Adaptive Strategies,Gender Ideology,and Work‐Family Balance Among Dutch Dual Earners

Using questionnaire data on 149 Dutch dual‐earner couples with young children participating in the European Famwork study, we examine how adaptive strategies and gender ideology relate to parents’ perceived success in balancing work and family. Path analysis indicates that some adaptive strategies may harm individuals’ work‐family balance, particularly when they are made in the domain where the time budget is limited. In the need to succeed in multiple roles, however, endorsement of traits traditionally linked with the opposite gender, that is masculine traits for women and feminine traits for men, seems beneficial. We speculate that two underlying mechanisms — social pressure and time constraints — jointly operate in determining perceived success in balancing work and family.     

Parent Care as Unpaid Family Labor: How Do Spouses Share?

The study adapts theories of the household division of labor to the division of parent care between spouses and expands them by taking the kin relationship with the parent and the intensity of care into account. Tobit and weighted logit models are used to analyze the division of parent care in 2,214 couples from the British General Household Surveys. The models revealed patterns of parent care that are predominantly governed by the kin relationship. Time availability was strongly associated with couples' division of parent care, whereas the resource‐bargaining approach received little support except for dual‐earner couples that provided more intensive care for the husband's parents. Children‐in‐law's characteristics were hardly related to the division of high‐intensity caregiving in dual‐earner couples.     

Change in Work‐Family Conflict Among Employed Parents Between 1977 and 1997

Using data from two national surveys (N = 2,050), this paper examines what accounts for the increase in the sense of work‐family conflict among employed parents between 1977 and 1997. Decomposition analysis indicates that the increases in women’s labor force participation, college education, time pressure in completing one’s job, and the decline in free time were related to the increase. Fathers in dual‐earner marriages experienced a particular increase in work‐family conflict. With the same amount of time spent with children, parents felt greater work‐family conflict in 1997 than in 1977. Although masked by the overall increase, some trends, such as the increases in intrinsic job rewards, time with children, and egalitarian gender attitudes, contributed to a decline in work‐family conflict.     

Contextualizing the Education Effect on Women's Employment: A Cross‐National Comparative Analysis

The authors examine how and why the effect of education on women's employment varies cross‐nationally. First, they present a theoretical model that (a) outlines the micro‐level mechanisms underlying education effects on women's employment in the couple context and (b) proposes contextual moderators at the country level. Second, they test the theoretical model against survey data from the United Nations' Generations and Gender Programme for 5 European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, and Norway). The data comprise 10,048 educationally homogamous heterosexual couples involving a woman age 20–45. The results indicate that more highly educated couples are more likely to have dual‐earner arrangements in each country, yet the strength of education effects varied substantially between countries and across the family life cycle. In contrast to prior work, the authors find that education effects are not generally smaller in countries that are supportive of women's employment. This relation holds only for later child‐rearing phases.     

Parents’ Workplace Situation and Fathers’ Parental Leave Use

This study examines how the workplace situation of both parents affects fathers’ parental leave use. We used parental leave‐taking register data from Statistics Sweden for dual‐earner couples who resided in Stockholm and had children in 1997 (n= 3,755). The results indicate that fathers shorten their parental leave if their workplaces are such that one can expect leave to be associated with high costs and that fathers appear to be influenced by the leave use of other fathers in the workplace. Mothers’ workplace situation appears to be less important for fathers’ leave use. The results point to the importance of actors other than parents (such as employers) for understanding the gender‐based division of child care.     

Work—Family Interface for Same‐Sex,Dual‐Earner Couples: Implications for Counselors

The author highlights information for career counselors to consider when addressing work‐family interface with individuals who are members of same‐sex, dual‐earner couples or families. D. E. Super's (1990) life‐span, life‐space theory is the framework used to organize the literature review and discussion of current trends. Issues related to the roles of worker, partner, parent, stepparent, and caregiver are discussed. Suggestions are provided for career counselors.     

How Dual Are Dual‐Income Couples? Documenting Change From 1970 to 2001

Using Current Population Survey data for 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2001 (N =73,001), we document change in the prevalence of couples where (a) the wife contributes less than 40% of the family income, (b) income contributions are relatively equal, and (c) the wife's income contribution surpasses her husband's contribution. In 1970, close to 90% of couples had conventional earning arrangements: The husband was the sole provider in 56% of couples and contributed 60% or more of the income in an additional 31% of couples. By 2001, husbands were still the sole (25%) or major provider (39%) in a majority (64%) of couples but wives shared equally in providing income in 24% of couples, more than double the 9% in 1970. Additionally, wives as primary (or sole) earners increased from 4% to 12%. We investigate the associations between income provisioning within dual‐income families and ongoing cohort replacement by younger couples, women's increased human capital, life course processes, couple's labor supply, and race. Our findings suggest that wives’ increased human capital and couple's labor supply were strongly associated with increased female breadwinning patterns, but age cohort replacement processes and life stage factors also played a role in explaining change over time.     

