ERIC EJ944921: Changing Families, Changing Workplaces

2011·0.19 MB·English

by  ERIC

Changing Families, Changing Workplaces
Changing Families, Changing Workplaces
Suzanne M. Bianchi
Summary
American families and workplaces have both changed dramatically over the past half-century.
Paid work by women has increased sharply, as has family instability. Education-related inequal-
ity in work hours and income has grown. These changes, says Suzanne Bianchi, pose differing
work-life issues for parents at different points along the income distribution.
Between 1975 and 2009, the labor force rate of mothers with children under age eighteen
increased from 47.4 percent to 71.6 percent. Mothers today also return to work much sooner
after the birth of a child than did mothers half a century ago. High divorce rates and a sharp
rise in the share of births to unmarried mothers mean that more children are being raised by a
single parent, usually their mother.
Workplaces too have changed, observes Bianchi. Today’s employees increasingly work nonstan-
dard hours. The well-being of highly skilled workers and less-skilled workers has been diverg-
ing. For the former, work hours may be long, but income has soared. For lower-skill workers,
the lack of “good jobs” disconnects fathers from family obligations. Men who cannot find work
or have low earnings potential are much less likely to marry. For low-income women, many of
whom are single parents, the work-family dilemma is how to care adequately for children and
work enough hours to support them financially.
Jobs for working-class and lower middle-class workers are relatively stable, except in economic
downturns, but pay is low, and both parents must work full time to make ends meet. Family
income is too high to qualify for government subsidized child care, but too low to afford high-
quality care in the private market. These families struggle to have a reasonable family life and
provide for their family’s economic well-being.
Bianchi concludes that the “work and family” problem has no one solution because it is not one
problem. Some workers need more work and more money. Some need to take time off around
the birth of a child without permanently derailing a fulfilling career. Others need short-term
support to attend to a family health crisis. How best to meet this multiplicity of needs is the
challenge of the coming decade.
www.futureofchildren.org
Suzanne M. Bianchi is the Dorothy Meier Chair and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of
California–Los Angeles.
VOL. 21 / NO. 2 / FALL 2011 15
Suzanne M. Bianchi
All workers face times during usually the mother. As a result of these
their lives when the demands changes, adults in households with children
of family caregiving grow so became much more likely to juggle paid work
intense that balancing work and and unpaid family caregiving responsibili-
family life becomes a struggle. ties—making the tension between the two
A web of obligations—to a child who needs spheres much more apparent than it had been
care, a spouse who is ill, an older parent during the 1950s and 1960s, when women
who needs support, a sibling undergoing a tended to stay out of the labor force to rear
divorce—connects workers with their families. children while men brought home a “family
Workers are also obligated to their employ- wage” large enough to support everyone.1
ers, on whom they depend for the income and
other satisfactions that paid work provides. Increased Maternal Employment
The many responsibilities that workers have Between 1975 and 2009, the labor force rate
to their family members and to their jobs are of mothers with children under age eighteen
both important—and often in conflict. increased from 47.4 percent to 71.6 percent
(figure 1). For mothers of children under
Major changes in American families and age six, the share in the labor force rose
workplaces over the past half-century form from 39.0 percent to 63.6 percent. Mothers’
the backdrop for the work and family chal- employment rates rose steadily until about
lenges that face workers today. The biggest 2000 and then flattened out, leading some
changes in the family itself have been observers to believe that a retrenchment in
increases in paid work by women and in the trend toward gender equality might be
family instability, both of which have altered under way in the United States.2 The ensuing
family-related activities such as housework debate about whether mothers were increas-
and child care. Population aging has also ingly “opting out” of the paid workforce,
increased demand for care of parents and however, has subsided during the recent
older relatives. Workplace changes include an recession and its aftermath.3
increase in nonstandard work schedules and
greater education-related inequality in work In 2009, 74 percent of all employed mothers
hours and income. Although these family and worked full time (defined by the Bureau of
workplace changes affect all American Labor Statistics as at least thirty-five hours a
families, they result in quite different work- week at all jobs), and the full-time rate was
life issues for parents at the top, middle, and almost as high—71 percent—for mothers
bottom of the income distribution. with children under age six. Fathers’ rates
of participation in the labor force remained
Changing Families higher than those of mothers: 94 percent of
Over the second half of the twentieth century, fathers who were living with their children
U.S. family life changed dramatically in two were in the labor force, and 94 percent of
ways. The employment of women, especially employed fathers worked full time.4
mothers of young children, outside the home
surged. Family instability too increased Mothers today work during pregnancy
sharply, as did the likelihood that children more often and return to work much sooner
would be raised, at least for part of childhood, after the birth of a child than did mothers
in a household with only a single parent, half a century ago. During 1961–65, the
16 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN
Changing Families, Changing Workplaces
Figure 1. Labor Force Participation of Mothers
80
Children < 18
70 Children < 6
60
50
e
g
a
nt 40
e
c
Per 30
20
10
0
1975 1978 1981 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 2002 2005 2008
Source: March Current Population Survey.
