Work–family balance in the United States differs significantly for families of different social class. This differs from work–life balance: while work–life balance may refer to the health and living issues that arise from work, work–family balance refers specifically to how work and families intersect and influence each other.
Middle-class family issues center on dual-earner spouses and parents while lower class issues center on problems that arise due to single parenting. Work–family balance issues also differ by class, since middle class occupations provide more benefits and family support while low-wage jobs are less flexible with benefits. Solutions for helping individuals manage work–family balance in the U.S. include legislation, workplace policies, and the marketization of care work.
History Family structure (how the family is organized) historically has been influenced by social-level forces, many of them economic.Coontz, Stephanie. 2000. "Historical Perspectives on Family Studies." Journal of Marriage and the Family 62: 283-297. According to family historian Stephanie Coontz, marriage and family formation in the 17th century was heavily influenced by desires to form economic and political alliances. Children were seen as a method of ensuring the passage of political and economic power to future generations.Coontz, Stephanie. Marriage: A History. New York: Penguin, 2006.
Influenced by the Enlightenment, several changes to marriage occurred: the move toward individualism and the loosening of church influence over families after the Protestant Reformation resulted in the flourishing of the two-parent farm family. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the two-parent farm family was the dominant family model, in which both parents working side by side on family farms The two-parent farm family ceased to be the dominant family model after the Industrial Revolution occurred.Barkley, Paul W. 1976. "A Contemporary Political Economy of Family Farming." American Journal of Agricultural Economics 58(5): 812-819. The 1920s was the first time that the majority of children lived in two-parent breadwinner-homemaker families (one where the father supported the family financially and the mother supported the family domestically).
In 19th century farm settings, children were an important part of their families' agricultural livelihoods.Hammel, E.A., Sheila R. Johansson, and Caren A. Ginsberg. 1983. "The Value of Children During Industrialization: Sex Ratios in Childhood in Nineteenth-Century America." Journal of Family History 8: 346-366. As industrialization occurred and families shifted from rural agricultural settings to urban ones, the number of children per household also declined. Children became less of an economic benefit and more of a cost: urban life necessitated educating children which was costly.Wells, Robert V. 1975. "Family History and Demographic Transition." Journal of Social History 9(1): 1-19.
During the 1910s and 1920s, women delayed childbirth for economic opportunities that were present in urban areas.Cookingham, Mary E. 1984. "Combining Marriage, Motherhood, and Jobs Before World War II: Women College Graduates, Classes of 1903-1935." Journal of Family History 9(2): 178-195. However, this trend reversed during the Great Depression because of the lower number of economic opportunities available for women. As a result, Depression Era women were more likely to marry and have children earlier. In 1900, roughly 40 percent of single women were employed versus only five percent of married women (Preston, 2003). This 35 percent gap persisted for many years. Goldin (1992), in a study of women college graduates in the twentieth century, concluded that those graduating between 1900 and 1920 had to make "a distinct choice between family and career".Barnett, Rosalind Chait. 2004. Preface: Women and Work: Where Are We, Where Did We Come From, and Where Are We Going?Journal of Social Issues.
The Works Progress Administration opened about 3,000 part-day Emergency Nursery Schools for about 75,000 children from 1933 to 1935, which provided child care to help eligible adults looking for work and which employed teachers in an industry where two-thirds of private nursery schools had closed during the Depression. Men were drafted into the military in large numbers during World War II, and women with young children were needed to supplement single women and those with older children at wartime factories. Problems with women leaving children in unsafe situations while working began to appear. ENS capacity peaked at 130,000 children in 1944. Wartime New Deal measures such as the Lanham Act and Servicemen's Dependents Allowance Act of 1942 provided federal funding for day care centers starting in 1942.
The breadwinner–homemaker model regained dominance during the twenty-year period immediately after World War II. The economy relied upon the male breadwinner to earn the income to support his family financially, while women were relied upon to do the care work and other forms of domestic work to support her husband's earnings.
