Spitze WomensEmploymentFamily 1988

Women's Employment and Family Relations: A Review
Author(s): Glenna Spitze

Source: Journal of Marriage and Family , Aug., 1988, Vol. 50, No. 3 (Aug., 1988), pp.
595-618
Published by: National Council on Family Relations
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/352633
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GLENNA SPITZE State University of New York at Albany
Women's Employment and Family Relations:

A Review
Research concerning effects of women's employ- like unemployed men, were expected to cause
ment on families is reviewed for the past decade.family problems (Mortimer and Sorensen, 1984).
Researchers have changed an earlier assumption More recent research views women's employment
of negative effects on marriages and children, but more positively, and with a degree of complexity
they still tend to focus solely on differences by approaching men's employment. There is still,
employment status rather than on consequences however, a tendency to look for consequences
of various aspects of women's employment ex- without regard to the process involved or to the
perience. They also tend to neglect minority,variety of employment experiences.
working-class, and single-parent families. This This review focuses on consequences, rather
review begins with a discussion of effects ofthan determinants, of women's employment for
women's employment on the formation and families. However, we should keep in mind that
dissolution of marital unions, on marital quality, during this century employed women have come
and on spouse health and well-being. Research on to resemble closely the general female population.
the division of housework and its relation to While in 1900 the typical employed woman was
power and equity is treated next; then several young and single, today the majority of married
issues relating to the interaction of husbands' and women and of mothers of preschool children are
wives' jobs are reviewed. Effects on fertility and in the labor force (Spitze, 1987). Employed
outcomes for children are considered, followed by women are still, however, somewhat more highly
a brief section on relations with extended family educated and younger, and if married, they have
members. The review concludes with suggestions husbands with lower incomes than those of men
regarding future trends and research directions. married to full-time homemakers (Waite, 1981).
Most of the work reviewed here has appeared
since 1975. Earlier research was more sparse and
also tended to rely on overly simple approaches,
The past 15 years have been a time of rapid
such as bivariate tabular presentation. Therefore,
development in research on how women's paid
this selection does not appear to be overly restric-
employment affects their family relations. Early tive. A more serious limitation is that the review
research (see reviews in Hoffman and Nye, 1974)
focuses primarily on the United States. Certainly,
tended to view women's employment as having
this is where most of the extant empirical studies
monolithic, mostly negative, effects. Non-
of the family have been conducted, but we should
employed wives were viewed as the norm. It was
not assume that they can be generalized, even to
assumed that paid employment had a variety of
all industrialized countries. The existing literature
consequences, such as harming marital relations
also imposes constraints. Except for a few studies
or children's development. Employed women,
of minority and working-class families within the
United States (e.g., Ferree, 1976, 1984; Harrison
Department of Sociology, SUNY Albany, Albany, NY 12222. and Minor, 1984; McAdoo, 1981; Staples and
Journal of Marriage and the Family 50 (August 1988): 595-618 595

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596 Journal of Marriage and the Family
Mirande, 1980; Ybarra, 1982), most research employment could affect the formation and disso-
views the middle-class white family as the norm. lution of unions through the latter two processes.
Finally, researchers also tend to focus on It could decrease women's motivation to marry by
husband-wife families and to ignore employmentproviding alternative sources of fulfillment and
consequences for single parents. financial support. It also might increase their op-
This review is organized as follows. First is portunity
a to marry by increasing their economic
discussion of the effect of women's employment ability to set up a household (a "dowry effect":
on the formation and dissolution of marital Hofferth and Moore, 1979) and to meet potential
unions. The second section treats marital quality partners. The latter process would be similar for
and other aspects of health and well-being. Themen, but the former might not; men's desire to
third examines the division of household labor marry either could increase with women's employ-
and its relation to issues of power and equity, andment as women earn more, or it could decrease as
the expected gain in household labor decreases.
the fourth deals with several issues relating to the
interaction of wives' and husbands' jobs. The Effects on divorce would likely be more con-
fifth section considers issues relating to sistently positive. A wife's employment could in-
children-the relation between women's employ- crease the opportunity for divorce at a given level
ment and fertility, child care, and outcomes such of marital dissatisfaction for either spouse by in-
as children's attitudes and achievements-fol-creasing the wife's financial independence. Em-
lowed by a brief discussion of relations with fami-ployment might also affect women's desire for
ly members beyond the nuclear family, including divorce by exposing women to alternative marital
living arrangements, contact and assistance pat- partners or sources of fulfillment. On the other
terns with extended family members, and how hand, it could affect the desire of husbands or
wives for divorce by affecting the quality of their
such persons are affected by women's employ-
ment. The review concludes with suggestions
marriage in either direction.
regarding the future direction of these conse-
quences and identifies some issues for further Marriage
research.
Although all the issues discussed here haveWomen's
a employment, particularly in high-status
occupations, affects their timing and slightly
multitude of policy implications, specific policies
relating to women's employment and families aredecreases their ultimate probability of marriage,
not examined in this review because of space whether because of their own preferences or the
limitations. (For such discussions see Bose and preferences of potential husbands for "non-
Spitze, 1987; Gerstel and Gross, 1987; Harkess, threatening" mates (Mueller and Campbell, 1977;
1987; Moore, Spain, and Bianchi, 1984; Waite, Preston and Richards, 1975; but see White, 1981).
1981; Wilkie, 1987). The review is also limited to Although several researchers have argued that
the current historical period. (For a longer-term high-status women choose not to marry, rather
perspective, see Davis, 1984; Ferber and Birn- than being rejected (e.g., Havens, 1973), none ac-
baum, 1982: Fox and Hesse-Biber, 1984; Gerstel tually demonstrates the process of choice that
and Gross, 1987; Huber and Spitze, 1983). creates these patterns. Further, it is likely that
employment leads to postponement rather than
ultimate rejection of marriage (see Schoen and
MARITAL FORMATION AND DISSOLUTION Urton, 1979).
Women's future work plans decrease marriage
Theoretical Perspectives on
probabilities over the short term (Goldscheider
Marriage and Divorce and Waite, 1986; Waite and Spitze, 1981), more
In current perspectives on marriage and divorce, consistently for whites than blacks (Cherlin,
the assumption is that individuals assess rational- 1980), but current employment increases or has no
ly, or are influenced by, the availability of poten- effect on marriage. Studies of remarriage also
tial partners, the feasibility or opportunity to show inconsistent links with employment (Han-
form or dissolve a union, and the motivation or nan, Tuma, and Groeneveld, 1977; Hofferth and
desirability of doing so (Becker, 1981; Huber and Moore, 1979; Mott and Moore, 1983). None of
Spitze, 1988; Schoen and Urton, 1979). Women's these studies directly measures "opportunity"

