Balancing Work and Family Life

1
Chapter 12

• Balancing Work and Family Life

2
Chapter Outline

• Meanings of Money
• Dual-Earner Marriages Considerations for Spouses
• Dual-Earner Marriages Considerations for
  Children
• Balancing Demands of Work and Family
• Balancing Work and Leisure Time

3
True or False?

• Young attorneys who take time out to have and
  raise their children are just as likely to make
  partner in their firm as attorneys who did not
  take out time to have/rear children.

4
Answer False

• Noonan and Corcoran (2004) found that lawyers who
  took time out for child responsibilities were
  less likely to make partner and to earn less
  money if they did make partner.

5
True or False?

• An employed unhappy wife is more likely to
  divorce than a happy employed wife.

6
Answer True

• An employed unhappy wife is more likely to
  divorce than a happy employed wife.

7
Meanings of Money

• Security
• Money represents security most people want.
• Self-Esteem
• In our society human worth is often equated with
  financial achievement.
• Power in Relationships
• The more money a partner makes, the more power
  they have in the relationship.

8
Meanings of Money

• Love
• To some individuals, money means love.
• Conflict
• Couples argue about what to spend money on and
  how much money to spend.

9
Love and Money

• Pg. 350

• A large diamond ring is regarded as signifying
  much love hence the association of love and
  money.

10
Question

• Who has more power in relationships?
• both partners when they are earning the same
  amount
• the partner with more leisure time
• the partner who is more physically dominant
• the partner with more money

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Answer D

• The partner with more money has more power in
  relationships.

12
Poverty

• Poverty
• Poverty is the lack of resources necessary for
  material well-being.
• Absolute poverty
• The lack of resources that leads to hunger and
  physical deprivation.

13
Distribution of Income Level in U.S. Families
Income Level of Family at This Level
Less than 15,000 9.6
15,00024,999 11.1
25,00034,999 11.4
35,00049,999 15.0
50,00074,999 20.1
75,00099,999 13.3
100,000 or more 19.4
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2006 HHS Poverty Guidelines
Size of Family 48 States, D.C. Alaska Hawaii
1 14,700 18,375 16,905
2 19,800 24,750 22,770
3 24,900 31,125 28,635
4 30,000 37,500 34,500
5 35,100 43,875 40,365
6 40,200 50,250 46,230
7 45,300 56,625 52,095
8 50,400 63,000 57,960
15
Dual-Earner Marriages

• Effects on the Couples Marriage of Having Two
  Earners
• Employment wont affect a happy marriage but it
  can do an unhappy one in.
• Effects of the Wifes Employment on the Children
• Children do not appear to suffer cognitively or
  emotionally as long as positive consistent
  child-care alternatives are in place.

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Three Types of Dual-career Marriages

• HER /his career
• Where the wifes career takes precedence.
• HIS/her career
• Where the husbands career takes precedence.
• HIS/HER career
• When the careers of both partners are given equal
  status in the relationship.

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Dual Career Marriages

• This man has a full-time career as an accountant
  his wife is a PhD English Professor.
• They both have demanding careers.

• Pg. 353

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Effects of Wifes Employment on the Wife

• Women without children or older children, working
  in jobs they enjoy and married to egalitarian
  husbands who are much happier than their
  counterpart.
• Employed women in dual earner households that are
  not equal in the division of labor are less
  likely to be happily married and more likely to
  divorce.

19
Role Overload

• Whether a wife is satisfied with her job is also
  related to the degree to which the job takes a
  toll on her family life.
• Most women with young children prefer to be at
  home and view home as their primary haven of
  satisfaction.
• Role overload occurs when women dont have the
  time or energy to meet the demands of role
  (wife/parent/worker) responsibilities.

20
Role Conflict

• The role of the employed mother is to stay late
  and get a report ready for tomorrow.
• The role of the mother is to pick up the child
  from day care at five P.M.
• When these roles collide, there is role conflict.

21
Role Strain

• The anxiety that results from being able to
  fulfill only a limited number of role
  obligations.
• Occurs for both women and men in dual-earner
  marriages.
• There is no one at home to take care of housework
  and children while they are working, and they
  feel strained at not being able to do everything.

