12 Chapter Couples and Family
Increase in the number of women employed outside the home
Greatest increase in women working outside the home has been among those aged
25 to 44, whom are most likely to have children at home
From the ecological perspective:
The Microsystems interact through the work-family community mesosystem
Work demands can influence the family and vice versa, either positively or
negatively
The relationship between work and family involves a number of faucets:
Care for the family
Time use
Relationships with partners
Household responsibilities
Unemployment
Stress and burnout
Childcare
Daycare centers were established only when it was seen to benefit to society,
either from the desire for better supervision of children or from the need for the
mothers to join the workforce
Childcare can be formal or informal:
Informal arrangements are not subject to government regulations
Formal arrangements are covered by regulations and include family daycare and
daycare centers
Formal childcare has greatly increased, but not enough to meet demands
Today the levels and types of children provided vary. There are several reasons for such
differences:
1. There is no national policy regarding daycare because daycare is a provincial
responsibility
2. Social and political attitudes towards such care are mixed
Several factors influence the type of childcare children receive:
The age of the child
Location
Eldercare
Increased responsibility for the care of elders is for families now
More often than men, women put more hours into caring for elders
Women are more likely than men to miss work days and lose out on promotions
than for elder care
Work and Family Stress
Women may complain that if they stay home, they are seen as failing to live up to
their potential
Women may fear being criticized for neglecting their children
If both parents are happy, womens work status has no effect on marital disruption
If either parent is dissatisfied with the marriage the couple is more likely to
separate if the wife is employ
Thos working midnight are prone to both physical and social stresses
Blue collar workers found that shift work was not related to marital happiness
Priorities must be set:
Never seems to be enough time and energy for individuals to accomplish all they
wish to in either their work or family-roles
There can be difficulties over scheduling of time
Dual-earner couples, especially with young children, the women are under more
stress than the men
Conflict between work and family has two aspects:
1. Time crunch and scheduling conflicts
2.
Spill Over: a situation where family and work role or time demands interfere with each
other
More common, in both negative and positive direction, for women than for men
Household Responsibilities
Advances in household technologies has allowed for women to enter the
workforce
But standards for cleanliness has increased, therefore making housework a larger
load of work
How much time is spent on household work is related to such factors spent in paid
work, income levels, age and quality of the housing, personal standards for meal
preparation and cleanliness
The shift from wage-earner husbands to dual-earner families has not meant an
equal shift in household responsibilities
When a husband does help he out, is more likely to take the enjoyable tasks
Unemployment
Financial impact on family
Family well-being depends on the way family members think about
unemployment and the strategies they use to deal with both practical and
emotional needs
Most people go through a series of reaction to job loss:
Shock and denial
Anger
Worry and anxiety
Person may go through a yo-yo of emotions fear, anger, frustration
If job search is unsuccessful for a long time, an individual can give up
Work serves functions beyond the financial:
Structures time eating and sleeping times
Undermines an individuals sense of self-esteem
Difficulties may be psychological and social
Make costly decisions out of panic
Burnout and the Family
Burnout: a state physical and emotional exhaustion resulting from prolonged stress from
trying to live up to impossible goals
Produces physical and emotional exhaustion because of the excessive demands
placed on the individuals
Job stress has more severe effects on families than exhaustion does
Indirect affects of burnout may be:
The individual may be susceptible to illness
Suffer psychologically
Extreme response of suicide
Direct effects of burnout:
In an effort to reduce stress, the individual will treat others like objects
May be irritated with and angry at family members
May want to be left alone
May demand extra attention
Reduce individuals ability to cope with stress
Resistant to therapy
Too tired to make active efforts, such as exercising, to reduce stress
Burnout may also be contagious
Flexible Work Arrangements
One way employers and families have tried to address the problem of competing
work and family demands is by setting yo alternative work arrangements
Alternative arrangements take three forms:
1. Flexible time
2. Flexible workplace
3. Reduced hours of work
Some large firms may even provide daycare and eldercare services
Flextime: an arrangement in which full-time employees can determine when they arrive
at and when they leave work
Compressed Workweek: a full-time job in which a workweek is concentrated in three or
four days, allowing for several days in succession off work
Telecommuting: working outside the office (often at home) using the computer and
telecommunications technology
Job Sharing: the sharing of one full-time job by two employees
Full-time workers in two-parent families, with children under 16 have most access to
family-friendly benefits.
Low income families, including lone parents, do not have as much flexibility in
their work
Flextime and telecommuting are used more by men than women
Women are more likely to work part time
Some jobs dont lend themselves to telecommuting: these include manufacturing
and nursing
Tensions between family and the workplace can be better understood using Garbarinos
ecological model of interacting systems.
In the macrosystem we find conflicting systems
In the exosystem, institutions such as the workplace and day care centers also
seem to present conflicting values
Some conflicts are found in the mesosystems such as teachers feel childrens
failure to do homework arises from inadequate supervision when two parents are
employed out of the home
Many individuals feel that the only real answer to some of these problems is a
shift in values on our society