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Women's Employment and Family Relations 597
and "motivation" effects. Rather, a net positive This assessment would suggest the necessity of
or negative effect is assumed to be indicative of looking at the entire process leading up to marital
the predominance of one process over the other. dissolution. Several studies have done so. Udry
Goldscheider and Waite's results, however, show (1981) measured both spouses' perceptions of
that similar economic forces influence both sexes. alternatives to the current marriage and found
wife's income unrelated to perceptions of either
spouse, although the ratio between wife's and
Divorce
husband's income increased wife's perceptions of
A number of sociologists and economists have economic alternatives and decreased those of hus-
linked the aggregate-level rise in female labor bands. In two related studies, the extent of wife's
force participation and rising divorce rates, al- previous work increased both spouses' thoughts
though some (e.g., Michael, 1977; Schoen and of divorce (Huber and Spitze, 1980), as did her
Urton, 1979) view female employment as leading current employment unless family income was
to increased divorce, while others (e.g., Davis, high (Booth and White, 1980).
1984; Johnson and Skinner, 1985) view female Booth, Johnson, White, and Edwards (1984)
employment as rising in response to women's per-constructed a scale of marital stability, including a
ception of increased divorce risk. variety of thoughts and behaviors that might
At the individual level, employment status, precede divorce. Wife's income increased levels of
hours worked, weeks worked, and work ex- marital instability directly as well as affecting the
perience have all been linked to marital dissolu- equality of the division of household labor, but
tion (Cherlin, 1979b; Mott and Moore, 1979; her hours of work also affected instability in-
Spitze and South, 1985), although more con- directly through spouse interaction and the divi-
sistently for older than younger women, and more sion of labor. Among the unstable, those who
for whites than blacks. Wife's employment in a were divorced three years later had the highest
nontraditional job has been linked to divorce wife incomes, and those who were still "unstable"
(Philliber and Hiller, 1983). Results are inconsis- but remained married had the lowest (Booth,
tent for wife's earnings and for the ratio betweenJohnson, White, and Edwards, 1985). Levinger
husbands' and wives' earnings (D'Amico, 1983; (1979) studied a group of the "unstable" by in-
Hill, 1984; Moore and Waite, 1981; Spitze and vestigating the fate of applications for divorce.
South, 1985). Wife's potential wages and wage Wife's income increased the probability that both
ratio have had consistently positive effects on the separated and the nonseparated would actual-
dissolution (Cherlin, 1979b; D'Amico, 1983; ly divorce, although it did not increase the prob-
Hannan et al., 1977; Mott and Moore, 1979). ability of a separation. Similarly, "battered
These effects do not always hold for subsamples women" are less likely to leave their spouse if they
of black women (Hannan et al., 1977; Mott and are not employed and feel economically depend-
Moore, 1979), whether because of sample size or ent (Strube and Barbour, 1983).
black women's history of higher employment This section has focused on the probability of
levels and black men's attitudes toward their marital dissolution and not its consequences.
wives' employment. However, given the highly negative economic con-
For the most part, this research has in- sequences of divorce for women and their
vestigated static measures of employment (but see children (Weitzman, 1985), we should not lose
South and Spitze, 1986). Shifts in employment sight of consequences of employment for those
status, particularly into employment, could pre- women who do divorce. The plight of the older
cipitate changes in family organization that create "displaced homemaker" has been much publi-
marital strains (Welch and Booth, 1977). How- cized, although not alleviated. They are the ex-
ever, such changes could also be a response to treme group with little or no lifetime employment
perceived divorce risk, part of a long-range plan experience. But we know little about how employ-
to end a marriage (Greene and Quester, 1982; ment patterns of other women affect the econom-
Johnson and Skinner, 1985). Future research ic consequences of divorce or marital settlements,
should focus on employment histories and the an area undergoing major legal changes at the
long-term effects of unstable employment (Kit- present time.
son, Babri, and Roach, 1985).

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MARITAL QUALITY AND SPOUSES' WELL-BEING bargaining or social exchange perspective predicts
that individuals are happier the more work the
Marital Satisfaction
other spouse does and the lower one's own share
The previous section leaves unclear the process of work (Yogev and Brett, 1985).
through which wife's employment leads to higher Early literature seemed to indicate that
divorce levels. Is it due to higher levels of marital employed wives and their husbands experienced
dissatisfaction or simply a lower threshold of lower-quality marriages (see reviews in Glenn and
satisfaction at which divorce is considered? Weaver, 1978; Gove and Peterson, 1980; House-
Research linking wife's employment to marital knecht and Macke, 1981; Nye, 1974). Summariz-
satisfaction should help to clarify this question. ing literature through the early 1970s, Nye (1974)
A number of theoretical perspectives concluded have that these effects were diminishing over
been invoked to predict how wives' employment time and were primarily for lower-class wives,
might affect marital quality. The earliest perspec- who presumably were more likely to be working
tive (Parsons, 1942), suggested that a wife's out of "necessity," thus threatening the male pro-
employment in a job of equal or higher status vider role.
than the husband's could create status competi- Currently, for the most part, this is no longer a
tion that would harm a marriage. Wives would re- major issue. While a few studies with small,
main nonemployed or employed in low-level oc- specialized samples continue to find negative ef-
cupations so as to prevent dysfunctional competi- fects of wife's employment or work commitment
tion between couples. This is echoed by the (Burke and Weir, 1976; Ladewig and McGee,
economic view of marriage, that spouses derive 1986), recent studies based on large national
the most benefits when they have complementary, samples have reported no effects of wife's em-
rather than parallel, roles (Becker, 1981; Hiller ployment, occupational commitment, or higher
and Philliber, 1982; Richardson, 1979). Here, occupational status on the reported marital
however, the emphasis is on concrete work- satisfaction of either husband or wife (Booth,
related benefits, rather than the more amorphous 1979; Glenn and Weaver, 1978; Houseknecht and
social status. Macke, 1981; Ladewig and White, 1984;
On the other hand, Oppenheimer (1977) argues Locksley, 1980; Richardson, 1979; Wright, 1978).
that wives can contribute to family status positive- Wife's employment may improve marital rela-
ly or negatively, through status compatibility, tions or solidarity by providing spouses with
maintenance, and enhancement (see also Horn-similar experiences and concerns. Simpson and
ung and McCullough, 1981; Mueller, Parcel, and England (1981) found mostly positive effects of
Pampel, 1979.) A wife whose job is not "compati-wife's employment and employment characteris-
ble" with her husband's may create problems iftics for both spouses' marital satisfaction, but ef-
hers is much higher in status but also may threatenfects were more positive for husbands during the
family status if it is too low. The role homophilyparental stage and nonexistent for wives with
perspective also emphasizes positive effects preschool children. They speculated that such
(Simpson and England, 1981), suggesting that wives were particularly overloaded with work,
wives and husbands who are in similar structural while husbands benefited from the wife's earnings
positions have a "common framework" that without having to share much of that burden.
promotes happiness and marital solidarity. TheyWives who are dependent (because of non- or low
would understand and sympathize with each levels of employment and presence of young
other's daily problems and would be more likelychildren) are more likely to be physically abused
to have similar roles within the home as well. by husbands (Kalmuss and Straus, 1982). Surely
The consequences of wives' employment may this is an indicator of low marital quality.
depend not only on wives' and husbands' employ- One might speculate that wife's employment
ment situations but on how much they each con- would reduce marital happiness (and thus increase
tribute at home. The equity perspective suggests divorce) by decreasing couple interaction. While
that individuals evaluate the overall division of Hill (1984) does link interaction time to divorce,
labor, in and out of the home, and are happiest Kingston and Nock (1987) find only small dif-
when things seem fair to both (Mueller et al., ferences between dual- and single-earner couples
1979; Yogev and Brett, 1985). In contrast, thein time spent together. Further, it is not clear