Figure 2. Return to Work among First-Time Mothers
70
1961–1965
60 2001–2003
50
ge 40
a
nt
e
c 30
er
P
20
10
0
Child 3 months old Child 6 months old Child 12 months old
Source: Tallese Johnson, “Maternity Leave and Employment Patterns of First-Time Mothers, 1961–2003,” Current Population Reports,
P70–113 (Washington: U.S. Census Bureau, 2008).
share of women working during their first only 10 percent were back at work three
pregnancy was 44 percent; by 2001–03 it months after the baby’s birth. By 2001–03,
had climbed to two-thirds (based on data that share was 42 percent; the share back
collected in the Survey of Income and at work six months after the birth was 55
Program Participation).5 More dramatic was percent; and the share back at work by the
the change in the speed at which women child’s first birthday was 64 percent.
returned to work after the birth of their child,
as shown in figure 2. Among all women hav- Some observers might argue that compari-
ing their first child during the early 1960s, sons with the 1960s exaggerate the change
VOL. 21 / NO. 2 / FALL 2011 17
Suzanne M. Bianchi
World War II uncoupled as housing expanded
An unmarried mother in the and postwar affluence allowed for more
privacy in living arrangements. The large baby
United States today faces a
boom families with older daughters who could
high probability of becoming help care for younger children began to dis-
appear as families reduced fertility to replace-
both the main caregiver and
ment levels (two children per family) by the
the main breadwinner for her 1970s. Increasingly, parents were “on their
own” to juggle the work and family demands
family during at least part of
of modern life.
her child’s life.
Greater Family Instability and More
Single Parenting
As mothers’ labor force rates were climbing,
because family roles were highly specialized
families were facing other big changes.
along gender lines during that decade, with
Divorce rates rose sharply during the 1970s,
women providing the bulk of unpaid care in
causing more children to be raised by a single
the home and men providing the wage labor
parent, usually their mother. The divorce rate
that economically supported the family.
plateaued (at high levels) around 1980, but a
Earlier in the twentieth century—during the
second trend—the increase in the proportion
1920s and 1930s—women often combined
of births to unmarried mothers—continued to
rearing children with paid work, or unpaid
rise. Today, 40 percent of U.S. births are to a
family work, either on farms or in urban
woman who is not married.7 Sara McLanahan
ghettos where they took in boarders, laundry,
and Audrey Beck document that almost half
or piecework. Until the mid-twentieth
of unmarried mothers are cohabiting with the
century, however, married women most often
father when the child is born and another 30
did their paid work later in life, after they had
percent are romantically involved with the
raised their children, or in the household,
baby’s father. But these relationships are
where they could keep an eye on those
extremely unstable. Forty percent of cohabit-
children. During the second half of the
ing relationships and 80 percent of those
twentieth century, women of childbearing where the couple is romantically involved but
age moved into the workplace. To engage in not living together dissolve by the child’s fifth
paid work, they had to leave their children birthday.8 An unmarried mother in the United
and arrange for other people to care for them. States today faces a high probability of
becoming both the main caregiver and the
Susan Short, Frances Goldscheider, and main breadwinner for her family during at
Berna Torr show that as women’s paid work least part of her child’s life.
was increasingly moving outside the home,
the household itself was being transformed. High rates of nonmarital births are also com-
At the very time that parents could have used mon today throughout Europe, but the United
the help of others in the household to care for States tends to be exceptional in the high rates
children, households were “emptying out” of of dissolution of these nonmarital relation-
adult kin.6 Families that included three gener- ships, their short duration, and the lack of sus-
ations of kin during the Great Depression and tained father involvement in rearing children.
