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Family Care and the Workplace Continued...

Reducing strain between work and family roles requires that families find ways to reduce demands and more equitably distribute family care responsibilities, both in the provision of care, and in securing and maintaining formal care arrangements. Yet the division of responsibility for family care remains highly gendered, despite the fact that most women are in the paid work force. Although men are providing significantly more family care than they did two decades ago, women are still doing 50 percent more of the household work, reflecting power differentials as well as "women's reluctance to give up family work and men's resistance to take it on."

In our study, we found that female employees experienced both higher demands and fewer resources when combining family care and employment than did their male counterparts. Women also reported slightly higher levels of role strain after controlling for social and demographic characteristics and family care and employment resources and demands. Yet although "work and family" is generally coined as a women's issue, it also significantly impacted the lives of men, frequently resulting in difficulties combining work and family care responsibilities. Moreover, men are less likely to be public about their work and family concerns and seem to be stigmatized more than women if they utilize relevant work and family policies at the work site.

While it is important to understand the differences between women and men in relation to work and family, such an analysis should not simply perpetuate stereotypes, or mask the similarities that may actually exist, or narrow our interpretation and response to work and family issues. As long as work and family balance is defined solely as a women's issue, it will continue to be marginalized. Furthermore, we cannot achieve balance unless men take more responsibility for family care. When there is a gendered division of family care in the home, there cannot be gender equality in the work place.

Like women, racial and ethnic minorities and those in low-status occupations all tend to provide the most family care with limited resources at home and at work. Clerical staff, women, and minority employees in our study tended to have fewer economic resources with which to offset the demands of family care. Lower levels of social and economic resources have consistently been linked to increased vulnerability to stress and health problems.

Likely reflecting differences in interpretation, socialization, and methods of coping when integrating work and family responsibilities, gender and race/ethnicity were significant, but relatively small contributors to role strain after controlling for background characteristics, demands, and resources. These findings illustrate that difficulties in combining work and family care responsibilities are largely a function of differences in work and family demands and resources, rather than personal structural characteristics. These findings underscore the importance of increasing research attention to the needs and experiences of diverse groups of employees with family care responsibilities, while maintaining an awareness that differences by gender, race, and occupational status are multi-causal in nature.

As we strive toward equality at the work place, the division of responsibility for caring has not changed, and we have not redistributed family-care demands. While we cannot achieve equality without full participation in all spheres of life, including family care, employment, and public governance, our formal systems of care are not being transformed to meet the demands and needs of caring. Existing work place and community programs and policies have not done an adequate job of responding to the diverse needs of working families. Unless we begin to discuss publicly and consider the significant role and value of family care, the care received by dependents may be inadequate, and equality will likely remain elusive.

Based on Andrew Scharlach and Karen I. Fredriksen-Goldsen (2000), Families and Work, Oxford University Press.