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whether marital happiness or interaction time is 1977). Physical health was better among em-
causally prior (Kingston and Nock, 1987; White, ployed women as well (Verbrugge and Madens,
1983). 1985; also see Krause and Markides, 1987), al-
In summary, any effect of wife's employment though Reskin and Coverman (1985) found an in-
on marital happiness seems to have changed from teraction with family income. They speculated
a negative to a null or perhaps even positive one, that nonemployed women in high-income house-
and any negative effects are now likely to be due holds can afford to pay for services that enable
to specific aspects of her employment, such as them to pursue nonhousehold activities, thus
long hours or dissatisfaction with her job. negating the isolating aspects of the housewife
Unresolved issues in this area include causal role.
ordering and social selection. Women who The are key factor, however, appears to be em-
employed may be those who are otherwise more preferences. Wives are least depressed
ployment
(or less) prone to having happy marriages, such
when their employment status is consistent with
their own and their husbands' preferences and
that the null effect may result from two opposing
effects. Some might seek employment because of
most depressed when they are not employed but
an unhappy marriage. As Ferber and Birnbaum would prefer to be (Benin and Neinstedt, 1985;
(1982) point out, if women dissatisfied withRoss, Mirowsky, and Huber, 1983). New mothers
their
marriage are more likely to enter the laborwho stay home but were highly involved in paid
force,
work before the birth are more irritable, de-
one might find a negative relation even if employ-
ment actually increases the marital satisfaction ofand lower in self-esteem (Pistrang, 1984).
pressed,
Although employment is often measured
these particular women. Most important, in order
to determine the actual process throughdichotomously,
which the circumstances of the job are
employment influences marital satisfaction and as well. Job conditions affect women's
important
dissolution, longitudinal data, including changes
mental functioning, including such factors as anx-
in employment and marital status and multiple iety and fatalism (Miller, Schooler, Kohn, and
measures of marital quality, will be needed. Miller, 1979). Employment decreases women's
depression only if they experience high levels of
job satisfaction (Kessler and McRae, 1982).
Life Satisfaction and Health
Working women's life satisfaction is increased by
Women's employment might also affect their their
ownown occupational prestige and decreased by
or husbands' general life satisfaction and theirmentalhusband's, perhaps signaling dual-career
or physical health. Preconceptions regarding conflicts
ef- (Freudiger, 1983). Two other studies
fects on women vary: some researchers found have little effect of other aspects of spouse
assumed that employment is preferable to employment,
house- such as income or hours worked, on
work because of alienating aspects of thedepression,
house- although the respondents' own job
wife role, while others have expected role characteristics were important (Keith and Schafer,
overload and scheduling conflicts to cause 1983; Schoenbach, 1985).
employed women stress. For husbands, expecta- Some researchers have analyzed housework as
tions were more uniformly negative: that wives'a job with working conditions parallel to those of
employment would increase their levels of stress
work for pay. Oakley (1974), a pioneer in the
and unhappiness. study of housework, found the majority of full-
For women, the few differences found in over-time homemakers dissatisfied with their jobs, with
all levels of life satisfaction and mental health specific negative aspects including some of the
favor the employed (Freudiger, 1983; Gove and tasks themselves (e.g., ironing), monotony, frag-
Peterson, 1980; Wright, 1978). Ferree (1976) mentation, and excessive pace. The most valued
reported working-class housewives less satisfied job condition was autonomy. Schooler, Miller,
than employed counterparts, and Gove and Geer- and Richtand (1984) measured various dimensions
ken (1977) found fewer psychiatric symptoms of working conditions for paid jobs and house-
among employed women than among housewives. work for a sample of married men and women.
However, there may be an initial adjustment Although they did not compare employed and
period after a move in or out of employment that nonemployed women, other comparisons sug-
increases women's stress levels (Welch and Booth, gested that housework was viewed as more

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routinized, heavier, and dirtier, and involved how the family work is divided and how equitable
more contact with things and less with people, that division is perceived to be. As Pleck (1985)
than paid work. In general, satisfaction with work puts it, there seems to be an inequity effect rather
seems to be slightly higher among employed than an exhaustion effect. This leads us to the
women than among full-time homemakers issue of how, indeed, household labor is divided
(Wright, 1978). in various kinds of households.
Hofferth and Moore (1979) offer interesting
speculations about the possible long-term conse-
quences of women's employment for their own HOUSEHOLD LABOR AND POWER RELATIONS
and other family members' physical health and
Housework
longevity. Employed wives may have less time
available to provide physical care (although more Studies of household labor have collected two ma-
money to pay for it). Another area ripe for future jor types of data: time budgets (Walker and
research is the potential indirect effects of dif- Woods, 1976) and survey items on the distribution
ferences in employed and nonemployed women's of responsibility of labor overall or on individual
social networks (Wellman, 1985). Since women tasks. Most available data are from the 1970s or
tend to manage their families' social lives and kin before; the most recent are for 1981-82 (Juster
contacts, women's ties may have implications for and Stafford, 1985). Coverman and Sheley (1986)
the whole family. find no change in adjusted hours between 1965
While early researchers were looking for and 1975, but Juster (1985) reports slight increases
negative consequences for husbands of employed in men's housework time and decreases in
women, there are also reasons to expect positive women's between 1975-76 and 1981-82. Most
ones, since such husbands have less pressure to studies, particularly time budget ones that requ
support the family and more freedom to change extensive respondent cooperation, are of whi
jobs or go to school (although perhaps with more middle-class respondents, and many have sm
geographical constraints), and may have more in- sample sizes (but see Ericksen, Yancey, and
teresting companions (Moore et al., 1984). In ex- Ericksen, 1979). A few studies present data from
amining both psychological and medical indi- outside the United States, such as Sweden (Hass,
cators of husbands' mental health, Booth (1979) 1981), Holland (Tavecchio, Ijzendoorn, Goos-
concluded that there were few significant effects sens, and Vergeer, 1984), Austria (Szinovacz,
and those were positive. In contrast, Kessler and 1977), Israel (Shamir, 1986) and Canada (Meiss-
McRae (1982) find higher depression among hus- ner, Humphreys, Meis, and Scheu, 1975). Robin-
bands of employed wives. However, this is miti- son, Converse, and Szalai (1972) present time
gated if he shares in child care responsibilities, budget data for a large number of industrialized
which perhaps indicates that he has nontraditional countries by gender, employment, and marital
sex-role attitudes and is not bothered by sharing status, although not by work status of men's
the breadwinner role (see also Pleck, 1985). Hus- wives.
bands are most depressed when their wives work Husbands of employed women spend little or
against husbands' opposition (Ross et al., 1983). no more time in housework than husbands of
Sharing housework does not affect husbands' nonemployed women (Ferber, 1982; Fox and
depression (and, incidentally, decreases wives'), Nickols, 1983; Walker and Woods, 1976). This
perhaps because only those husbands who are results in a longer total work week (Blau and
willing and have nontraditional attitudes do so Ferber, 1986; Meissner et al., 1975; but see Pleck,
(Kessler and McRae, 1982; Ross et al., 1983). 1985) and less leisure (Newland, 1980) for
Specific aspects of wives' employment, such as oc- employed women than men. Pleck (1979),
cupational status, also may affect husbands, but however, argues that this may be changing, and
results are not consistent (Fendrich, 1984; Keith cites 1977 data showing that husbands of em-
and Schaefer, 1983; Schoenbach, 1985). ployed wives spend 1.8 more hours per week in
In summary, the small differences in psycho- housework and 2.7 more hours in child care than
logical functioning for women and their husbands other husbands (see also Pleck, 1985).
seem to favor employed women over full-time Findings based on survey items on the distribu-
homemakers. However, a key issue appears to be tion of labor generally suggest that wives' employ-

