Practices of Dual Earner Couples Successfully Balancing Work and Family

Researchers have long explored conflict and strain in dual-career couples. Recently, the focus has begun to shift toward documenting the adaptive strategies of dual-earner couples in balancing family and work. The current study investigates workplace practices perceived as supportive in balancing work and family. Respondents were middle-class, dual-earner couples (N=47) who described themselves as successful in balancing family and work. These supportive practices include: flexible work scheduling, non-traditional work hours, professional/job autonomy, working from home, supportive supervisors, supportive colleagues and supervisees, and the ability to set firm boundaries around work. Additionally, many participants describe their efforts to actively secure employment at workplaces that offered family–friendly alternatives, and describe the tradeoffs they are willing to make.     

Integrating Educational Careers in Work and Family

Educational careers are shaped by both work and family roles. This study compares middle-class dual-earner couples in which wives were currently returned to school (N = 124) with couples in which the wives had never returned to school (N = 866). These data are combined with additional in-depth interviews with 24 women who returned to school. Our life course perspective highlights why working women return to school, the resistance they experience in redefining family roles, and outcomes on family and marital satisfaction. Gendered family adaptive strategies, made earlier in the life course, are associated with the decisions to return to school and the negative impact this decision has on family life quality.     

The division of domestic work among dual-career and other dual-earner couples in Finland

This study compares the division of domestic work among dual-career and other dual-earner couples. We examine whether gender attitudes, relative resources and working time explain the differences between dual-career and other dual-earner couples. We define dual-career couples as those in which both spouses are professionals and/or managers. The division of housework is important for these couples because of the intense pressures of work. We hypothesise that domestic work is more equally shared among dual-career couples than among other dual-earner couples. The quantitative analyses are based on the Finnish data from the 2010 European Social Survey (N?=?493). The qualitative data consist of 20 Finnish career spouses interviewed in 2005. The quantitative analysis indicates that domestic work is shared the most equally among couples where the woman or both spouses have a career status. Attitudes, resources or working time do not explain this difference entirely. The results support the class culture hypothesis: The division of housework is most equal in homogeneous dual-career couples and least equal in homogeneous no-career couples.     

Dual-earner couples and the decision to work less: A conceptual model

This paper examines the factors that affect the decision made by dual-earner couples concerning the possibility of one (or both) partners working a reduced-hours schedule. We rely on a comprehensive review of the literature on part-time work among dual-earner couples and on the factors that affect the decisions couples make about their work hours as well as preliminary findings from our ongoing study to consider two key questions: (1) What factors do dual-earner couples take into account when they consider whether one or both might work a reduced-hours schedule? (2) If the couple decides that one partner will work a reduced-hours schedule, how do they decide which partner reduces the hours of employment? Most previous research has focused on the centrality of gender in the decisions that couples make concerning the hours that they work. However, our review of the literature and the preliminary findings of our current research suggest that there are other factors that affect (directly or indirectly) the couples' decisions related to part-time options. Based on this review we present a new decision-making model for two-earner couples that will have implications for future research and policy initiatives. This paper is particularly timely for several reasons: the number of dual-earner couples continues to increase; there is some indication that more employees would choose to reduce their work hours if that were a viable option; and recently, managers and professional workers have become more vocal about their interest in part-time career options.     

Reconsidering work time: a multivariate longitudinal within-couple analysis

Dual-earner couples now work significantly more hours than in the past, but few couple-level studies examine whether work hours are linked to mental health and quality-of-life outcomes. In 2001, Jacobs and Gerson proposed that combined spouse work hours would better predict outcomes than would spouses’ individual work hours. Longitudinal data from a random sample of 211 dual-earner couples with children partially support this hypothesis. Our findings suggest that future research on dual-earner couples’ work hours should be couple-level and longitudinal, estimate both linear and non-linear relationships, and include multiple positive and negative outcomes as well as subjective indicators of the meaning of work hours.     

Work–Family Conflict and Couple Relationship Quality: A Meta-analytic Study

This study examined the association between work–family conflict and couple relationship quality. We conducted a meta-analytic review of 49 samples from 33 papers published between 1986 and 2014. The results indicated that there was a significant negative relationship between work–family conflict and couple relationship quality (r = ?.19, k = 49). Several moderators were included in this analysis: gender, region, parental status, dual-earner status, and the measures used for work–family conflict and marital quality variables. The strength of the relationship varied based on the region of the sample—samples from Europe and Asia had a significantly weaker relationship between work–family conflict and relationship quality than those from North America. In addition, the relationship was significantly weaker in samples of dual-earner couples and when non-standardized scales were used. Implications of the results and directions for future research are suggested.     

