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Changing Work-Family Arrangements among American Couples from 1968-2015

Sat, August 11, 10:30 to 11:30am, Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Floor: Level 5, Salon G

Abstract

As a response to women’s changing roles in the public sphere, couples have adopted varied strategies to reconcile the needs of their families and careers. A rich literature has documented how couples divide either paid work or unpaid work. Few studies, however, have addressed the combined division of paid and unpaid work using nationally representative surveys and studying change over time. To fill this gap, this study addresses three main research questions: (i) What strategies have couples adopted to divide their time between the labor market and domestic work? (ii) How has the distribution of couples by work-family arrangements shifted over time? (iii) What are the determinants of couples’ work-family arrangements? Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and latent-class analysis, I identify six work-family arrangements: traditional, neo-traditional, double-burden, egalitarian, double-burden reversed and unconventional (i.e. women as primary or sole worker). Between 1968 and 2015, the prevalence of traditional couples experienced the largest decrease, giving room to egalitarian couples but also atypical work-family arrangements (double-burden reversed and unconventional). Furthermore, preliminary results suggest that work-family arrangements with a sole earner, i.e. traditional and unconventional, are increasingly more likely to have lower educational levels and resources. These findings echo the increasing polarization of Americans’ family behavior and work opportunities.

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