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ment (Ericksen et al., 1979; Hoffman and Nye, 1981, for Sweden), which suggests the lack of
1974; Huber and Spitze, 1981; Miller and Gar- symmetry discussed by Berk (1985; see Pleck,
rison, 1982; Ross, 1987) and hours worked (Bar- 1977).
nett and Baruch, 1987; Nichols and Metzen, 1982; Haas (1981) emphasizes the potential impor-
Spitze, 1986a) do lead to greater participation of tance of perceived responsibility for bread-
husbands in housework. This has been explained winning, rather than actual work hours. Israeli
with reference to the issue of relative versus ab- husbands do not take on significantly more
solute time inputs: employed women cut corners housework when they are unemployed (Shamir,
and do less housework, thus increasing their 1986), thus contradicting the time availability
husbands' relative contribution (Pleck, 1977). hypothesis; presumably they retain the responsi-
Researchers have also made the distinction be- bility for breadwinning even when unemployed.
tween participation in household tasks and Wife's re- employment may be viewed as a privilege
sponsibility for them (Berk, 1985). The latter or a necessity, a contribution to the family or a
seems to change most slowly; in a study of cost 160 (Ferree, 1984). Whether or not the family
white middle-class families, 150 husbands weremakes re- adjustments to reduce any resulting over-
sponsible for none of the "feminine home load will depend on how it views her labor.
chores" studied (Barnett and Baruch, 1987). Other possibly important factors are the
A number of research hypotheses have beenpresence or attitudes of extended family members.
generated to interpret the effects of independent Szinovacz (1977) reports that wife's employment
variables on the division of household labor, did not increase husband's contribution when
several relating to women's employment. First, other relatives were available to help. Moore and
the economic hypothesis suggests that relative Hofferth (1979) speculate that attitudes of
productive capacity in the labor market and in the relatives toward a woman's employment may in-
home affects relative time devoted to both (e.g., fluence how the family itself adjusts.
Farkas, 1976; see Blau and Ferber, 1986). Em- Thus, there seems to be some level of disagree-
pirically, the division of household labor does not ment as to how a wife's employment influences
seem to relate to relative wages or incomes the division of household labor. Husbands appear
(Farkas, 1976; Huber and Spitze, 1983), although to increase family time when wives are employed,
it does relate to the difference between spouse but mainly through an increase in child care
earnings (Ross, 1987). (Pleck, 1985). Wives appear to spend fewer hours
Second, the relative resource hypothesis in housework when they are employed, but there
assumes that those with greater power and is some disagreement as to how their total work-
resources (sometimes measured in earnings, loads compare to their husbands'. Perhaps the
sometimes in education or occupational prestige) one area of agreement is that these patterns were
will use that power to avoid housework. Relative in a transitional phase, even in the 1970s when
share of housework has been linked to wife's pro- most of these data were collected, and that
fessional occupation and to husbands' and wives' women's and men's time use patterns are converg-
earnings (Berk and Berk, 1978; Ericksen et al., ing, albeit slowly.
1979; Maret and Finlay, 1984). However, Berar-
do, Shehan, and Leslie (1987) find no difference
Marital Power
in the division of labor between "dual-earner"
and "dual-career" couples. Many researchers and theorists have assumed a
Third, the time availability hypothesis assumes link between family power and the division of
that people will do housework in proportion household
to labor-that those who have less power
their free time after market hours are subtracted. will perform household services for those who
This would seem to be a variation on the econom- have more. Family power research has a long
ic perspective, but it assumes that decisions abouttradition. While it may not be viewed as quite the
market work are temporally prior to those regard- "bottomless swamp" it was termed in 1957 (see
ing home work. While housework appears to re- Hoffman and Nye, 1974), periodic reviews of the
subject point to problems of conceptualization
late to wife's work hours, it does not consistently
relate to husband's hours (Barnett and Baruch, and methodology (e.g., McDonald, 1980; Safil-
ios-Rothschild, 1970). Most research, however,
1987; Clark, Nye, and Gecas, 1978; but see Haas,

79.169.74.219 on Sun, 17 Sep 2023 18:23:35 +00:00
continues to measure family power in terms of Wilkie, 1987; see Huber and Spitze, 1988, for
husband-wife decision-making. The predominant more discussion of nonmarital dyads.)
finding in this tradition is that wives who are
employed wield more power relative to their
New Focus on Equity
husbands, at least in decisions about money mat-
ters (Ferber, 1982; McDonald, 1980; Rank, 1982; Mirowsky (1985) argues for the need to integrate
Ybarra, 1982). Ferber (1982) suggests that women prior research on marital power, equity, and
enjoy this increased decision-making power, and depression. His data are most consistent with his
this explains why they continue to prefer their "proportional equity" hypothesis, which states
own outside employment more than men do, even that husbands and wives use standards of fairness
when it creates a work overload for them. When to evaluate their situations. Neither is happiest
the alternative to paid employment is work that is with the highest levels of power, but their equity
widely recognized as more productive, as occurs points differ, and the gap between their optimum
on family farms, outside employment may yield equity points differs across couples. Husbands'
women no more (Lyson, 1985) or even less equity points are influenced by their earnings,
(Rosenfeld, 1986) decision-making at home. such that their point of least depression increases
In predicting the distribution of family power, with their income. Wives' equity points vary with
the major theoretical focus has been on resources, their sex role attitudes, such that their depression
which may include earnings as well as educationis minimized with more power, the less traditional
or occupational status. Resources may be viewedtheir attitudes. The greatest gap occurs when his
as operating within the household, such that theearnings are high and her attitudes nontraditional,
relevant factor is the comparison between which occurs in high-SES groups. This, Mirowsky
husbands' and wives' resource levels, or external-argues, limits the depression-inhibiting benefit of
ly, such that absolute levels of resources give eachSES.
spouse a value outside the marriage and thus Clearly, behavior often lags far behind general
bargaining power within it. Rank (1982) arguesnorms (McDonald, 1980). There is almost univer-
that there is more support for the external thansal agreement that when both spouses work full-
the internal model, that is, for the importance oftime they should share housework equally (Huber
absolute rather than relative resources. and Spitze, 1983). However, few couples do so,
Some have pointed out that one cannot view and it would appear that some wives prefer it that
resources in a vacuum, whether one is focusing on way, believing in traditional modes of dividing
their value internally or externally. Rodman's labor or in an equity norm that gives a higher-
(1972) theory of resources in cultural context sug- earning husband a break at home (Petersen and
gests that the same level of resources may have Maynard, 1981). Most studies find little disagree-
different consequences, depending on the values ment among couples as to whether the division of
regarding family power under which they operate. labor is fair. Majorities of both husbands and
Cooney, Rogler, Hurrell, and Ortiz (1982) test wives like the way things are (Berk, 1985; Hill and
this theory for different generations of Puerto Scanzoni, 1982; Pleck, 1985; Yogev, 1981), in-
Rican families, finding wife's employment not creasingly with life cycle stage (Schafer and Keith,
significant for any generation but the operation of 1981), whether because of age or cohort dif-
other variables to differ by cohort. As Ferree ferences. A positive relation between the amount
of difference of opinion and the husband's con-
(1984) points out, the impact of women's employ-
ment on relative power in the household may de-tribution, however, suggests either that these
pend on how they choose to activate their poten-
families are in transitional periods or that wives
tial power and whether they view female power as who want a more equal division must face conflict
legitimate. Gillespie (1971) emphasizes structural (Berk, 1985).
constraints on women's power in all societies, Thus, the interesting issue here seems to be
placing limits on the power they can derive within why more wives are not dissatisfied, even when
an individual bargaining situation. Among cross- they have relatively high levels of resources (e.g.,
sex and same-sex dyads, only lesbian couples do Yogev, 1981) and presumably the potential to de-
not allow earnings differences to determine mand more participation by the husband. Pleck
relative power (Blumstein and Schwartz, 1983; (1985) suggests several explanations, including