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.     

CHANGING FAMILIES/CHANGING COMMUNITIES

Scholars writing about community in recent years have been more likely to lament its passing than celebrate its exemplars. What's missing in this recent revival of interest in community is a systematic link with work–family issues and, in particular, an explicit recognition that women's and men's work–family lives have changed dramatically in the post-World War II era. We investigate the consequences of structural shifts in our family and work lives for a sample of elite, managerial women in dual-earner marriages, a population for whom work and family concerns are both immediate and salient. Understanding changing definitions of, and trends in, family and work can provide a useful lens through which we can profitably address recent debates about the decline or resurgence of community and civic society. Our findings suggest that, although conceived differently than in previous decades, family remains central to our respondents’ sense of community and structures their civic engagement. In contrast with previous generations of women, however, work is also important, for defining women's sense of self and community and for offering an alternative venue for community service.     

Differences in Work-to-Family and Family-to-Work Spillover Among Professional and Nonprofessional Workers

We examine work-to-family and family-to-work spillover for professional and nonprofessional members of dual-earner couples. Separate analyses (multiple analysis of variance [MANOVA]) are conducted for men and women. We include variables in our model that help us understand differences between workers, including age of respondent, number of children, occupational status, employment status, and an interaction effect between children and work hours. To determine whether particular work benefits are influential, we add work flexibility as a covariate in a second model. Our findings do not support the assertion made in the literature that nonprofessional workers are less likely than professional workers to feel pressures from work to family.     

Hours of Paid Work in Dual-Earner Couples: The United States in Cross-National Perspective

Abstract

In this paper we examine the hours of paid work of husbands and wives in 10 industrialized countries, using data from the Luxembourg Income Study. We present results on the average hours of paid work put in jointly by couples, on the proportion working very long weekly hours, and on gender equality in working time within families. The United States ranks at or near the top on most indicators of working time for couples, because of (1) a high proportion of dual-earner couples; (2) long average work weeks, especially among women; and (3) a high proportion of individuals who work very long hours. In terms of gender equality, the United States ranks above average in paid working time among dual-earner couples with no children but fares less well among working parents. Finally, we discuss policies and institutions that may help explain the distinctive United States results, namely the long hours and moderate levels of gender equality, including the regulation of maximum hours, the demand for part-time work, and the public provision of child care.     

A Family Matter

Abstract

The 2004 debate over civil marriage for same-gender couples highlights issues faced by mixed-orientation couples after one of the spouses comes out as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. The disclosure becomes a family matter as their spouses and children cope with the new information and antigay attitudes. The majority of couples divorce. A minority stays married for three years or more by developing strategies that enhance the relationship, offset outside pressures, and sustain the family circle. Peers provide the most support, while therapists are often unfamiliar with sexual orientation, mixed orientation couples, or societal attitudes that impact families with a gay, lesbian, or bisexual parent. This article provides that information so that professionals can help these couples improve the quality of their lives and develop skills to create a future in which homosexuality, same-gender relationships, and gay parenting are more widely accepted and legalized. This development would decrease the number of mixed-orientation marriages with closeted spouses and increase the potential for both types of families to form lasting marriages and strong family units.     

Balancing work and childcare – the legacy of a gender equality experiment

This paper addresses work–family articulation and gender issues in a generational context. The goal of the paper is to gain insight into the potential for change in time-squeezed dual-earner families through research intervention at the level of the household in ways responsive to gender equality. It draws on qualitative interviews with men and women whose parents participated in a research experiment in Norway in the 1970s. The couples who participated in the experiment were supposed to share domestic responsibilities and both spouses were to hold part-time jobs. The paper explores memories about growing up in experimenting families. It raises the question of whether innovative work-sharing strategies were reproduced when the next generation started having children. Childhood memories were found to be very positive, and the next generation shared the egalitarian values of their parents. The part-time/work-sharing model was, however, reproduced in only a few cases for a short period. The paper argues that generational transmission had a rather weak formative impact on a practical level, while opportunity structure in accordance with welfare state measures tended to direct the work–family articulation of the next generation.     

Time,Gender, and the Negotiation of Family Schedules

I examine the interactive processes by which women and men negotiate family time schedules. Based on fifty interviews with seventeen dual‐earner couples, I focus on the ways men and women define time in gendered ways, exert different controls over the way time is used, and align their time strategies in the course of managing everyday family life. The results indicate that there are both continuities and discontinuities with the past: women continue to exert more control over the organization of time in families, but time negotiation itself has become a more complex and demanding activity. The way that couples carry out these negotiations reflects a variety of adaptive strategies, with some couples being very reactive in contending with present demands and others being highly structured and seeking to anticipate and control the future. Although some couples worked to negotiate balance in their time responsibilities, it was wives who maintained control over time and, ultimately, the orchestration of family activity.     

