Bianchi Suzanne M
Department of Sociology, University of California-Los Angeles, USA.
Future Child. 2011 Fall;21(2):15-36. doi: 10.1353/foc.2011.0013.
American families and workplaces have both changed dramatically over the past half-century. Paid work by women has increased sharply, as has family instability. Education-related inequality in work hours and income has grown. These changes, says Suzanne Bianchi, pose differing work-life issues for parents at different points along the income distribution. Between 1975 and 2009, the labor force rate of mothers with children under age eighteen increased from 47.4 percent to 71.6 percent. Mothers today also return to work much sooner after the birth of a child than did mothers half a century ago. High divorce rates and a sharp rise in the share of births to unmarried mothers mean that more children are being raised by a single parent, usually their mother. Workplaces too have changed, observes Bianchi. Today's employees increasingly work nonstandard hours. The well-being of highly skilled workers and less-skilled workers has been diverging. For the former, work hours may be long, but income has soared. For lower-skill workers, the lack of "good jobs" disconnects fathers from family obligations. Men who cannot find work or have low earnings potential are much less likely to marry. For low-income women, many of whom are single parents, the work-family dilemma is how to care adequately for children and work enough hours to support them financially. Jobs for working-class and lower middle-class workers are relatively stable, except in economic downturns, but pay is low, and both parents must work full time to make ends meet. Family income is too high to qualify for government subsidized child care, but too low to afford high-quality care in the private market. These families struggle to have a reasonable family life and provide for their family's economic well-being. Bianchi concludes that the "work and family" problem has no one solution because it is not one problem. Some workers need more work and more money. Some need to take time off around the birth of a child without permanently derailing a fulfilling career. Others need short-term support to attend to a family health crisis. How best to meet this multiplicity of needs is the challenge of the coming decade.
在过去的半个世纪里，美国家庭和工作场所都发生了巨大的变化。女性的有偿工作急剧增加，家庭不稳定状况也加剧了。与教育相关的工作时间和收入不平等现象有所加剧。苏珊娜·比安奇表示，这些变化给处于收入分配不同阶段的父母带来了不同的工作与生活问题。1975年至2009年间，有18岁以下子女的母亲的劳动力参与率从47.4%升至71.6%。如今的母亲在孩子出生后比半个世纪前的母亲更早返回工作岗位。高离婚率以及未婚母亲生育比例的大幅上升意味着更多孩子由单亲抚养，通常是母亲。比安奇指出，工作场所也发生了变化。如今的员工越来越多地从事非标准工时的工作。高技能工人和低技能工人的福祉差距越来越大。对于前者来说，工作时间可能很长，但收入大幅飙升。对于低技能工人而言，缺乏“好工作”使父亲们无法履行家庭责任。找不到工作或收入潜力低的男性结婚的可能性要小得多。对于低收入女性（其中许多是单亲母亲）来说，工作与家庭的两难困境在于如何充分照顾孩子，同时工作足够的时长以在经济上维持家庭生计。工人阶级和中下层工人的工作相对稳定，经济衰退时期除外，但工资很低，父母双方都必须全职工作才能维持收支平衡。家庭收入过高，不符合政府补贴的儿童保育条件，但又过低，无力在私人市场支付高质量的保育费用。这些家庭努力维持合理的家庭生活并保障家庭的经济福祉。比安奇总结说，“工作与家庭”问题没有单一的解决方案，因为它不是一个单一的问题。一些工人需要更多工作和更多收入。一些人需要在孩子出生前后休假，同时又不会永久性地妨碍一份充实的职业发展。另一些人则需要短期支持来应对家庭健康危机。如何最好地满足这些多样的需求是未来十年的挑战。
