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Work–family balance in the United States refers to the specific issues that arise when men and women in the United States attempt to balance their occupational lives with their family lives. This differs from work-life balance: while work-life balance may refer to the health and living issues that arise from work, work–family balance refers specifically to how work and families intersect and influence each other. Work–family balance in the U.S. differs significantly for families of different social class. Middle-class family issues center on dual-earner spouses and parents while lower class issues center on problems that arise due to single parenting. Work–family balance issues also differ by class, since middle class occupations provide more benefits and family support while low-wage jobs are less flexible with benefits. Solutions for helping individuals manage work–family balance in the U.S. include legislation, workplace policies, and the marketization of care work. ==History== Family structure (how the family is organized) historically has been influenced by social-level forces, many of them economic.〔Coontz, Stephanie. 2000. “Historical Perspectives on Family Studies.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 62: 283-297.〕 According to family historian Stephanie Coontz, marriage and family formation in the 17th century was heavily influenced by desires to form economic and political alliances. Children were seen as a method of ensuring the passage of political and economic power to future generations.〔Coontz, Stephanie. Marriage: A History. New York: Penguin, 2006.〕 Influenced by the Englightenment, several changes to marriage occurred: the move toward individualism and the loosening of church influence over families after the Protestant Reformation resulted in the flourishing of the two-parent farm family.〔 Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the two-parent farm family was the dominant family model, in which both parents working side by side on family farms〔Pew Research Center. 2010. “The Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families.” Retrieved January 7, 2011 (http://pewsocialtrends.org/2010/11/18/the-decline-of-marriage-and-rise-of-new-families/).〕 The two-parent farm family ceased to be the dominant family model after the Industrial Revolution occurred.〔Barkley, Paul W. 1976. “A Contemporary Political Economy of Family Farming.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 58(5): 812-819.〕 The 1920s was the first time that the majority of children lived in two-parent breadwinner-homemaker families (one where the father supported the family financially and the mother supported the family domestically).〔 In 19th century farm settings, children were an important part of their families' agricultural livelihoods.〔〔Hammel, E.A., Sheila R. Johansson, and Caren A. Ginsberg. 1983. “The Value of Children During Industrialization: Sex Ratios in Childhood in Nineteenth-Century America.” Journal of Family History 8: 346-366.〕 As industrialization occurred and families shifted from rural agricultural settings to urban ones, the number of children per household also declined. Children became less of an economic benefit and more of a cost: urban life necessitated educating children which was costly.〔Wells, Robert V. 1975. “Family History and Demographic Transition.” Journal of Social History 9(1): 1-19.〕 During the 1910s and 1920s, women delayed childbirth for economic opportunities that were present in urban areas.〔Cookingham, Mary E. 1984. “Combining Marriage, Motherhood, and Jobs Before World War II: Women College Graduates, Classes of 1903-1935.” Journal of Family History 9(2): 178-195.〕 However, this trend reversed during the Great Depression because of the lower number of economic opportunities available for women. As a result, Depression Era women were more likely to marry and have children earlier. In 1900, roughly 40 percent of single women were employed versus only five percent of married women (Preston, 2003). This 35 percent gap persisted for many years. Goldin (1992), in a study of women college graduates in the twentieth century, concluded that those graduating between 1900 and 1920 had to make “a distinct choice between family and career” 〔Barnett, Rosalind Chait. 2004. Preface: Women and Work: Where Are We, Where Did We Come From, and Where Are We Going?Journal of Social Issues.〕 The breadwinner-homemaker model flourished during the twenty-year period immediately after World War II.〔 The economy relied upon the male breadwinner to earn the income to support his family financially, while women were relied upon to do the care work and other forms of domestic work to support her husband's earnings. As the economy went into recession during the 1970s, women entered the workforce in large droves. Families could no longer survive on the single income of the male breadwinner and both sexes were relied upon for financial support. The dominant family model starting in the 1970s was the dual-earner family where both parents worked.〔 Women also entered college in higher percentages.〔Torr, Berna M. 2011. “The Changing Relationship between Education and Marriage in the United States, 1940-2000.” Journal of Family History 36(4): 483-503.〕 However, the economy was still assumed to run on an outdated breadwinner-homemaker model as evidence by the following things: women made significantly less income than men, they were still expected to do the majority of domestic work, and the nine-to-three o'clock school schedule of children still existed. The recession of the 1970s also further pushed the correlation between income and family structure. As more and more previously lucrative manufacturing jobs were sent overseas, men without college educations could no longer support their families on a single wage. Women's labor force participation rates have steadily increased since the 1940s〔 Since the 1970s, the relationship between marriage and college education has also been positive.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Work–family balance in the United States」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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