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Families andWork: The JugglingAct

no name”as the contemporary woman’s
need for personal fulfillment.The solution
to this need was thought to be meaningful,
well-paid work outside the home.Fueled
by increased access to reliable birth
control (e.g.,the Pill),the women’s
revolution was on (Engermann &
Owyang,2006; Golden & Katz,2002).
Women were encouraged to let career life
co-opt family life.
The women’s movement challenged the
culture and structures of gender equality,
as well as confronted the men who
expected women to abide by the rules
(Epstein,2002).As a result,the women’s
revolution shattered many marriages in
the late 1960s and early 1970s,as women
seemingly changed the rules of their
marriages,spending less time on home
and family and more time on outside
interests.Women who fought to save their
marriages found it challenging to hold on
to their careers without jeopardizing
family life.These women were caught in
the contradiction between an economy
which needed them,and a culture which
continued to define femininity in terms of
passivity and subservience (Epstein,2002).
Thus,most first-generation women who
worked outside the home sought to“do it
all.”They rose early to cook breakfast and
get their husbands and children off to
work and school.They spent a good
portion of their evenings cooking,
cleaning up after dinner,helping children
with homework,and tending to numerous

household chores.Hochschild (1989)

chronicled the long workdays of mothers

and the resulting strain on relationships.

She documented how women essentially

worked a second job after they returned

home,which she referred to as“thesecond

shift.”About one third to one half of

mothers are still doing a“second shift”

today,according to the research (Amato,

Booth Johnson,& Rogers,2007; Bianchi,

Robinson,& Milkie,2006).

Other Factors.Married women with

children continued to move into the paid

labor market in the early 1970s.Many of

these women entered for self-fulfillment

or to keep pace with a rising standard of

living,which necessitated a rise in median

First-generation working mothers often try to do it all.

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