By Heather Boushey, Ph.D. Senior Economist Center for American Progress Recent media reports claim that mothers are increasingly “opting out” of employment to stay home with their families. But according to a new study released by the Council on Contemporary Families and the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the 20-year trend has been […]
Topics of Expertise: Division of Labor in Families / Labor & Workforce / Work & FamilyTwentieth century social policy in industrial nations was originally formulated on the assumption that one particular family model was both the most prevalent and the most desirable. A family was supposed to consist of a married couple — one male breadwinner and one female homemaker — and their children, and the wages of a man were assumed to be enough to support a wife and children. Almost all women were assumed to be housewives.
Accordingly, women and children’s access to market income was organized through marriage, as was their access to social insurance. Male workers could claim social insurance benefits for themselves and their dependents from the state, unions, employers and other institutions, but women seldom had any way to make claims independently. When husbands died, widows with children could draw pensions from the state and/or receive aid from the husband’s union, while women without husbands usually had no legal way to make such claims. At the same time, work was organized on the assumption that all men were married to women who could devote their time and labor to the care of children.
Topics of Expertise: Labor & Workforce / Work & FamilyAssistant Professor of Family, Health, and Policy in the Department of Family and Consumer Studies at the University of Utah
Director of Research and Public Education, Council on Contemporary Families; Professor, The Evergreen State College
Associate Professor of Labor and Employment Relations and Sociology, The Pennsylvania State University
Professor of Sociology & Faculty Fellow of the Honors College, University of Illinois at Chicago
Associate Professor and Faculty Director of the Master of Science in Social Policy program, University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice
Professor of Sociology and Director of the Life Course Center, University of Minnesota
Professor of Sociology, Florida State University
Professor of Psychology & Director of Center for Research on Families, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Professor of Sociology with the Maryland Population Research Center and Director of the Maryland Time Use Lab
Professor of Sociology and Director of the Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University