Within‐ and Between‐Family Associations of Marital Functioning and Child Well‐being

This study clarifies within‐family and between‐family links between marital functioning and child well‐being. Expanding on existing prospective research, this study tests whether changes in parents' marital functioning are associated with corresponding changes in their children's well‐being, independent from associations that exist when comparing different families. Participants (N = 1,033) were members of married, opposite‐sex couples with children who participated in five waves of a larger study of marriage in the U.S. Army. Spouses' constructive communication, verbal conflict, and marital satisfaction each showed between‐family associations with parent‐reported child internalizing and externalizing problems. In contrast, within‐family associations were significant only for parents' communication behaviors. That is, parents who reported lower levels of marital satisfaction also reported lower child well‐being, whereas change in parents' communication was associated with change in child well‐being over time. Isolating within‐family effects is important for understanding marital and child functioning and for identifying potential targets for effective intervention.     

Unsociable Work? Nonstandard Work Schedules,Family Relationships,and Children’s Well‐Being

Many children live in families where one or both parents work evenings, nights, or weekends. Do these work schedules affect family relationships or well‐being? Using cross‐sectional survey data from dual‐earner Canadian families (N= 4,306) with children aged 2 – 11 years (N= 6,156), we compared families where parents worked standard weekday times with those where parents worked nonstandard schedules. Parents working nonstandard schedules reported worse family functioning, more depressive symptoms, and less effective parenting. Their children were also more likely to have social and emotional difficulties, and these associations were partially mediated through family relationships and parent well‐being. For some families, work in the 24‐hour economy may strain the well‐being of parents and children.     

Dual‐earner parent couples’ work and care during COVID‐19

COVID‐19 and the associated lockdowns meant many working parents were faced with doing paid work and family care at home simultaneously. To investigate how they managed, this article draws a subsample of parents in dual‐earner couples (n = 1536) from a national survey of 2722 Australian men and women conducted during lockdown in May 2020. It asked how much time respondents spent in paid and unpaid labour, including both active and supervisory care, and about their satisfaction with work–family balance and how their partner shared the load. Overall, paid work time was slightly lower and unpaid work time was very much higher during lockdown than before it. These time changes were most for mothers, but gender gaps somewhat narrowed because the relative increase in childcare was higher for fathers. More mothers than fathers were dissatisfied with their work–family balance and partner’s share before COVID‐19. For some the pandemic improved satisfaction levels, but for most they became worse. Again, some gender differences narrowed, mainly because more fathers also felt negatively during lockdown than they had before.     

Migration Decisions Within Dual‐Earner Partnerships: A Test of Bargaining Theory

This article focuses on the problems faced by dual‐earner partnerships arising from the regional coordination of the partners' careers. It is still unknown whether the fact that couples are less mobile than singles is caused by homogeneous preferences within couples or by a process of balancing conflicting interests. Consequently, we analyze the potential conflicts provoked by work‐related migration incentives. We test hypotheses derived from bargaining theory using quasi‐experimental data from a factorial survey of nearly 280 European couples. Our results support the bargaining approach and confirm that asymmetrical shifts in bargaining power drive the potential for conflict. Women's willingness to move is generally less than men's, but the impact of employment prospects differs only slightly by gender.     

Joint and Separated Lifestyles in Couple Relationships

A survey among 1,523 married and cohabiting couples in the Netherlands is used to describe the extent to which couples have lifestyles characterized by separate leisure pursuits. Four types of leisure are examined: visiting friends and family, entertainment, outdoor recreation, and indoor leisure. For these activities, we find that contemporary couples cannot be characterized as highly individualized. Next, we analyze why some couples have a more separated lifestyle than others. Hypotheses are developed about the life cycle of the couple, the couple's work life, social and cultural homogamy, and value orientations. Multivariate analyses show that life cycle factors are an important determinant of separate lifestyles, whereas evidence for the role of values and homogamy is modest. We also present evidence revealing the time constraints that children and work schedules pose for realizing a joint lifestyle, but we do not find that spouses in dual‐earner couples generally operate more separately than do other couples.     

When She Earns More Than He Does: A Longitudinal Study of Dual‐Earner Couples

In a random sample of 286 full‐time‐employed dual‐earner couples, we tested 3 competing hypotheses: when wives earn more than their husbands, (a) each partner's marital‐role quality (MRQ) decreases; (b) his MRQ increases, whereas effects on her MRQ are mixed; and (c) relationships vary with gender‐role beliefs (i.e., gender‐role ideology and subjective rewards of salary). We conceptualized salary as a couple‐level predictor with 4 components, 2 time varying and 2 time invariant, and estimated the relationship between 2 time‐varying components and MRQ. Women's MRQ was not significantly related to change in relative earnings. However, among men, the relationship varied by salary rewards.     

We’re Decent People: Constructing and Managing Family Identity in Rural Working‐Class Communities

Using grounded theory methodology, I establish family identity management as an important type of invisible work that connects women's household‐based domestic activities with community members’ perceptions and treatment of them and their family members. Detailed observations of household routines and family interactions, as well as in‐depth interviews with working‐class women living in two rural trailer park communities, provide insight into the meanings women assign to this labor, and their motivations for performing this work. I describe the strategies that women use to accomplish the work, examine how the work supports family life and child development, and explain how the residential environment influences the organization and accomplishment of this work.     

