need a reading response. ( two pages, in 5 hours)

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sports activities that take place during the day than are men. However, when fathers show up, they are praised. When mothers are absent, people are concerned.

There are features of the paid worker role that seem to have specific consequences for family roles. More hours worked outside the home and greater job pressures are associated with greater work-family conflict (Galinsky et al., 2009)—but more so for women (Pedersen et al., 2009). Job flexibility is associated with higher quality family roles for women but not men (Pedersen et al., 2009). There are also aspects of family roles that may influence work spillover. When both wives and husbands work full time and have children, greater inequity in the division of labor leads to greater work–family conflict for women (Edwards, 2006).

Features of the paid worker role can also benefit family roles. For example, a supportive job is associated with greater family satisfaction for both women and men (Ford et al., 2007). The paid worker role also buffers one from the distress associated with care-giving roles at home. One study showed that caregivers’ health declined more if they were not employed than if they were employed (Pavalko & Woodbury, 2000). Employment may provide one with a needed respite from caregiving, which in the end could enable one to be a more effective caregiver.

Thus, it appears that the paid worker role can have negative and positive effects on family roles. Stressors in one’s job can cause or exacerbate strains in the family. However, the paid worker role can also buffer one against family stressors. When work conflicts with family, work may be more likely to win out for men, and family may be more likely to win out for women. In that sense, work conflicts with family more for men than women. Women are more likely to have flexible jobs, to work part time, or not to be paid workers compared to men. This makes it easier for women than men to prioritize family.

Effects of Family Roles on the Paid Worker Role Features of family roles can influence the quality of the paid worker role. Family stress and conflict are associated with lower job satisfaction, and family support is associated with higher job satisfaction among both women and men (Ford et al., 2007). Family roles can enhance the paid worker role—especially when the quality of family roles is high (Pedersen et al., 2009). People who have spouses who help with child care and people who have good relationships with their children seem to be able to benefit more from the paid worker role (Gareis & Barnett, 2002; Pederson et al., 2009). Thus family roles can buffer as well as exacerbate strains at work for women and men.

Difficulties in Combining Roles Combining the paid worker role with family roles is a newer challenge for women than it is for men. To understand how work and family roles are combined, one needs to examine what the individual roles have meant to women and men historically (Simon, 1995). The paid worker role has been more closely intertwined with family roles for men than women. Historically, a man’s family role has been to provide economic support, an obligation he can fulfill through paid employment. However, a woman’s family role has been to take care of the home and children, functions not served by paid employment. The paid worker role for women does not facilitate the function of her family role and may even detract her from it. See Sidebar 12.1 for an elaboration of the difficulties women face as employees and mothers.

A number of difficulties arise in families where both women and men work. In 1989, Hochschild identified three kinds of tension in dual-earner couples that still apply today. The first tension exists when women and men have different views about who should do what work outside the home and inside the home. I discussed in Chapter 11 how disagreement about the division of labor in the family is associated with marital unhappiness, especially for women. The second tension occurs when women and men have the desire for traditional roles but their economic status does not permit them to enact those roles. In other words, both husband and wife prefer that the wife takes care of the home and the husband is employed outside of the home, but lack of financial resources requires the woman to be employed outside the home. In this instance, the husband may contribute to household chores, but neither the husband nor the wife is satisfied with this arrangement.

SIDEBAR 12.1: Paid Workers and Mothers

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Society provides women with mixed messages about whether they should be paid workers when they have children. Employed mothers receive the message that it is acceptable to work outside the home and to be a parent—as long as parenting is the number one priority. That is, paid work should never interfere with parenting. In fact, women are more likely than men to take time off from paid work to take care of children. This means the parenting role has the potential to interfere with the paid worker role more for women than men. Women who opt not to work outside the home while raising children, however, may receive a different message from society. Today, these mothers often feel the need to justify why they are not working outside the home. Here, I examine whether paid employment benefits mothers.

Whether working outside the home is beneficial for women with children depends on a number of factors, including characteristics of the job such as salary, hours worked, nature of the work, job control and flexibility as well as characteristics of the home environment, such as number of children, availability of child care, and husband’s participation in household and child care activities (Elgar & Chester, 2007). A greater number of children in the home may detract from the benefits of employment, but this depends on what resources are available to assist the woman in caring for her children. Access to resources, such as income, child care, or a supportive husband, influences whether mothers benefit from work.

Another factor that may influence the effect of combining paid work and family roles on women’s health is the traditionality of the field in which women work. It may be easier for women to combine paid work with family roles if they are employed in a field that by tradition is inhabited by women rather than men. However, traditional jobs for women, such as nurses, secretaries, and teachers, may have less flexibility than higher-status positions to accommodate family needs. One of the attributes of a high-status position is that the person often sets her or his own hours.

Thus the optimal conditions for paid work to benefit mothers’ health include a husband who helps out at home, an income that can provide for high-quality child care, and a job that accommodates family responsibilities.