Dual Earner Husbands and Wives: Marital Satisfaction and the Workplace Culture of Each Spouse

This article focuses on the relationship between workplace culture and marital satisfaction for dual-earner husbands and wives (N?=?156 couples). We use contagion theory as a framework, and posit that the experiences of both partners contribute to perceptions of marital satisfaction held by individual spouses. Breaking workplace culture into three components (time demands, work pressure, and workplace social support), we find evidence in the full model of both individual (spillover) and spousal (crossover) effects for the marital satisfaction of dual-earner wives, and spousal (crossover) effects for dual-earner husbands. In particular, our analyses highlight the important role played by wives?? workplace social support. Implications of the study are discussed.     

Workplace Policy and Environment,Family Role Quality,and Positive Family-to-Work Spillover

We used role theory to direct our analysis of the association between family-friendly policies, workplace environment, family role quality, and positive spillover from family to work. Taking data from 104 dual-earner couples with children living in Utah, we examined the influence of both partners’ access to family-friendly policies, both partners’ workplace environments, and the family role quality reported by the couple. We found that family role quality was significantly associated with positive family-to-work spillover for men and women. In addition, women’s own workplace culture and the ability of women’s partners to leave work to care for children were associated with women’s positive family-to-work spillover. These findings were viewed through the lens of gender theory and traditionally structured institutions and roles.     

Nonstandard parental employment schedules and father involvement

This study assesses the impact of nonstandard employment schedules (shift work) on parenting among US fathers of young children in dual-earner couples. The outcomes examined include total caregiving, caregiving without the mother present, and the elements of father involvement proposed by Pleck: positive engagement, warmth, and control. Models with latent variables and with lagged dependent variables are estimated using three waves of nationally representative data from the Early Child Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort. The results indicate that employment scheduling mainly shapes the context in which involvement takes place. Compared to dual-earner couples who are each employed during the day, fathers in couples in which at least one parent has a nonstandard schedule tend to care for their children more in the mother's absence. To a more limited extent, they also do more caregiving overall. These effects are most conclusively found when the father works during the day and the mother works during the evening, when the mother works during the day but the father works a night, split, rotating, or other shift, and when both parents have nonstandard schedules. Parental work schedules, however, have little impact on father involvement aside from care.     

Self- and Spouse-Reported Work–Family Conflict and Dual-Earners’ Job Satisfaction

We add to the literature on job satisfaction by examining the role played by self-reported and spouse-reported work–family conflict for dual-earner husbands and wives (N = 156 couples, 312 individuals), a contagion model of work and family. Two path models of job satisfaction were tested: a spillover model, including the respondent's work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict, and a crossover model, including the spouse's perception of the respondent's work-to-family conflict. Workplace and family/respondent characteristics were also included in the models. For wives, job satisfaction is associated with family-to-work conflict (spillover). For husbands, job satisfaction is associated with his spouse's perception of his work-to-family conflict (crossover). For both husbands and wives, coworker support is both directly and indirectly associated with job satisfaction.     

Work–Family Conflict and Perceived Justice as Mediators of Outcomes of Women's Multiple Workload

Negative impacts of work–family conflicts and the imbalanced division of family work on women's relationship satisfaction and well-being have gained substantial attention from the literature over the last years. The current research adds to the literature by testing the experience of work–family conflicts and perceived justice in the division of family work as possible mediators between women's workloads resulting from the familial and professional tasks and women's relationship satisfaction and well-being. The analysis involves both work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts as well as perceptions of procedural and distributive justice in the division of family work. Structural equation modeling analyses of data were performed with a sample of 1,512 women from dual-earner couples with young children taken from seven European countries. Results support the importance of women's family-to-work conflict and perceptions of justice of childcare and household labor as mediator variables between family workloads, relationship satisfaction, and well-being. Time spent on paid work proved to have an effect on women's well-being, via work-to-family conflict.     

Patterning in Citations: An Analysis of References to George Herbert Mead

Abstract

Family work in dual-earner families has been studied extensively, but the focus has been primarily on household tasks and child care, neglecting the component of health care behavior. In this paper, I introduce scales to study the performance of family health care behaviors in dual-earner families. The items assess topics such as who arranged and accompanied family members to health care appointments, who left work early or took time off from work for health care, and who handled the paperwork of medical expenses. The sample consisted of 174 married women employed in health care and education. The study results indicate that the health care scales are reliable. They are also not highly correlated with demographic variables that might affect the utility of the scales to examine how health care behaviors are linked to other family work.