Women Who Maintain Families

The authors provide a wholly new framework for understanding why poor women have lower rates of marriage and have children outside of wedlock.

An updated edition of a standard in its field that remains relevant more than thirty years after its original publication. Over thirty years ago, sociologist and University of California, Berkeley professor Arlie Hochschild set off a tidal wave of conversation and controversy with her bestselling book, The Second Shift. Hochschild's examination of life in dual-career housholds finds that, factoring in paid work, child care, and housework, working mothers put in one month of labor more than their spouses do every year. Updated for a workforce that is now half female, this edition cites a range of updated studies and statistics, with an afterword from Hochschild that addresses how far working mothers have come since the book's first publication, and how much farther we all still must go.

The family impacts upon every aspect of women's lives; early education and socialization, sexuality, and the ways in which they learn their roles as wives, mothers and carers. In recent years, the changing nature of the family has sparked considerable debate and controversy. This book takes a comprehensive look at family structures worldwide and women's roles within them, particularly in the context of women's increasing challenge to men's power in the family. It also considers the factors underlying the rising divorce rate now affecting families in the North and South. The book explores the contradictions for women that are inherent in the family. For many it is a place of security and support, but conversely it may be an instrument of oppression, subordination and brutality. Finally it examines the internal and external influences on the family and women's place within it, and the role of the state in providing support for families.