Balancing the responsibilities of a job and a family is a critical problem for many people in contemporary society. One of the central questions researchers ask is, what job trade-offs do women make to help them balance jobs and children? The purpose of this study is to extend that question to men. Using qualitative and quantitative data collected from fathers in the United States, Canada, and Australia, I investigated how gender as a social structure influences the job trade-offs fathers make as they juggle the responsibilities of their jobs and their children. I recruited study participants through fathering web sites on the Internet and collected data via an on-line survey and standardized follow-up e-mail interviews. A content analysis of the fathering web sites reveals that web sites in the United States reflect the underlying assumption that job-family issues are a dilemma for individual fathers whereas web sites in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom address job-family balance as a social issue as well as an individual problem. Analysis of the survey and interview data show that fathers make career trade-offs as well as everyday job accommodations to be involved with their children. Fathers cite time, travel considerations, and flexible workplace conditions as primary reasons for changing jobs and declining promotions. Logistic regression and Ordinary Least Squares regression analyses of the survey results reveal that working long hours, having a male-dominated job, flexible working conditions, the ages of his children, his attitude toward gendered behavior, his education, his religion, and his level of involvement affect the type of job accommodations a father makes as well as the magnitude of job-family juggling he does. More importantly, my research also provides evidence that gender as a social structure constrains fathers' behaviors. For example, fathers receive encouragement and support when they are somewhat involved with their children, but disapproval and skepticism when they assume primary caregiving responsibility for their children. In addition, there are contradictory ideological assumptions regarding gender and caregiving, for example, fathers and mothers have the same caregiving capabilities but, at the same time, fathers and mothers have different caregiving responsibilities / acase@tulane.edu

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Time is socially constructed and time serves as the central organizing feature of human activities. Employment time has become more diverse in the last few decades as the result of a variety of social and economic factors, especially the expansion of a service-based, technology-intensified flexible economy. To respond to these structural changes, family time has also been undergoing reorganization and redistribution. We are not clear, however, how the temporal shifts at both the workplace and at home will affect family relationships and how men and women differ in their response to these new arrangements of time This study acknowledges the macro-structural changes over the last few decades, and it systematically investigates their consequences for family relations. Using two waves of a nationally representative data set, this study assesses three different effects in the model of the relationship between employment time and the quality of intimate relationships: (1) the direct effect of employment schedules on relationship quality; (2) the intervening effect of family time; and (3) the conditional effect of earnings and gender attitudes. The analyses are limited to dual-earner families in order to capture the joint effects of couple's joint characteristics. This study adopts a multi-dimensional approach to examine various aspects of employment scheduling and different measures of relationship quality. It shows that employment schedules, as measured by job hours, nonday shift, multiple jobs, varied schedules, weekend job, and job-related travel have limited consequences for relationship quality, but the gendered nature of employment and its effects on family relationships is evident in the results. Employment time has some impact on husbands' happiness, but husbands are more affected by their own job schedules. Husbands' and wives' job disruptions and dissatisfaction have different effects on relationship quality. While husbands' job disruptions and dissatisfaction negatively affect both partners' perceived relationship quality, wives' job disruptions and dissatisfaction increase husbands' perceived relationship quality. Moreover, couple's joint job schedules, earnings, and gender attitudes seem to operate together in determining how schedules affect relationship quality, although the results do not show consistent patterns of these interactions. This study also shows that the models determining the baseline distributions of relationship quality are different from the models predicting the changes in relationship outcomes / acase@tulane.edu

This project provides an extension of a line of sociological and socio-psychological research addressing attitudinal and value formation at the interface of two life domains, employment and family. The main purpose of the present study is two-fold. First, I investigate causal mechanisms involved in economic and marriage value formation based on propositions made by the proponents of the attitudinal spill-over ('holistic') theory and Rokeach's (1973) value reinforcement hypothesis Second, I examine similarities and differences in the manifestation of these processes between two generations, mothers and their children, illustrating intergenerational value stability and change within the family. Resting on the abstract notion of 'social contract' as applied to employment and marriage, this project therefore illuminates the similarities between the two institutions and their interdomain effects Based on data from a panel Detroit Study of American Families, analyses of value formation mechanisms reveal significant differences between the two generations, providing mixed support to the value spill-over theory. Moreover, this project supplies evidence contrary to the value reinforcement thesis as developed in socio-psychological research on work/family experiences and attitudes, thus calling for continuing examination of these processes in various settings and among diverse populations in future research This study offers additional support to several propositions regarding attitudinal and value exchange within the family. Among those are the distinction between family objective characteristics and individual family members' perceptions thereof; the cross-over causal mechanisms characteristic of exchanges among family members; and the mediating role personal experiences play in the link between larger economic transitions and individual values. In light of these findings, this project underscores the need for further exploration of the work/family domains in their objective and subjective dimensions as mutually interdependent / acase@tulane.edu