18 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN
Changing Families, Changing Workplaces
Andrew Cherlin, in his book The Marriage- Changes in Nonmarket Activities
Go-Round, documents that 10 percent of all in the Home
U.S. women have been in at least three dif- Labor force surveys, such as the Current
ferent marriages or cohabiting relationships, Population Survey, track trends in the num-
or both, by the time they turn thirty-five, ber and share of parents who work in the
more than twice the share for women in the paid labor force but not in what parents do
European countries with the highest rates of in their nonwork hours. Researchers inter-
union dissolution.9 The family system is more ested in trends in unpaid work in the home
turbulent in the United States than elsewhere,
have turned to evidence from time diaries in
and women spend more time as lone mothers,
which representative samples of respondents
rearing children without a father present, than
record their activities over a twenty-four-hour
do their European counterparts.
period. Time diary data, which are relatively
easy to collect, force respondents to respect
Single parents now head about one-quarter
the constraint of the twenty-four-hour
of U.S. households with children under the
day when reporting activities. Numerous
age of eighteen. Even though fathers now
methodological studies confirm that time
head about 15 percent of all single-parent
diary estimates are both reliable and valid.13
households, the overwhelming majority (85
Aggregating diary days across respondents
percent) of single parents are mothers.10
and across days of the week and weeks of the
Single parents may have as many child-
year yields a representative picture of time
related demands on their time as married
use for groups such as fathers or single moth-
parents do, but their households have only
ers. Beginning in 2003 in the United States,
half as many adults to meet those demands.11
the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) has
In 2009, single mothers had an overall labor
provided evidence for large representative
force participation rate of 75.8 percent,
samples. Combining the ATUS data with data
and an unemployment rate of 13.6 percent.
from earlier U.S. time diary studies makes it
Married mothers had a lower rate of partici-
possible to track trends over longer periods.
pation in the labor force, at 69.6 percent, but
their unemployment rate, at 5.8 percent, was
Time diary data show that housework hours
less than half that for single mothers. Thus,
for U.S. mothers fell from an average of
the ratio of “employment to population”
thirty-two hours a week (reported in 1965
was similar for the two groups of mothers.
time diaries) to just under eighteen hours
Single mothers’ high unemployment rates in
(reported in the 2003–08 ATUS), a decline of
part reflect their relatively low educational
attainment: 16.4 percent have no high school fourteen hours, on average. The change turns
degree and 30.3 percent have only a high out to be close to an equal work-housework
school degree. Not all single mothers are trade: mothers averaged thirteen more hours
poorly educated: 17.2 percent have college of market work during 2003–08 than in 1965
degrees (or higher) and 36.1 percent have as they shed housework hours. Most of the
spent some time in college. Fully 38.5 per- change was in “core housework” tasks: The
cent of two-parent households with children, time spent preparing and cleaning up after
however, have a parent with a college degree meals and doing laundry was almost halved,
or higher, and an additional 27.3 percent and housecleaning time fell more than
have a parent with some college education.12 one-third.14
VOL. 21 / NO. 2 / FALL 2011 19
Suzanne M. Bianchi
Mothers’ time devoted to child care followed their greater paid work effort. Sharon Hays
a different pattern. In the United States it describes what she calls the cultural contra-
declined from ten hours to eight and one- diction of modern motherhood: Mothers
half hours a week between 1965 and 1975 assume the co-provider role but still feel
(as large baby boom households gave way to compelled to be “all giving” and “ever avail-
households with fewer children). After 1985, able” to their children.20 Mary Blair-Loy
however, mothers’ primary child-care time analyzes a schema of “devotion to family” that
began rising—and reached almost fourteen competes with “devotion to work” even
hours a week during 2003–08 (according to among high-income professional mothers who
estimates from the ATUS).15 Time use data are most heavily invested in their jobs.21 Being
from European countries show similar pat- a good mother, devoted to one’s children, is a
terns. Maternal time invested in child-care core identity that does not change when
activities increased during the same period, women take on more hours of paid work.
