Juggling jobs and kids: The impact of employment schedules on fathers' caring for children.

Gender equality in the future depends partly on how women and men combine employment and family responsibilities in the present. The decisions that mothers and fathers make about work and family, especially about how they care for their children, help shape children's cognitive maps, social behavior, and personal expectations. Parents, in everything they do, from the jobs they choose to the way they allocate household chores, provide powerful models of female and male behavior for their children. Although the traditional arrangement of a father working outside the home and a mother staying home full-time is less typical of families today than it was 25 years ago, women are still the principal childrearers and men are the major breadwinners (Hochschild, 1989). Thus, parents, inadvertently or intentionally, prepare their children for similar future roles in the economy and the family by reinforcing gender traits such as independence in boys and mothering in girls (Chodorow, 1978; Gilligan, 1982). Several scholars claim that only when fathers fully share childrearing and caregiving with mothers will the cycle of gender inequality be broken (Chodorow, 1978; Gilligan, 1982). The potential effects of fathering on the gender role conceptions of daughters and sons and on gender inequality are not the only reasons for encouraging men's participation in child care. Gender differences in parenting styles appear to have substantial effects on the socialization and well-being of children (Pruett, 1993; Starrels, 1994); fathers' involvement in childrearing is related to better outcomes for their children in terms of academic achievement, social competence, and self-esteem (see Russell & Radin, 1983). Likewise, mothers benefit from men's participation in raising children; fathers who take a major responsibility for child care ease the burden of the "second shift" for employed mothers, and they reduce maternal "stress from work overload, anxiety about adequate childcare and supervision, and a shortage of time for rest and leisure" (Hoffman, 1983, p. 174). Fathers who are actively involved in caring for their children may enjoy the positive effects of multiple roles, closer father-child bonds, and enhanced husband-wife relationships (Russell & Radin, 1983). Men, like women, who combine different life roles, such as worker, parent, and spouse, may be better off emotionally than are those with fewer life roles (Crosby, 1991). Although most fathers in the United States avoid primary responsibility for child care, many fathers do take care of their children on a regular basis. In fact, nearly 3 million children of employed mothers, currently married and otherwise, were cared for primarily by their fathers in 1988 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992). Nevertheless, the proportion of children principally cared for by their father has remained relatively stable since the 1970s; among children of dual-earning married couples, 16.8% of preschool-age children and 8.7% of children aged 5 to 14 relied on their father as their primary caregiver in 1988 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992). What prevents more fathers from taking greater responsibility for child care on a regular basis? Contrary to popular belief, it is not a lack of paternal desire or ideological commitment alone. Some researchers speculate that many fathers would increase their involvement with children if the time demands of their jobs were reduced (Barnett & Baruch, 1988). Although the number of hours a father spends in paid work may negatively affect his domestic responsibilities (Coverman, 1985; Davis & Sanik, 1991), the mere amount of job time in and of itself does not explain why some fathers do and others do not care for their children. The scheduling of paid work--when and how often a father works in terms of whether the hours are regular or rotating, on weekdays or weekends, and during the day or night--provides a more useful framework for understanding the relationship between employment and child care (see Nock & Kingston, 1988; Pleck & Staines, 1985; Presser, 1989; Staines & Pleck, 1983). …