22
INSERT VIDEO

• All-Female Fire Department (Run time 449)

23
Question

• What is role overload?
• not having time or energy to meet the demands of
  role responsibility
• being on the second shift
• getting too much into one's role as parent
• taking on both gender roles of parent

24
Answer A

• Role overload is not having time or energy to
  meet the demands of role responsibility.

25
Question

• Being confronted by incompatible role obligations
  is referred to as
• role reversal.
• role overload.
• role conflict.
• role modeling.

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Answer C

• Being confronted by incompatible role obligations
  is referred to as role conflict.

27
INSERT VIDEO

• Being a Mom Is Staying Home Selling Out?(Run
  Time 832)

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Effects of Wifes Employmenton Her Husband

• Husbands report benefits from their wives
  employment
• Being relieved of the sole responsibility for the
  financial support of the family
• Having more freedom to quit jobs, change jobs, or
  go to school.

29
Day-Care Considerations

• Priorities in day-care selection include
• health and safety issues
• caregiver quality
• the childs social and educational development

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Day Care

• Parents are sometimes apprehensive about dropping
  off their child at day care.
• Essentially, they are leaving their children with
  paid strangers.

• Pg. 357

31
Your Opinion

• Why do you think that the U.S. lags behind other
  industrialized nations in terms of paid leave for
  parents?

32
Employed Mothers By Age Of Child
Age of Child of Employed Mothers
Child age 1 and under 54.7
Child age 2 61.3
Child age 3 63.6
Child age 4 64.1
Child age 5 66.9
Child age 6-13 75.1
Child age 14-17 81.2
33
Question

• What is a major concern of an employed parent?
• pleasing their employer
• juggling demands of work and family
• making enough money
• finding time for the spouse

34
Answer B

• A major concern of an employed parent is juggling
  demands of work and family.

35
Your Opinion

• Argue for and against
• Childfree workers should work later and on
  holidays so that parents can be with their
  children.

36
Superperson Strategy

• Involves working as hard and efficiently as
  possible to meet the demands of work and family.
• Supermom
• The term superwoman or supermom is a cultural
  label that allows the woman to regard herself as
  very efficient, bright, and confident.

37
Cognitive Restructuring

• Viewing a situation in positive terms.
• Exhausted dual-career earners often justify their
  time away from their children by focusing on the
  benefits of their labor.

38
Second and Third Shift

• Second shift
• The housework and child care that employed women
  do when they return home from their jobs.
• Third shift
• The third shift is the expense of emotional
  energy by a spouse or parent in dealing with
  various issues in family living.

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Question

• The expense of emotional energy in dealing with
  family issues is called
• the fourth shift.
• the third shift.
• the second shift.
• the first shift.

40
Answer B

• The expense of emotional energy in dealing with
  family issues is called the third shift.

41
Leisure

• Functions
• relieve work-related stress and pressure
• facilitate social interaction and family
  togetherness
• foster self-expression, personal growth, and
  skill development
• enhance overall social, physical, and emotional
  wellbeing

42
Barriers to Leisure

• Demands of the Workplace
• A major barrier to leisure has been the rising
  demands of the workplace.
• Materialistic Values
• Couples get caught up in a vicious cycle of
  working long hours to achieve a certain standard
  of living, only to find that this standard of
  living no longer satisfies them.

43
Barriers to Leisure

• Traditional Gender Roles
• Women tend to spend their leisure time engaged in
  hobbies related to household tasks, such as
  cooking, preserving fruits and vegetables, and
  sewing.
• Leisure as a Commodity
• Many leisure activities cost money that families
  do not have in their budget.

44
Leisure Time

• Pg. 359

• For many people, leisure is not an option. This
  man has worked at this position as clerk of a
  hotel for 10 years.

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Leisure as Work

• Leisure is being used as a means to other ends
  stress reduction, therapy, fitness, and
  self-actualization.
• Some people are reluctant to take time off for a
  vacation.

46
Leisure Time

• Pg. 363

• These spouses work hard in heir respective
  professions but balance off their careers with
  frequent relaxing vacations.