously and was a tenet of early feminism. Ultimately, because of the draft and the war, women were needed to work in factories and businesses. The image of Rosie the Riveter was a patriotically inspiring image, new dignity was conferred on women's wage work, and women liked going to work. Their wage work acquired unprecedented public prominence and contributed significantly to the economy. After World War II, men reclaimed their manufacturing jobs, and women's labor participation reached its lowest level of the century. Women were strongly encouraged to return home, and the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and the Family Wage Act of 1939 plus the enticement of home ownership and the new domestic labor-saving devices facilitated that choice. Men's earning power grew, and women's work was discouraged. Women's experience at work during the war, however, had altered women's attitudes about work considerably, and even though the economic upturn during the 1950s resulted in the ability of many men to support their families on one income, women were attracted to the labor market. During the last quarter of the 20th century, a number of forces coalesced to change women's labor force participation: (1) increasing access to higher education for women; (2) the Women's Movement, which successfully advocated for equal opportunity for women in the workplace; (3) the introduction of birth control; (4) the increase in the age of marriage; (5) the decrease in the fertility rate; (6) the increasing divorce rate; (7) the steady decline in the earning power of men's wages; and (8) an increase in Americans' material expectations. By the 1960s, the traditional breadwinner-homemaker lifestyle began to give way to the current normative pattern: the dual-earner couple, in which both members work for pay. Today, more than half of all married couples both work, as do 66.5% (as of 2005) of all parents, and 57% of couples with children under the age of 6. Further, the average amount of time that couples spend at work has increased dramatically (by about 10 hours a week) in the last 20 years.

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