Housewife vs Working Woman
Working wives and mothers : what happens to family life?
The changing work role of women has caused much concern about the survival of the family; most women can mix work with marriage
and motherhood and handle or better share the resulting household responsibilities
SAR A. LEVITAN AND RICHARD S . BELOUS
American families seem to be besieged from all sides .
Divorce rates are climbing ; marriage is being postponed, if not rejected ; fertility rates are falling ; increasing numbers of children are being raised only by their mothers, either because of divorce or because their parents were never married ; and wives and mothers in record numbers are rushing out of the home into the labor market . What is the effect of these occurrences on the institution of the family? Does the "economic independence" of working women influence their decisions to either begin or end a marriage or to rear children?
Too frequently, the changing work patterns of women are confused with causing the deterioration of family life . Careful analysis of family-related data show that although American families are changing, they are not eroding .
The fact that women are working in record numbers is not a new phenomenon . What has changed are the conditions and places in which they work . Many tasks which were once performed inside the home are now the source of jobs held by women outside the home.
World War II stands as a major breaking point in fe-
Sar A. Levitan is director of the Center for Social Policy Studies,
George Washington University, and Richard S. Belous is executive director of the National Council on Employment Policy . This article is adapted from their book, What's Happening to the American Family?, to be published by The Johns Hopkins University . Press, Fall 1981 .
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male work patterns . The war effort's high demand for labor and patriotic fervor induced many women to join the labor force, boosting the size of the female work force by
The changing work role of women has caused much concern about the survival of the family; most women can mix work with marriage
and motherhood and handle or better share the resulting household responsibilities
SAR A. LEVITAN AND RICHARD S . BELOUS
American families seem to be besieged from all sides .
Divorce rates are climbing ; marriage is being postponed, if not rejected ; fertility rates are falling ; increasing numbers of children are being raised only by their mothers, either because of divorce or because their parents were never married ; and wives and mothers in record numbers are rushing out of the home into the labor market . What is the effect of these occurrences on the institution of the family? Does the "economic independence" of working women influence their decisions to either begin or end a marriage or to rear children?
Too frequently, the changing work patterns of women are confused with causing the deterioration of family life . Careful analysis of family-related data show that although American families are changing, they are not eroding .
The fact that women are working in record numbers is not a new phenomenon . What has changed are the conditions and places in which they work . Many tasks which were once performed inside the home are now the source of jobs held by women outside the home.
World War II stands as a major breaking point in fe-
Sar A. Levitan is director of the Center for Social Policy Studies,
George Washington University, and Richard S. Belous is executive director of the National Council on Employment Policy . This article is adapted from their book, What's Happening to the American Family?, to be published by The Johns Hopkins University . Press, Fall 1981 .
26
male work patterns . The war effort's high demand for labor and patriotic fervor induced many women to join the labor force, boosting the size of the female work force by