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cultural beliefs about housework responsibility,

unusually high expenses associated with "life-
wives' fears that more demands will create con-
cycle squeezes" (Oppenheimer, 1977). But how
does this income translate into differences in
flict, and their views of husband's competency
levels in housework. family standard of living?
Working wives absorb most of the tensions Economists have investigated consumption
caused by work-family conflict but do not ex- differences between one- and two-earner families.
perience higher stress levels than housewives Traditional assumptions would lead them to ex-
(Scanzoni and Fox, 1980). Apparently, such pect wives' income to be considered "extra," not
women are experiencing their situation in relationpart of permanent income, and thus to be saved
to the alternative of not being employed, rather or spent on consumer durables, an alternative
than of being employed with an egalitarian divi- form of savings. An alternative view suggests that
sion of household labor. The link between the this income is not differentiated from the hus-
band's, and thus the expenditure patterns of one-
division of household labor and marital instability
(Booth et al., 1984; Huber and Spitze, 1980) may and two-earner households are expected to be
be expected to become stronger in the futuresimilar, as when family income is controlled (Ferber
more people define this as a legitimate issue and for Birnbaum, 1982). However, two-earner
dissatisfaction and more women come to believe families should have more employment-related
that a husband who divides labor equitably is expenses and also might feel less need to save as a
truly a possible alternative. The relations amonghedge against loss of husband's income (Strober,
power, housework, and equity norms will con-1977).
tinue to be a ripe area for investigation for some Evidence suggests that, with family income
time to come. controlled, two-earner couples spend slightly
more on consumption of nondurable items, in-
cluding employment-related expenses and time-
COMBINED EFFECTS OF HUSBANDS' AND saving goods and services, save less, and spend lit-
WIVES' EMPLOYMENT tle or no more on durable items (Ferber and Birn-
baum, 1982; Lazear and Michael, 1980; Strober,
Most studies examining the consequences of
1977; Strober and Weinberg, 1980; Vickery, 1979;
wives' employment for families have taken
Weinberg and Winer, 1983). One study found dif-
husbands' employment as a given and have not
ferences in expenditures on food away from home
looked at ways in which wives' and husbands'
and on child care but none on domestic services,
work interacts. There are several research areas,
clothing care, and personal care (Bellante and
however, in which their interaction is the primary
Foster, 1984). The authors cautioned that con-
focus.
trols for other demographic variables are impor-
tant, and without them effects of other variables
may be attributed to wife's employment.
Family Standard of Living
Since nonemployed women produce time-
Among husband-wife families, employed wivesintensive services at home (see Bivens and Volker,
provide 31% of family earnings; when both 1986) and do not have job-related expenses,
spouses work full-time year-round, they con- Lazear and Michael (1980) calculate that a two-
tribute 39% (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1986). earner family would need 30% more income to
Employed wives also help to keep such families maintain the same standard of living as a one-
out of poverty (Blau and Ferber, 1986). Further, earner family. Since the average difference in
about half of employed women are not married "real income" is actually 20% they conclude that
and are usually the sole support of themselves and two-earner families have a lower standard of liv-
any children (U.S. Department of Labor, 1986). ing. These results are admittedly based on a small
Clearly, employed wives and mothers have a ma- sample of families with particular characteristics
jor impact on family income levels. They often (e.g., no children), and the studies cited above
raise their family income to the level of their "life- rely on relatively old data. They also analyze cur-
cycle reference group," (Strober, 1977), thus serv- rent income only and do not discuss possible ef-
ing as an alternative to husband occupational fects of wives' current work experience on future
mobility or providing a way of dealing with earnings and thus future family living standards.

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Location situation, but migration levels and the ability of

Locational issues arise when a member of a dual- corporations to assume that employees will
relocate readily will probably decrease in the
earner couple has a job opportunity in another
meantime.
geographical area. Alternative responses include a
family move, an individual move, and rejection of
Scheduling
the offer. An individual move may be part of a
commuter marriage strategy or a marital separa- During the 1980s several researchers have begun
tion leading to divorce. Although commuter mar- to focus on issues related to scheduling of work
riages are still relatively rare, they are increasing among
in dual-earner couples. This is a welcome
frequency and several recent studies have focused trend, since the implication is that many conse-
on convenience samples of such couples (Gerstel, quences arise not from women's employment
1978; Gerstel and Gross, 1984; Gross, 1980). alone but from its interaction with men's. Some
The economic theory of migration has been ex- researchers have taken scheduling as the depend-
tended to incorporate the issue of dual earners ent variable, attempting to explain when couples,
(DaVanzo, 1977; Mincer, 1978). Each member for of example, will have "off-scheduling" of hours
a dual-earner couple is assumed to decide what relative to each other (when only one is at work).
location would maximize his or her utility. They Others have taken scheduling as the independent
then pool information and choose the location variable, looking at consequences relating to
that will maximize total family utility. It is as- family functioning and well-being.
sumed that this will usually be the current one, Recent work (Presser, 1984, 1986, 1987;
since it will occur infrequently that both could in- Presser and Cain, 1983) using Current Population
crease utility in the same new location or thatSurvey data has focused on shift work-on
one's gains would more than offset the other's whether one or both members of couples work
losses (Becker, 1981; Mincer, 1978). A person nonday shifts. Among fully employed couples, in
who moves or stays because of a spouse's oppor- one-quarter at least one spouse works a nonday
tunities, contrary to his or her own optimalshift, including 20% of husbands and 12% of
economic choice, is called "tied." Given current wives. This varies by occupation and industry;
market opportunities and traditional practice,men's a jobs are more likely to involve nonday
tied mover is most likely to be a wife and a tied work, mainly in blue-collar occupations. The
stayer a husband. As men's and women's market wife's work shift is found to depend on the hus-
positions approach equality, family migration for band's, but not vice versa. If the couple have
dual-earner couples is expected to decrease children, one-third have at least one spouse work-
(Becker, 1981; Mincer, 1978). The moves that do ing a nonday shift, and one-tenth have no overlap
occur may be to large metropolitan areas in working hours, perhaps a choice by the couple
(Marwell, Rosenfeld, and Spilerman, 1979). to allow sharing of child care. Presser urges future
Empirical results (see excellent review in data collection on both shift and child care ar-
Markham, 1987) suggest that dual-earner families rangements, and asks important questions about
migrate slightly less than single-earner ones, but the consequences of such arrangements on both
effects are small and age patterns are not consis- quality of care and marital relationships (1986;
tent (Bartel, 1979; Lichter, 1982; Sandell, 1977). 1988).
Effects of wife's wages, earnings, and earnings Staines and Pleck (1983; Pleck and Staines,
share are similarly inconsistent, perhaps in part 1985) have analyzed Quality of Employment
because of model specification (Bartel, 1979; Survey data for 1977 on dual-earner couples,
DaVanzo, 1977; Lichter, 1982; Spitze, 1984; focusing in particular on whether the husband's
1986b). The job prospects of highly educated work schedule intrudes on the family organization
women have a similarly weak effect on their of household work and well-being more than the
families' mobility decisions (Duncan and Perruc-wife's. They find approximately equal numbers of
ci, 1976; Ferber and Huber, 1979), although significant effects, but more for husbands'
higher income appears to increase their influence weekend work and for wives' total work hours.
(Bird and Bird, 1985). It may be a long time They speculate that weekend work interferes with
before married-couple families will commonlythe "catching up" husbands may do on week-
move long-distance in response to a wife's job ends. Their hypothesis that husbands' schedules