As the economy went into recession during the 1970s, women entered the workforce in large droves. Families could no longer survive on the single income of the male breadwinner and both sexes were relied upon for financial support. The dominant family model starting in the 1970s was the dual-earner family where both parents worked. Women also entered college in higher percentages.Torr, Berna M. 2011. "The Changing Relationship between Education and Marriage in the United States, 1940-2000." Journal of Family History 36(4): 483-503. However, the economy was still assumed to run on an outdated breadwinner-homemaker model as evidence by the following things: women made significantly less income than men, they were still expected to do the majority of domestic work, and the nine-to-three o'clock school schedule of children still existed. The recession of the 1970s also further pushed the correlation between income and family structure. As more and more previously lucrative manufacturing jobs were sent overseas, men without college educations could no longer support their families on a single wage. Women's labor force participation rates have steadily increased since the 1940s Since the 1970s, the relationship between marriage and college education has also been positive.
Congress passed the Comprehensive Child Development Act in 1971, which subsidized child care to make it universal, but the bill was vetoed by President Richard Nixon.
Legislation Historically significant pieces of legislation have been enacted at the federal level to address the sex disparities in the workplace. These pieces of legislation attempt to address the wage gap in the U.S., gender discrimination in hiring and firing, and the occupational rights of workers in taking family and medical leave. Despite these significant legislative efforts, the U.S. still lags behind other developed countries in progressive family-friendly work policies.Bianchi, Suzanne M. and Melissa A. Milkie. 2010. "Work and Family Research in the First Decade of the 21st Century." Journal of Marriage and Family 72: 705-725.
Mother's Pensions of 1910 From 1890 to 1910, the proportion of working women increased by 8%, from 1.2 million to 3.1 million workers, which influenced the creation of Mother's Pensions in 1910, which gave non-working mothers pensions to offset their need to work outside the home. According to scholar Sonya Michel, this legislation did little to decrease the wage gap between men and women because women “preferred to work, did not fit the criteria,” or the states ran out of funds.
Equal Pay Act of 1963 The Equal Pay Act of 1963 attempted to abolish wage and payment discrimination between men and women.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title VII mandates against gender discrimination in the workplace. It makes gender discrimination on the basis of pregnancy and childbirth illegal. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 is an amendment to Title VII that explicitly prohibits discrimination against pregnant women.
Head Start of 1965 The only federal childcare ever implemented was Head Start, which was created in 1965 as a part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. Head Start is a program for low-income families that provides early education and care for 3- to 5-year-olds. Head Start is free for eligible families (those living below the federal poverty line), but families apply and there is no guarantee for a spot. In 2017, there were 1 million children enrolled in Head Start and Early Head Start, but there are about 19 million children under five in the United States and around 3 million children under five living in poverty.
Family Support Act of 1988 In 1988, the Family Support Act was passed, which required parents using federal programs, like Head Start, to actively be working, getting an education, or taking part in professional training. At the time, 56% of mothers with children under 6 were already in the workforce, which meant that mothers who were unable to comply with guidelines were denied the assistance they were previously eligible for.
Child Care and Development Block Grant and Title IV-A At-Risk Child Care Child Care and Development Block Grant and Title IV-A At-Risk Child Care were passed due to a demand for childcare support among middle- and upper-middle-class families, as Head Start was restricted to families that were below the Federal Poverty Line, and the recognition that families who were at risk of losing work would soon enter the welfare system but could use help before they qualified for traditional assistance.
Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 requires employers to provide job-protected unpaid leave for certain family and medical reasons. Legitimate reasons include pregnancy, childbirth, adoption, foster care placement, and care for an ill family member. However, this legislation is limited: coverage is only extended for twelve weeks and for employees who have worked for at least twelve months at the same job. Short-term medical illness and routine medical checkups were not covered until the FMLA, and family members other than parents, spouses, and children are not covered. Some states have extended the definition of family on their own, and therefore extended the coverage of FMLA.
Child Care Development Fund of 1996 In 1996, the Child Care Development Fund was created to allow states flexibility in creating childcare provisioning for low- and lower-middle-income families. Despite this change, families still face significant barriers when trying to access these subsidies, with less than ¼ of eligible families using them.
Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit of 1998 The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit offsets childcare expenses. The tax credit covers 20 to 35% of costs and is capped at $3,000 for one child and $6,000 for two or more children. It offsets income taxes, so families in lower-income brackets receive little money in return. In 2016, only 15% of families received this subsidy.
Effects on families