despite rapid increases in women’s labor
force participation in virtually all European As adults, especially highly educated adults,
economies.16 Employed U.S. mothers today postpone parenthood and have smaller fami-
spend less time doing child care than non- lies, they may be planning their childbearing
employed mothers, but the allocation of time for a point in life when they want to devote
to children has ratcheted upward for both time to parenting. Middle-class children par-
groups. A comparison of mothers’ diaries ticipate in numerous extracurricular activi-
shows that employed mothers were record- ties, many of which require active parental
ing as much time doing primary child care in involvement, such as providing transporta-
2000 as nonemployed mothers did in 1975.17 tion.22 Parents may increasingly believe that
involving their children in a wide range of
As mothers increased their market work, activities ensures their ultimate educational
fathers’ time use patterns at home changed success.23 Annette Lareau, in her book
too. Fathers living with their children spent Unequal Childhoods, labels such parenting
more time on both housework and child care. “concerted cultivation,” and her follow-up
They more than doubled hours spent on interviews with children thus cultivated
housework between 1965 and 1985, from suggest they perform well in young adult-
four to ten hours a week on average. And hood, especially compared with peers from
after 1985, they nearly tripled time devoted families with less education and less involved
to primary child-care activities, averaging parenting.24
seven hours a week during 2003–08 com-
pared with two and a half hours a week Raising children in the United States today
during 1965–85.18 Extra time spent on child also requires substantial financial investment,
care came on top of long work hours—an because the lengthening transition to adult-
average of forty hours a week (based on time hood often requires parents to “backstop”
diary reports)—that varied little by the age of children unable to secure a foothold in the
their children.19 job market. The vast majority of children in
their early twenties—regardless of whether
Numerous qualitative studies suggest why they are enrolled in school—receive eco-
time allocated by mothers to child care may nomic assistance from their parents.25 Frank
remain the same or even increase despite Furstenberg Jr. argues that as the transition
20 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN
Changing Families, Changing Workplaces
to adulthood grows longer, the burden of need of care. Based on the National Long-
supporting adult children grows heavier Term Care Survey in 1994, when the average
for U.S. parents than for their counterparts number of adult children was at its peak, 5.5
in Europe, where governmental programs million chronically disabled elderly adults
invest more heavily in education, health care, had a total of 14.5 million potential spousal or
and job prospects for young people. Young child caregivers—about 3.1 potential care-
adults in the United States also experience givers per care recipient.29 The baby boom
more inequality in outcomes, reflecting generation, now reaching retirement age, had
inequality in the economic resources avail- much smaller families in adulthood than the
able to parents to assist their children.26 ones into which they were born—an average
of two, rather than three or four, children
Population Aging and Care of per family.30 Smaller family sizes translate to
Older Adults fewer siblings with whom to share care when
One final family change that looms large, a health crisis emerges for one’s parents. The
as the baby boom begins to retire, is the older baby boom cohorts have also experi-
increased likelihood that working adults will enced considerable lifetime marital instability,
have elderly parents who need care. Getting as have their children. Because of the increase
a reliable sense of either the number of in births outside marriage, cohabitation before
older adults who need care or the number of and after marriage, divorce and repartnering,
working-age adults who have an older parent, older parents now have numerous stepchil-
spouse, or other relative who requires care dren, but norms of obligation to assist family
is difficult, and estimates vary widely. For members may be less strong among stepfam-
example, the National Alliance for Caregiving, ily than among biological kin.31
in collaboration with AARP, estimated in 2009
that 65.7 million Americans, or 29 percent Improved health and declining disability
of the adult population, provided care for an rates among older people also complicate the
adult or a child with special needs in the pre- task of estimating the future need for elder
vious year.27 The Family Caregiver Alliance care. In part because they are healthier, older
has compiled a wide range of estimates adults today are working longer than did
of informal caregivers from different data their peers five decades ago. Over the past
sources. The highest estimate, from the 1987 fifteen years, in particular, the labor force
National Survey of Families and Households, rates for those in their sixties and seventies
is that 52 million people care for someone have risen.32 The working lives of older adults
aged twenty or older who is ill or disabled. are also being extended by the broad societal
The lowest estimate, from the 1994 wave of shift away from traditional defined-benefit
the National Long-Term Care Survey, is that retirement plans, the security of which tends
between 6 million and 7 million people care to encourage earlier retirement, and by older
for family, friends, or neighbors aged sixty- Americans’ increased educational attain-
