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Moral Dimensions of the Work–Family Nexus

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Handbook of the Sociology of Morality

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Abstract

Transformations in family and work life in the USA have led to widespread feelings of conflict between these two domains. The work–family literature, hamstrung by assumptions of narrow rational action and structural determinism, has largely overlooked the moral dimension of this conflict. In contrast, I argue that work and family institutions are potent sites of moral prescriptions, meanings, and emotions. I encourage a model of human action that recognizes ideological constraint: institutions define morally potent ends that motivate action. This model also recognizes more creativity, by which people use moral understandings to justify work–family situations and to interpret them as meaningful and honorable. I show how adopting a moral lens would help the work-family literature solve some empirical puzzles and add to our understanding of gender. Finally, I raise questions about how the work-family nexus articulates with axes of social inequality and broader ideologies of individualism.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The literature reviews are illustrative rather than exhaustive.

  2. 2.

    Other studies report that 71% of mothers of children under age 18 participated in the US labor force 2007, up from 47% in 1975 (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2009b, Galinsky et al. 2009:4). Statistics on labor force participation of mothers vary depending on which universes of people are used, question wording, and reference period (Cohen and Bianchi 1999).

  3. 3.

    Of all married couple families in 2008, the husband was the sole breadwinner in 19.5% and the wife was sole breadwinner in 6.9% (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2009a, c). As of November 2009, women held an all-time high percentage of (seasonally adjusted) nonfarm payroll jobs: 49.9% (author’s calculation from Bureau of Labor Statistics [2009d, e]). Most of the layoffs in the current recession have affected men (Rampell 2009).

  4. 4.

    The minimal level of national and corporate support for working families in the USA compared to other industrialized nations makes the work-family nexus here particularly problematic. For a review of international cultural models of work and family, see Blair-Loy and Frenkel (2005).

  5. 5.

    For reviews, see Perry-Jenkins et al. (2000), Kossek (2005), Kelly et al. (2008), Bianchi and Milkie (2010).

  6. 6.

    See e.g., Jacobs and Gerson (2004), Voydanoff (1995, 2004), Galinsky et al. (1996), Schnittker (2007), Bianchi et al. (2006), Fredriksen-Goldsen and Scharlach (2001), Wharton and Blair-Loy (2006).

  7. 7.

    See, e.g., Becker and Moen (1999), Gareis and Barnett (2000), Mennino and Brayfield (2002), Ammons and Edgell (2007), Jacobs and Gerson (2004:80).

  8. 8.

    Scholars use terms such as positive spillover (Grzywacz and Marks 2000), enrichment (Greenhaus and Powell 2006, Rothbard 2001), facilitation (Voydanoff 2004), and positive interference (Bakker and Geurts 2004) from work to family life and from family life to the workplace.

  9. 9.

    My argument is consistent with Vaisey’s (2008a, b) discussion of how people’s moral judgments and actions are shaped by schemas made compelling by conscious reasoning and by unconscious intuitions and emotions. I have long argued that certain types of cultural elements (e.g., schemas of devotion) within institutions define ends that motivate action (Blair-Loy 2003). I also recognize that people use culture to justify or make sense of externally defined ends (Swidler 2001). Like Swidler (2001, 2008), I emphasize that cultural schemas – whether consciously recognized or unconsciously experienced – are organized and evoked by patterned interactions and obligations within particular institutions.

  10. 10.

    Author’s calculations from Table 5 in BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2009a).

  11. 11.

    The data suggest possibly increasing normative expectations for involved fathering. Average fathers’ time with children increased from 26 hours a week in 1970 to 33 hours in 2000, although fathers were far more likely to spend this time helping their spouse, while wives were more likely to care for their children solo (Bianchi and Raley 2005:34). According to 2008 National Survey of the Changing Workforce data, mothers’ time with children continued at the same levels through 2008. In 2008, the average young mother and young father (under age 29) spent more time with children under age 13 compared to the same-gender parent over age 30 (Galinsky et al. 2009:15).

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Acknowledgment

I thank Steve Hitlin for valuable comments and Timothy Bolin for helpful research assistance with the references.

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  1. Department of Sociology, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA

    Mary Blair-Loy

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  1. Dept. Sociology, University of Iowa, Seashore Hall W. 124, Iowa City, 52242-1401, Iowa, USA

    Steven Hitlin

  2. , Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, Barrows Hall #1980 410, Berkeley, 94720, USA

    Stephen Vaisey

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Blair-Loy, M. (2010). Moral Dimensions of the Work–Family Nexus. In: Hitlin, S., Vaisey, S. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Morality. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6896-8_23

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