Gender Asymmetry in Family Migration: Occupational Inequality or Interspousal Comparative Advantage?

This paper examines gender inequality in the determinants of job‐related long‐distance migration among married dual‐earner couples during the 1980s and 1990s. The analysis tested the structural explanation, which attributes gender asymmetry in family migration to structural inequality in the labor market, and the comparative advantage explanation derived from relative resource theory. The analysis used individual‐ and family‐level data from 5,504 Panel Study of Income Dynamics families, occupation‐level data from the 1980–2000 U.S. Decennial Censuses Integrated Public Use Micro Samples, and discrete‐time event history models. Gender differences in the determinants of family migration were not explained by gender differences in occupational characteristics, but the results partially support the relative resource theory by illustrating the conditioning influence of interspousal comparative advantage.     

Parental Work Demands and the Frequency of Child‐Related Routine and Interactive Activities

This study examined whether the frequency of child‐related activities was associated with parents' own work demands and those of their partners. In addition to parental paid working hours, we considered the parents' organizational culture and experienced job insecurity. Moreover, we differentiated between child‐related routine and interactive activities. Using self‐collected data on 639 Dutch couples with children, we found that paid working hours were consistently associated with a lower frequency of child‐related activities. Fathers generally responded more strongly to their own and their partner's work demands than mothers. For fathers, both their own and their partner's work demands were more strongly associated with routine than with interactive activities. Mothers did not differentiate between these activities, however.     

When everyday life is double looped. Exploring children's (and parents’) perspectives on post‐divorce family life with two households

This article explores children's perspectives on post‐divorce family life with time‐sharing arrangements, focusing on the children's experiences of dilemmas and constraints, but also on new possibilities. In many ways, the everyday lives of children who commute between two households are double looped. These children have to be attentive to the routines, expectations and demands of each household. By assessing their conduct of everyday life, this article elucidates what children do to adapt to and make sense of this double‐looped situation. This article examines how differences between households affect children's ways of understanding themselves and their family lives.     

Gender cultures and the division of labour in contemporary Europe: a cross‐national perspective

Drawing on the vast literature concerned with the cultural aspects of gender, this article explores the ways in which individuals living in different national contexts value the ideal of a dual earner/dual carer couple at the expense of the male breadwinner model. Via a comparison of fifteen European countries included in the Family and Gender Roles module of the 2002 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), three attitudinal patterns were identified: the unequal sharing that portrays a male breadwinner norm, the familistic unequal that also endorses a gender‐segregated arrangement though with a greater wish for men's involvement in housework and childcare, and the dual earner/dual carer model, which, despite covering nearly 40 per cent of respondents, is very unequally distributed across countries. It is proposed that societal gender cultures are of major importance to an understanding of cross‐national variations in attitudes and their relationship with the real forms of gender division of labour. The connection between couples' attitudes and practices is thus examined in order to assess the extent to which support for the dual earner/dual carer model encourages couples to engage in more equal sharing of paid and unpaid work. Findings reveal the importance of the normative dimension insofar as the impact of attitudes on practices seems to depend on the historical pathways of gender cultures and the ways in which they underpin welfare policies and female employment.     

Occupational Self‐Direction,Values, and Egalitarian Relationships: A Study of Dual‐Earner Couples

This study examines the associations between husbands' and wives' experiences at work and their attitudes about and behaviors in marriage, using a framework informed by the ideas of Kohn (1969, 1977) . Specifically, it was hypothesized that experiences of self‐direction at work would be associated with greater endorsement of values associated with self‐direction. Further, it was predicted that those who value self‐direction more would both prefer and adopt more egalitarian arrangements in their marriages. These hypotheses were tested with a sample of 167 dual‐earner couples. Results supported the hypotheses and suggested that values mediate the relationships between occupational self‐direction and both attitudes about marital roles and the division of household labor. The pattern of results suggests that this framework is a useful perspective for examining the construct of marital equality.     

Time Alone or Together? Trends and Trade‐offs Among Dual‐Earner Couples,Sweden 1990–2010

In recent decades, the dual‐earner couple has become increasingly normative, potentially reducing the time couples and families spend together. The authors investigated how coupled individuals allocated time together, alone, with children, and as a family, exploring changes between 1990 and 2010 in Sweden using three waves of the Swedish Time Use Survey (N = 9,544). Ordinary least squares and decomposition analyses find a trend toward time together over time alone, with childless couples spending similar time together and parents increasing family time. The shift toward family time evolved differently for men and women, indicating gender convergence in private and public spheres, but at higher costs of time alone for women. Change is behavioral and general, applying quite equally across gender and educational groups. There are educational gradients concerning time with children and certain qualitative aspects of time together, indicating that dual‐earner society may be family friendly, but not equally for all.