79.169.74.219 on Sun, 17 Sep 2023 18:23:35 +00:00
would affect wives more than vice versa was not A number of empirical studies have investi-
supported. gated whether and to what extent employed
Nock and Kingston (1984; Kingston and Nock, women contribute to family status. Several
1985) have defined three dimensions of the "fami- vignette studies (Nock and Rossi, 1978, 1979;
ly work day" and tested for consequences in a Rossi, Sampson, Bose, Jasso, and Passel, 1974)
variety of areas of family functioning. Data from suggested that raters do take wives' education and
a national survey showed dual-earner couples to occupations into account, although less than
have an average total work day (husband's plus those of husbands. Rossi et al. (1974) also showed
wife's work hours) of 16.7 hours, an average that a tendency to take wife's occupation into ac-
workday length of 10.3 hours, and average "off- count more is related to respondents' sex-role at-
scheduling" of 4.7 hours. More off-scheduling titudes but not to standard demographic charac-
occurred when children under six were present, a teristics.
finding consistent with Presser's results. In Several other studies examined class identifica-
general, there were no "dramatic" effects: the re- tion of both husbands and wives. Ritter and
searchers concluded that most scheduling issues Hargens (1975) concluded that wives take their
were dealt with nondisruptively. However, there own occupation into account as much as that of
were clear gender differences in consequences of husbands, while Felson and Knoke (1974) found
schedules, particularly the length of the work day. no effect of wife's occupation on her class iden-
The longer the day (implying more time with only tification. Later studies failed to replicate the
one spouse at work), the more time women spent Felson-Knoke result for wives, finding that wife's
on chores and the more interference they reported occupation affects her class identification both
with the family. With longer work days, husbands directly and through increasing family income
reported more satisfaction with family, perhaps, (Hiller and Philliber, 1978).
as the authors speculated, because the wife was In contrast, husbands are not affected by
doing more of the chores. Thus, the lack of wives' characteristics or family income when their
disruption noted above is probably managed in own characteristics are controlled (Philliber and
large part by the wife. Voydanoff and Kelly (1984) Hiller, 1978; Van Velsor and Beeghley, 1979).
also report women experiencing more time prob- This suggests, since wives do take them into ac-
lems than men. count, that wives and husbands may not share the
The issue of work scheduling is a fruitful new same class identification. In Hiller and Philliber's
area for research, with a variety of possible conse-(1986) study of married couples, approximately
quences yet to be investigated. Further primary75% of individuals identify as middle class, thus
data collection would be ideal, since most studiesplacing an upper limit on the possible number of
thus far have been limited in scope because of thedisagreements between couples. However, among
lack of key variables. couples in which one member identifies as work-
ing class, about half of spouses do not. Wife's oc-
cupation becomes less influential on husbands'
Family Social Status
class identification the more she exceeds him. The
Oppenheimer (1977) shows that wives are mostauthors view the results as only suggestive and
likely to be in the labor force when they are in a needing replication.
position to improve family status, and wives' The studies described in this section suggest
earnings often provide a "functional income sub-that, while the husband's job is still viewed as
stitute for upward occupational mobility" of theprimary to the family, the wife's contribution is
husband. Contrary to Parsons, there is no increasingly a factor in how families view them-
evidence of a reservoir of women who dropped selves and make decisions. Future research on
out of particular occupations because of status families and work will be most useful if parallel
competition with husbands, although those whoaspects of husbands' and wives' jobs are exam-
entered occupations or became divorced as a ined in conjunction with each other. Further, in
result of such competition would not be detect- each of the areas examined, research on single-
able. Hout's (1982) analysis of the relation be- parent families has been neglected (Voydanoff,
tween husband and wife occupations also sup- 1987). We have much to learn about how such
ports Oppenheimer's contentions. families, whether headed by men or more com-

79.169.74.219 on Sun, 17 Sep 2023 18:23:35 +00:00
monly by women, make decisions about family may affect both. The high percentage of
spending, location, and scheduling, and how they employed couples using informal child care ar-
define their status. rangements complicates the attempt to measure its
impact.
A related issue is the presence of other relatives
EFFECTS RELATING TO CHILDREN in the household, which may attenuate the rela-
tionship between fertility and women's employ-
Fertility
ment (Weller, 1977) because they might provide
A clear relation exists between female employ- child care. Those who rely on a relative for child
ment and fertility in industrialized societies. care are more likely to plan future fertility, per-
Recently, the causal ordering of this relationship haps because such care is more convenient and
has been much debated. Lehrer and Nerlove cheaper (Lehrer and Kawasaki, 1985). Black
(1986) discuss four possible models: employment mothers are less constrained by fertility in em-
ployment decisions, perhaps because of availabil-
affecting fertility; fertility affecting employment;
reciprocal causation; and spurious relationity dueof to
informal child care but also because of the
other factors. Economists seem to favor theless reliable income streams and more favorable
latter,
focusing on variables such as female wages, attitudes of black husbands regarding wives'
husbands' income, and unmeasured tastes that employment (Lehrer and Nerlove, 1986).
may be captured by variables like wife's educa- Early studies showing that highly educated
tion. women were more constrained in employment by
Employment plans affect expected fertility the presence of young children were interpreted to
more than the reverse (Waite and Stolzenberg, mean that these women considered their high-
1976), increasingly with the age of the woman quality inputs to childrearing to be difficult to
(Stolzenberg and Waite, 1977). However, an replace with market alternatives (Hill and Staf-
analysis of behavior (Smith-Lovin and ford, 1974; Leibowitz, 1975). However, more re-
Tickamyer, 1978) suggested that the causal order- cent studies suggest that this pattern has reversed
ing was from fertility to employment. Using (Hill and Stafford, 1980). This may be because
a se-
quential model by parity, Hout (1978) came educated
up women have changed their minds about
with similar results and concluded that, in thethe
quality of child care available, or because they
short run, fertility is the causal agent, while in in fact
the do spend as much time with children as
long run, employment is. Cramer (1980) criticized other mothers, at the expense of their own sleep
the past use of simultaneous equation models andonleisure
a (Hill and Stafford, 1980).
number of methodological grounds and suggested Changes over time in this relationship (Lehrer
that there is potential in dynamic models, and Nerlove, 1986; Waite, 1976; Weller, 1977)
although they are not without their own prob- suggest that children are becoming less of an
lems. White and Kim (1987) also used this ap- employment constraint. As popular attitudes in-
proach and came up with some unexpected find- creasingly support the employment of young
ings (e.g., high education and job satisfaction en-mothers, any negative relationship will possibly
courage childless wives to have a first child) but depend more on the actual experiences of couples
also pointed out that such a model can capture in juggling child care and jobs. Citing Bulatao's
timing rather than long-term effects. (1981) study on the perceived costs of childbear-
Clearly, availability of child care affects ing, White and Kim (1987) suggest that a reward-
women's employment: approximately one out of ing career is not seen as competing with child care
six nonemployed women would look for employ- until after the first birth. This harks back to
ment if high-quality, affordable child care were Stolzenberg and Waite's (1977) "learning hy-
available (O'Connell and Bloom, 1987; Powers pothesis" that women learn with age the extent of
and Salvo, 1982). Availability also may mediate incompatibility between the two commitments.
between employment and fertility (e.g., Stolzen- Of course, any impact of employment on fer-
berg and Waite, 1984), although as Lehrer and tility also would assume fertility that was largely
Nerlove point out, employment rates may affectplanned and "rational" (White and Kim, 1987).
availability of child care as well as vice versa, and To the extent that it is not, as is true of much of
exogenous factors such as women's market wagesout-of-wedlock childbearing in this country to-

