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Changing Rhythms of American Family Life
Suzanne M. Bianchi
Rose Series in Sociology
Russell Sage Foundation Publications
September 2006
On Sale: August 30, 2006
249 pages ISBN: 087154136X EAN: 9780871541369 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Over the last forty years, the number of American households
with a stay-at-home parent has dwindled as women have
increasingly joined the paid workforce and more women raise
children alone. Many policy makers feared these changes
would come at the expense of time mothers spend with their
children. In Changing Rhythms of American Family Life,
sociologists Suzanne Bianchi, John Robinson, and Melissa
Milkie analyze the way families spend their time and uncover
surprising new findings about how Americans are balancing
the demands of work and family. Using time diary data from surveys of American parents over
the last four decades, Changing Rhythms of American Family
Life finds that—despite increased workloads outside of the
home—mothers today spend at least as much time interacting
with their children as mothers did decades ago—and perhaps
even more. Unexpectedly, the authors find the increase in
mothers’ time at work has not resulted in an overall decline
in sleep or leisure time. Rather, mothers have made time for
both work and family by sacrificing time spent doing
housework and by increased "multitasking." Changing Rhythms
of American Family Life finds that the total workload (in
and out of the home) for employed parents is high for both
sexes, with employed mothers averaging five hours more per
week than employed fathers and almost nineteen hours more
per week than homemaker mothers. Comparing average workloads
of fathers with all mothers—both those in the paid workforce
and homemakers—the authors find that there is gender
equality in total workloads, as there has been since 1965.
Overall, it appears that Americans have adapted to changing
circumstances to ensure that they preserve their family time
and provide adequately for their children. Changing Rhythms of American Family Life explodes many of
the popular misconceptions about how Americans balance work
and family. Though the iconic image of the American mother
has changed from a docile homemaker to a frenzied, sleepless
working mom, this important new volume demonstrates that the
time mothers spend with their families has remained steady
throughout the decades.
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