five and older who need help with everyday ment, which enables them to stay in the labor
tasks.28 force longer than their less well-educated
counterparts.33
Another approach to assessing the “risk” of
becoming a caregiver is to estimate the num- The lengthening of healthy life expectancy
ber of potential caregivers per elderly adult in means that most workers do not face serious
VOL. 21 / NO. 2 / FALL 2011 21
Suzanne M. Bianchi
caregiving demands from their parents until Monday through Friday, mostly during the
their own children are older and less in need day. About one-fifth of employed Americans,
of day-to-day care. Here again, though, however, work more than half of their hours
estimates vary widely. Depending on the outside the 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. standard
definition of caregiving responsibilities, daytime hours, or work a rotating schedule,
between 1 and 33 percent of women in their or work varying hours. The incidence of non-
late forties and early fifties are providing care standard work schedules in the United States
and support to children and parents simulta- is roughly in line with that in Europe, where
neously. The best estimate is that about 9 between 15 and 25 percent of the workforce
percent of women in this age group are works nonstandard hours. One in three
“sandwiched” caregivers who are providing employed Americans works at least one day
substantial care and support both to children on the weekend, though less than 1 percent
and to parents.34 Although sandwiched work only on the weekend. Weekend work
caregivers are a little less likely to be in the is more variable in Europe, ranging in one
labor force than those who are not supporting study of twelve countries from a low of 10
two generations, labor force rates are high for percent (in Sweden) to a high of 35 percent
both groups (72 percent compared with 76 (in Italy).36
percent). The likelihood that middle-aged
workers will need to provide care both up
and down the generations may increase in Because inequality in the
coming years, because of delayed childbear-
workplace has increased,
ing, especially among highly educated
women. And because of the increase in workers at different points in
women’s employment, more and more of the
the income distribution face
potential caregivers of unmarried elderly
parents, the group who most often require quite different work-family
assistance from their adult children, will be in
dilemmas.
the workforce.
Changing Workplaces
As families have changed, so too have work- Some analysts are concerned that nonstan-
places—as well as the economic outlook for dard work schedules, and the workplaces that
working families. Harriet Presser has chroni- require them, may be “family unfriendly”—
cled the growth in the “24/7” economy—work affecting adversely the health of workers and
at nonstandard hours, part-time work, work curtailing the time that parents spend with
without fixed hours, and rotating schedules.35 each other and their children. Virtually all
And because inequality in the workplace has studies of the “effects” of nonstandard work
increased, workers at different points in the schedules on families find correlations, but
income distribution face quite different work- not causal links, between the two, because
family dilemmas. the studies are based on observational rather
than experimental designs. One study, which
Nonstandard Work Hours finds that preschool-age children of mothers
The standard full-time workweek is typically with nonstandard work hours have lower
considered to be thirty-five to forty hours, cognitive scores than do children whose
22 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN
Changing Families, Changing Workplaces
mothers work during the daytime, posits that Because all of these studies are observational,
the lower scores may be attributable to however, these links may not be causal.
lower-quality child care.37 Other studies
explore whether parental work in the eve- Not all associations between nonstandard
nings or on weekends may be costly to older work schedules and the quality of family
children, in terms of lack of supervision, life are negative. Nonstandard hours may
more behavioral problems, less parental enhance children’s welfare when parents
availability to help with homework, and poor coordinate their work schedules (at least
child mental health.38 The studies do not in two-parent homes) to reduce the use of
establish causal connections, however, nonparental care and make one parent avail-
because parents who work nonstandard able to their children during both the day and
schedules are not a random subset of all evening hours. Care of children in two-parent
workers: Their children may have experi- families may also be more equitably distrib-
enced the same outcomes regardless of uted between mothers and fathers when one
their parents’ work schedules. or both parents work nonstandard schedules.
When mothers work evenings rather than
Descriptive evidence from the ATUS daytime hours, fathers are more involved in
suggests that married parents record child care, spend more time with and take
spending less time with each other and more sole responsibility for children, and are
with their children when they work non- generally more knowledgeable about their
standard hours on their diary day. Mothers children’s lives and activities.44 Parents work-
who work evening hours spend less time in ing at night often spend more hours super-
routine child-care activities, such as bathing vising children than do those working other
children, and less time reading to children schedules.45
than do mothers who work during the day.