79.169.74.219 on Sun, 17 Sep 2023 18:23:35 +00:00
day, any effect would likely be from fertility to as the aging of children (Leibowitz, Waite, and
employment. Witsberger, 1988), with changes from relatives to
group care most frequent (Floge, 1985). The fre-
Child Care
quent use of multiple arrangements, while seem-
ingly complicating parental schedules, allows
When a nonemployed woman has young or more flexibility when one form of care fails and
school-age children, she usually provides most of may be the key to allowing parents to continue
their care, with the exception of the time they working.
spend with the father or other relatives during During nonwork hours, one might expect
nonwork hours and perhaps part-time nursery husbands of employed wives to provide more
school programs. When a mother is employed, child care help, just as one would expect them to
she or the couple must arrange for child care do more housework; on the other hand, one could
(unless self-care is feasible: Cain and Hofferth, expect fathers to interact more with children after
1987). Its source and quality is likely to affect any work when the mother has been with them all day
ultimate consequences for children, yet these fac- (Hoffman, 1987). In fact, several studies have
tors are seldom taken into account in research on documented only slight (if any) differences be-
those consequences. tween the child care time of the two groups, with
In 1982, 9% of employed women were able tofathers spending surprisingly little time with
care for their preschool child while at work children under either circumstance (Barnett and
(O'Connell and Bloom, 1987). There are no com- Baruch, 1987; Ericksen et al., 1979; Miller and
parable figures for fathers; presumably that situa-Garrison, 1982; Tavecchio et al., 1984). Cover-
tion is too rare to document (Presser, 1988). man and Sheley (1986) reported men's child care
There is probably a lot of variation in the quality time by wife's employment, adjusted for other
of such experiences, since the child may in fact demographic factors, ranging from 25 to 26
receive little attention from the mother. A second minutes per day.
arrangement involves scheduling the parents' Most research on child care either focuses on
work so that fathers and mothers can share child married couples or does not specify the mother's
care responsibilities at different hours. Approx-marital status. An exception is a study by Johnson
imately one-sixth of full-time employed mothers (1983), which focuses on how divorced mothers
of preschool children, and one-fifth of part- with child custody handle conflicts between fami-
timers, work nonday shifts, and when they arely and work, such as children's doctor appoint-
married, fathers are the primary caregivers forments and school activities. Her findings are not
children during mothers' work hours (Presser,surprising: the degree of conflict depends on fac-
1986, 1988). tors such as employer flexibility, help from
Among the larger group of working parents us- others, and age of the child. However, she sug-
ing other forms of child care, alternatives include gests that divorced women may choose jobs that
formal group care, care by relatives (the most allow such flexibility at the cost of low income.
common form) and care by babysitters in the When unmarried mothers work nonday shifts,
child's or the babysitter's home. About half of all child care is sometimes provided by grandmothers
care to children of employed mothers is provided but a large proportion is provided by babysitters,
by nonrelatives and one-third by relatives, the ma- thus increasing the financial stress associated with
jority of them grandparents (Presser, 1986). Care single parenthood (Presser, 1986).
by relatives tends to be used by those with less
education, women who work fewer hours, those
Consequences for Children
with more or younger children, nonwhites, and
Catholics, in contrast to care by nonrelatives, It is for children that the most negative conse-
whether in a center or not (Lehrer and Kawasaki, quences of maternal employment have been ex-
1985; O'Connell and Bloom, 1987; Wilkie, 1987). pected. However, countless studies and a number
Over time the use of formal care has increased of literature reviews have concluded that "existing
(Hofferth and Phillips, 1987; Lehrer and research has not demonstrated that mothers'
Kawasaki, 1985). Child care arrangements alsoemployment per se has consistent direct effects,
fluctuate much, because of dissatisfaction as well
either positive or negative, on children's develop-

79.169.74.219 on Sun, 17 Sep 2023 18:23:35 +00:00
ment and educational outcomes" (Bianchi and the expense of sleep and leisure (Hill and Staf-
Spain, 1986; Hayes and Kamerman, 1983; see also ford, 1980; Hoffman, 1987). Hoffman (1987) asks
Kamerman and Hayes, 1982). This is not surpris- interesting questions (mostly unanswerable) about
ing, when one considers the multitude of situa- how interaction with children differs from that in
tions being grouped into one category of the rosy past. She speculates that time spent in
"mother's employment." As Moore et al. (1984: employment by women today may substitute for
89) put it, "It is significant how few negative ef-time previously spent in housework and care of
fects have been documented, given the diligence more children (see also Ferber and Birnbaum,
with which they have been pursued." 1982).
There are a number of mechanisms through Evidence on the relationship between wife's
which one might expect an effect of a mother's employment and the amount of supervision and
employment status on children's development, independence training of children is mixed (Hoff-
although most studies of consequences do notman, 1974). However, a recent trend toward tak-
consider possible intervening factors. Hoffman ing the child's point of view may yield other con-
(1974) emphasizes possible psychological proc-clusions (Bloom-Feshbach et al., 1982). Trim-
esses, including role modeling, the mother's emo- berger and MacLean's (1982) exploratory study
tional state, childrearing practices and extent of suggested that children's negative feelings about
supervision, and possible feelings of deprivation mothers' employment varied by age, gender, and
experienced by the child. (See also an excellent whether they stayed alone after school. They
review in Hoffman, 1987.) From a more socio- speculated that girls, who have more negative feel-
logical point of view, an employed mother is likelyings, may end up doing more extra chores. Others
to have a higher family income, more liberal sex- have documented differences in children's
role attitudes, and less discretionary time than herhousehold work by mothers' employment (Hoff
nonemployed counterparts. An employed man, 1987; White and Brinkerhoff, 1981). More
mother, particularly one who is career-oriented, research is needed on the extent of supervision
might be older as well, and thus more mature but and self-care of children of employed women
possibly less amenable to the unpredictability in- (Cain and Hofferth, 1987; Hoffman, 1987).
volved in parenthood (Baldwin and Nord, 1984). A number of variables may moderate any im-
Daughters of employed mothers are likely to pact on children, including class and race of
be independent (Hoffman, 1974) and to plan parents, sex and personality characteristics of
future employment (Bloom-Feshbach, Bloom- children (Macke and Morgan, 1978; Moore and
Feshbach, and Heller, 1982; Moore et al., 1984). Hofferth, 1979; Moore et al., 1984; Wilkie, 1987),
Both sons and daughters of employed mothers and occupational status and employment pref-
hold more egalitarian sex-role attitudes (Mortimer erences of the mother (Acock, Barker, and Bengt-
and Sorensen, 1984; Wilkie, 1987; but see Powell son, 1982; Macke and Morgan, 1978). Working-
and Steelman, 1982) and view women (and their class sons of employed mothers may devalue their
own mothers) as more competent (Bloom-Fesh- fathers as inadequate breadwinners, while middle-
bach et al., 1982; Moore and Hofferth, 1979). class husbands of employed women may be seen
Most researchers of role modeling and attitude as more nurturant (Hoffman, 1974).
change expect, and thus are not surprised to find, Several studies show positive effects on aca-
more effects on daughters than sons, on the tradi- demic achievement of girls but negative ones for
tional assumption that mothers act as role models middle-class boys (Hoffman, 1974). In response
for daughters only. Extensions of the status at- to a recent, highly publicized study that seemed to
tainment model for women show the importance show consistently negative, albeit small, effects of
of both mothers' employment status and occupa- mothers' employment on white children's
tion in predicting outcomes for daughters achievement (Milne, Myers, Rosenthal, and
(Rosenfeld, 1978; Stevens and Boyd, 1980). Ginsburg, 1986), Heyns and Catsambis (1986)
There is no consistent evidence of deprivation carefully reanalyzed the data. They showed that
felt by children of employed mothers (Hoffman, the negative effects could be isolated to those
1974). Although such women spend less time with white middle-class children in two-parent families
their children, the gap is least among the more whose mothers worked full-time before the child
educated, who spend time with their children at entered school. Even these effects lost significance