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The purpose of this investigation is to explore the attitudes of college men toward the male role and toward sex role equality and to identify the background variables associated with traditional and modern attitudes. Two instruments were constructed for this purpose: (1) The Male Role Attitude Test (MRA), a Likert-type scale based on David and Brannon's (1976) description of the four themes of the male role, 'No Sissy Stuff,' 'The Big Wheel,' 'The Sturdy Oak,' and 'Give 'Em Hell,' and (2) The Attitudes Toward Equality Vignettes (ATEV), 21 hypothetical situations measuring attitudes toward equality for men and women in the public and private spheres of the division of labor. Attitudes are measured on a continuum, one end of which reflects endorsement of 'traditional,' sex segregated roles for men and women, the other end of which reflects a 'modern' perspective of role flexibility and sharing. Data were obtained from a random sample of senior males at two universities, one private, the other state supported Findings confirm the primacy of the breadwinner role for men. The men's major concerns are for occupational success and sexual competency. However, there is little to indicate that they consider the burdens and responsibilities of the male role so troublesome as to lead them to change it. While there is a generalized belief in sex role equality allowing women to participate in the public sphere and men in the private, indications are few men want to participate more fully in homemaking and childcare. Since few can conceive of a woman whose major responsibility is not limited to keeping her husband and children happy, it is difficult for them to consider seriously a woman's career intentions Among the 29 social, demographic, and family variables tested, U.S. citizenship, grade point average, academic major, and father's income emerge as important predictors of MRA and ATEV scores. In addition, father's education is important to the explanation of MRA scores while age, birth order, religiosity, mother's employment, and the respondent's family aspirations are important predictors of ATEV scores. Implications of the research for theory development and social change are discussed Reference David, Deborah S. and Robert Brannon. The Forty-Nine Percent Majority: The Male Role, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1976 / acase@tulane.edu

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A review of the status attainment articles in the last few decades suggests that a major thrust has been to determine the crosscultural validity of the original Blau-Duncan model. Although the model has found considerable support in developed countries, evidence from less developed countries is inconclusive. One possible explanation has to do with the differences in the type of occupational structures within such societies. The Blau-Duncan model, having been developed in the U.S., may reflect status attainment processes well in societies with modern occupational structures but not very well in societies with traditional or intermediate occupational structures continuing side by side with the modern ones. Using survey data from a sample of 401 young men in Kano, Nigeria, this study examines whether the Blau-Duncan model fits the process of attainment of modern, traditional and intermediate occupations separately. The findings indicate that the fit of the Blau-Duncan model to the attainment of modern occupations is comparable to research in developed societies, but that it does not fit the attainment of traditional and intermediate occupations and that additional variables appropriate for the traditional society are needed. A modified model involving traditional status determinants provides a very good fit in predicting the attainment of traditional and intermediate occupations. The evidence suggests that variables and processes of attainment are likely to differ in societies which retain aspects of traditional occupational structures and stratification systems, and that this can help explain discrepancies in past research from less developed countries. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-04, Section: A, page: 1108. / Major Professor: J. Michael Armer. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994. / A review of the status attainment articles in the last few decades suggests that a major thrust has been to determine the crosscultural validity of the original Blau-Duncan model. Although the model has found considerable support in developed countries, evidence from less developed countries is inconclusive. One possible explanation has to do with the differences in the type of occupational structures within such societies. The Blau-Duncan model, having been developed in the U.S., may reflect status attainment processes well in societies with modern occupational structures but not very well in societies with traditional or intermediate occupational structures continuing side by side with the modern ones. Using survey data from a sample of 401 young men in Kano, Nigeria, this study examines whether the Blau-Duncan model fits the process of attainment of modern, traditional and intermediate occupations separately. The findings indicate that the fit of the Blau-Duncan model to the attainment of modern occupations is comparable to research in developed societies, but that it does not fit the attainment of traditional and intermediate occupations and that additional variables appropriate for the traditional society are needed. A modified model involving traditional status determinants provides a very good fit in predicting the attainment of traditional and intermediate occupations. The evidence suggests that variables and processes of attainment are likely to differ in societies which retain aspects of traditional occupational structures and stratification systems, and that this can help explain discrepancies in past research from less developed countries.