Evening work schedules reduce the likeli- Part-Time Work
hood of parents being present at the family In 2007, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
dinner table, and parents who work in the reported that 17 percent of all workers aged
evening or at night spend less time with their sixteen and over worked part time—defined
spouses, and less time watching television as usually working less than 35 hours a week.
and sleeping.39 Part-time workers tend to be younger than
full-time workers, although many older
Work schedules may also affect the mental workers are employed part time. Women
health of adult family members.40 A study much more often work part time than men.
of nurses in dual-earner families found that The BLS categorizes part-time work as being
those who worked evening shifts had more involuntary (primarily because of economic
conflict and distress than those working day reasons such as slack work) or voluntary.
shifts.41 Among new parents in working-class, Working part time because of family caregiv-
dual-earner families, shift work was linked to ing responsibilities is considered voluntary,
higher levels of depression. Parents working even though choosing part-time work to meet
a rotating shift experienced lowered marital caregiving obligations may not in fact be
relationship quality.42 Particularly stressful completely voluntary. Part-time workers in
were mismatches between children’s school the United States are much less likely than
schedules and parents’ work schedules.43 full-time workers to have benefits such as
VOL. 21 / NO. 2 / FALL 2011 23
Suzanne M. Bianchi
health care or pension coverage, in part High-Income Families,
because part-time work evolved to attract High-Skill Workers
married women into the labor market during At the high end of the skill distribution, work
the 1940s and 1950s, with the presumption hours may be long, but remuneration is high
that these “secondary” workers would have and income has soared. Dual-earner couples
husbands whose jobs had fringe benefits.46 increasingly fill these ranks. Growing mari-
Today, however, a little more than one-third tal homogamy by educational status means
of part-time workers are the family’s major that workers in long-work-hour “good jobs”
breadwinner, and that share has been rising. are increasingly married to each other.50
Part-time workers who are a family’s primary Although men have increased their time in
earner are much less well-off, given their low the home, this solution to the work-family
incomes and lack of fringe benefits, than dilemma has its limits. Hence, upper- and
part-time workers who are secondary earners middle-class couples seem to make one of
and enjoy benefits from another household two adjustments in this context of “too much
earner.47 work.” Either they forgo having children—
childlessness has risen recently among women
Inequality in Employment and Work- in the United States (and in Europe and
Family Dilemmas Japan). Or mothers (but not fathers) scale
Workplaces have been characterized by back labor market hours and move in and out
growing inequality in the income of highly of the labor force when children are young.
skilled and less-skilled workers during the
past few decades.48 For workers at the top of Childlessness
the income-skill distribution, the work-family A sizable proportion of highly educated
dilemma often involves well-remunerated, women in recent cohorts has remained child-
interesting jobs that have long work hours less. Among American women today aged
and offer few alternatives to full-time “devo- forty to forty-four, 20 percent have never had
tion” to the workplace. For the low-skill a child, double the share thirty years ago.
worker, a major work-family dilemma often The share rises to 27 percent for those with
involves work that offers too few hours with graduate or professional degrees.51 Highly
too little pay to support a family adequately, educated women, as a group, tend to have
or that offers too little flexibility in work shifts fewer children than they say they wanted
to enable workers to care adequately for earlier in their lives. The 1979 BLS National
their children. For families in the middle of Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which inter-
the income distribution, the dilemma is that viewed a large, nationally representative
wages are too high to qualify for public assis- group beginning when they were teenagers
tance, but that work offers little flexibility, or young adults and then regularly conducted
requires mandatory overtime on short notice, follow-up interviews over many years, asked
or offers wages that can support a family only young women how many children they
if both parents in two-parent families work wanted to have. Over time the total fertility
full time or if single parents hold multiple rate for college-educated women was lower
jobs. These middle-income families have, (by about one-half a child, averaged over
in addition, been more deeply affected by the group) than their stated intentions at the
the recent recession than higher-income beginning of their childrearing years, suggest-
families.49 ing either that these women had difficulty
24 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN