Issues of work and family in different national contexts: How the United States, Britain, and Sweden respond

1992 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lotte Bailyn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Work And Family

Work and Family in the United States: A Critical Review and Agenda for Research and Policy

1979 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 669
Author(s):  
Phyllis Moen ◽  
Rosabeth Moss Kantor
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
The United States ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Research And Policy

Gender and Telework in Information Technology

2011 ◽  
pp. 460-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald D. Davis ◽  
Katherine A. Selgrade ◽  
Debra A. Major
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
The United States ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Family Obligations ◽  
Distributed Work ◽  
Working At Home ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Work At Home ◽  
At Home

Information technology (IT) work is often distributed geographically through practices such as teleworking. Telework lends itself well to IT workers because they work easily with information technology, which is required for telework, and because many IT jobs consist of knowledge work—the creation and analysis of symbols and ideas—which may be done anywhere and anytime. Advances in information technology make distributed work possible. Globalization and the need for organization flexibility make distributed work necessary (Davis, 1995). Organizations distribute work to take advantage of scarce and inexpensive talent, enhance innovation and product design, and to reduce real estate costs, development time, and labor costs. Workers choose distributed work to balance work and life demands, reduce commuting time, accommodate disabilities, and take advantage of distant opportunities. Telework, a form of distributed work first described by Nilles (1975), has established itself throughout the United States. We discuss telework trends and provide some data describing teleworkers in IT professions in the United States. Four forms of telework are commonly used (see Key Terms; Bailey & Kurland, 2002; Kurland & Bailey, 1999). Most teleworkers use a combination of these forms, although home-based telework is most prevalent (Davis & Polonko, 2001). Each form of telework is practiced for different reasons and produces different work experiences and outcomes (Bailey & Kurland, 2002; Davis & Polonko, 2003; Helling, 2000). A national survey of telework practices in the United States was conducted in 2001 under sponsorship of the International Telework Association and Council (ITAC) and AT&T (Davis & Polonko, 2001). The sample was stratified to represent all U.S. households and was diverse with respect to gender, ethnicity, occupation, organization size, and industry. Results showed that there are approximately twenty-eight million teleworkers in the U.S. Compared to nonteleworkers, teleworkers are significantly more likely to be from the Northeast and West, male (54% of teleworkers), have higher education and income, work in professional/managerial occupations, work in industries such as construction, professional/scientific/technical services, health care/social assistance, and work in very small and very large organizations. There were no significant differences in telework practice for marital status, race/ethnicity, and age. Davis and Polonko (2001) report several findings concerning telework and its impact on ability to balance work and family demands that are relevant to IT professionals. Teleworkers, especially those who work at home, are more likely than nonteleworkers to report working longer hours and that the demands of their personal life take time away from their work. They also report more difficulty relaxing at home when doing non-work related activities. However, teleworkers are also more likely to state that their family members and friends report less unhappiness with the amount of time they spend working at home, report that their home life is less likely to prevent them from working the amount of time they want to work at home, and that working at home interferes less with other activities in their personal life. These differences suggest that teleworkers may be better able to manage the time they spend working at home compared to nonteleworkers. While teleworkers may experience some personal costs, such as difficulty relaxing, they experience significant benefits compared to nonteleworkers in terms of less interference between work and family roles. Women may particularly benefit from telework because they are often responsible for childcare. Research examining women teleworkers shows mixed benefits. Women teleworkers may experience less stress because they have more control over their time, do less commuting, experience fewer distractions, and are available to their families during the day (Kraut, 1988; Olson & Primps, 1984). On the other hand, women teleworkers may also experience greater stress due to reduced separation between work and family obligations resulting from bringing the workplace into the home (Olson & Primps, 1984). All teleworkers report working more hours (Davis & Polonko, 2001; Mirchandani, 1998). Men and women adapt differently to work at home. For example, the time saved by reduced commuting gets used differently; women tend to use this time to do household chores, whereas men use this time to do more job-related work (Steward, 2000). Both men and women maintain a separation between work and family, but they do so for different reasons. Mirchandani (1999) reports that most women state that they separate work and family to reduce the stress of simultaneously attending to work and family obligations, whereas no men report such reasoning. She adds, “For women, the home is not a place of nonwork, but rather another workplace” (p. 92). Women teleworkers, especially those with children, may experience more difficulty in balancing work and family life than men (and women without children). Yet women claim to choose to telework as a means for balancing work and family obligations (Beasley, Lomo-David, & Seubert, 2001).

scholarly journals Gender Differences in Adolescents’ Work and Family Orientations in the United States

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Sarah R. Hayford ◽  
Jessica Halliday Hardie
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gender Differences ◽  
The United States ◽  
Work And Family

Wage-Earning Women: Industrial Work and Family Life in the United States, 1900-1930

1980 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 172
Author(s):  
Alice Kessler-Harris ◽  
Leslie Woodcock Tentler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Family Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Industrial Work ◽  
Wage Earning

5. TIME, WORK, AND FAMILY IN THE UNITED STATES

2003 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 95-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne M Bianchi ◽  
Marybeth J Mattingly
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Time Work

Wage-Earning Women: Industrial Work and Family Life in the United States, 1900-1930

1980 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 724
Author(s):  
Susan Estabrook Kennedy ◽  
Leslie Woodcock Tentler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Family Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Industrial Work ◽  
Wage Earning

The Road Winds Uphill All the Way: Gender, Work and Family in the United States and Japan

ILR Review ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 719
Author(s):  
Jerry A. Jacobs ◽  
Myra H. Strober ◽  
Agnes M. K. Chan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
The Road ◽  
The Way
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