79.169.74.219 on Sun, 17 Sep 2023 18:23:35 +00:00
with controls. Other analyses suggested that It is also not known how women's employment
sporadic employment rather than consistent full- among adult children or aging parents influences
time employment had more negative effects. the use of extended-family living arrangements.
Again, there is little research on the effects of Soldo's analysis (n.d.) suggests that female
mothers' employment on children of single par- employment decreases a family's willingness or
ents (Garfinkel and McLanahan, 1986; Gove and ability to provide home rather that institutional
Peterson, 1980; Milne et al., 1986), perhaps care. Cherlin (1979a) relates economic resources
because such parents are assumed to "have to to the probability of young couples living with ex-
work." There is also a neglect of specific aspectstended kin, finding those worse off more likely to
of fathers' employment and how they affect move in with parents and those better off more
children (Bianchi and Spain, 1986; Heyns, 1982). likely to take in siblings or other kin. More
We need research that focuses on characteristics research is needed, using longitudinal data, to
of both fathers and caretakers (Moore and Hof-determine how changes in extended-family living
ferth, 1979), in order to move away from thearrangements relate to female employment in
traditional notion that child care is solely the either adult generation.
mother's responsibility. Few empirical studies have examined patterns
In this highly charged ideological area, we also of services provided to parents by employed and
need to think more about methodological issuesnonemployed adult female children, and none has
(Heyns, 1982; Heyns and Catsambis, 1986). examined how changes in female employment
Studies of the effects of mothers' employment onover time affect exchange. Similar questions are
children's adjustment and achievement need toraised by Brody, Johnsen, and Fulcomer's (1984)
take account of factors that may be causing both,study of norms held by three generations of
and to consider ways in which women's employ-women. Most people did not favor adult children
ment decisions may be affected by how well theiradjusting their work schedules to help elderly
children are doing. We need longitudinal studiesparents, but oldest respondents were favorable
of mothers' employment over time, including out-more often. Daughters, especially if unmarried,
come measures for all children in a family. And,were expected to make hypothetical adjustments
as Heyns emphasizes, cross-sectional data cannotmore often than sons. Whether such adjustments
tell us much about the long-term impact of struc-are, in fact, made over time is an open question.
tural change on all families and children. Empirical results on actual assistance patterns
are mixed. In a study of "middle-generation"
EFFECTS RELATING TO THE EXTENDED FAMILY
women, Lang and Brody (1983) found that more
aid was given by women who were not employed,
Middle-aged women bear the major responsibility unmarried, and living in a household with the
for providing services to aging parents and adult parent, and to older parents. Brody and Schoon-
children. Male children are expected to provide over (1986) also report differences by employment
financial advice and perhaps aid, but not physical status of daughters who were primary caregivers
care or household help. Thus, as women's role ex- to elderly widowed women, and Matthews and
pands into paid employment, there are bound to Werkner (1985) found nonemployed sisters help-
be conflicting pressures (Hess and Waring, 1978; ing parents in poor health more than did their
Huber and Spitze, 1988; Treas, 1977). Middle- employed sisters. However, Cicirelli (1981) found
aged women are caught between needs of parents no impact of women's employment on helping be-
with increasing life expectancy and children who havior, and Stoller (1983) reports that employ-
remain dependent for increasing amounts of time ment status limits sons' but not daughters' helping
or need extra help during marital disruptionsbehavior. While her data set is larger and more
(Hagestad, Smyer, and Stierman, 1984). It is representative than others, employment status is
unclear whether these stresses are dealt with by measured as a dichotomy, and it is unclear
decreasing paid work to provide more parental whether women's hours of work might influence
care, increasing employment and using the money or be influenced by demands of parents. She
to purchase services for parents and children speculates that women absorb the excess time by
(Soldo, n.d.; Treas, 1977), or increasingly sharing increasing length of total work weeks, as they do
time-intensive labor with husbands (Brody, 1979). for housework.

79.169.74.219 on Sun, 17 Sep 2023 18:23:35 +00:00
Employment among female adult children may tions. First, it should view women's employment
not only decrease their availability to provide as a complex phenomenon with many characteris-
time-intensive services to parents, it also may in- tics such as hours, scheduling, and job satisfac-
crease the daughters' need for services. In par- tion, each dimension having possible conse-
ticular, their child care needs may increase, and quences. At the same time, we need to examine
the interplay between female employment in the parallel consequences of men's employment (see
adult child and grandparent generation and the Nieva, 1985; Mortimer and Sorensen, 1984) and
age gaps between all three generations may affect interactions between men's and women's situa-
whether it is forthcoming (Baldwin and Nord, tions, for families and for children, and to move
1984). Very little data are available on such aid, away from taking men's employment as a given.
and none describes the actual time of such services We also need longitudinal research in which we
provided from the grandparents' point of view look at duration, timing, and long-term effects.
(see Hess and Waring, 1978; Moore et al., 1984). Some consequences that have been documented in
cross-sectional studies may disappear or reverse if
FUTURE DIRECTIONS the same persons are studied over a longer time
period (Hoffman, 1987). Further, effects of
Although the major increase in female employ- women's employment have probably changed
ment will probably be completed before the year historically as the context for that employment
2000, the consequences of the increase will con- has changed and it has become more common-
tinue for some time after that (Davis, 1984). Some place.
have argued (e.g., Hunt and Hunt, 1982) that We must also keep in mind the issue of selec-
families will increasingly be divided into career- tivity, or possible unmeasured differences be-
centered childless couples and family-centered tween those who choose to work for pay and to go
units, since our society has failed to follow the into certain jobs, as we investigate implications
lead of many European ones in facilitating the for mental health, marital quality, divorce risk,
combination of work and childrearing (Bianchi children's development, and so on. As employed
and Spain, 1986). They argue that dual-career women become the majority, those who choose
wives have extricated themselves from the con- not to work for pay-that is, those who "resist
straints of home by getting domestic help, but employment" (Hoffman, 1987)-become the de-
without challenging the male role. In contrast,viant group and may differ from employed
Moore and Hofferth (1979) argue optimistically women in ways that have a wide variety of conse-
that childrearing offers many pleasures not avail-quences.
able through work and will never be entirely for- Although there has been some convergence in
saken by career women. race and class differences in women's employment
I have not devoted much discussion to the no- in recent years, researchers must work to be more
tion of "dual-career" couples because I believe sensitive to the diversity among families and how
the concept of dual earners is much more useful. women's employment may have different mean-
In an insightful critique of "the dual-career fami- ings and effects across groups. Researchers need
ly concept," Benenson (1984; see also Ferree, to go beyond both the restriction of their samples
1987) points out how rare that phenomenon is, ac- to white middle-class families and using the white
cording to usual definitions, and argues that it is middle class as the norm for comparison in the
unlikely to become much more common. Further, study of other groups.
such couples do not typically behave in an One thread running through this review has
egalitarian manner, as they have been expected to been that consequences of women's employment
by optimistic researchers. Thus, I would urge (e.g., for mental health, marital satisfaction,
researchers to steer away from this and other children's well-being) are favorable when
similarly problematic typologies, looking instead women's employment status is consistent with
at effects across the entire range of variation their (and their husbands') preferences about it.
observable in job characteristics of husbands and In other words, women who are employed and
wives.
who want to be employed are happiest. This
Future research on women's employment and seems somewhat obvious, although it is an im-
family relations needs to move in several direc-
provement on earlier research that simply ex-

79.169.74.219 on Sun, 17 Sep 2023 18:23:35 +00:00
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Spitze WomensEmploymentFamily 1988

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Women's Employment and Family Relations: A Review

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Women's Employment and Family Relations:

Journal of Marriage and the Family 50 (August 1988): 595-618 595

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cultural beliefs about housework responsibility,

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Location situation, but migration levels and the ability of

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pected negative results under all conditions. REFERENCES

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42: 841-854. of Marriage and the Family 41: 355-365.

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