The decade-long debate over whether Americans are working longer hours is misleading. Indeed, while well-educated professionals are working more hours than they used to, others with less education are working fewer. And the people under the most pressure are not just overburdened at work. Increasingly, these single parents and two-income couples find themselves in a time squeeze between home and work.
References
1.
BondJames T.Highlights of the National Study of the Changing Workforce. New York: Families and Work Institute, 2003. Bond reports findings from a major national survey of contemporary American workers, workplace conditions and work-family conflict.
2.
GornickJanetMeyersMarciaFamilies that Work: Policies for Reconciling Parenthood and Employment. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2003. This important study compares family-supportive policies in Europe and the United States.
3.
HaysSharonThe Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997. Hays examines how American mothers continue to face pressure to practice intensive parenting even as they increase their commitment to paid work.
4.
HeymannJody. The Widening Gap: Why America's Working Families Are in Jeopardy And What Can Be Done About It.New York: Basic Books, 2000. Drawing from a wide range of data, this study makes a compelling case for more flexible work structures.
5.
HochschildArlieThe Time Bind: When Home Becomes Work and Work Becomes Home. New York: Metropolitan Books, 1997. This is a rich study of how employees in one company try to reconcile the tensions between spending time at work and caring for their families.
6.
JacobsJerry A.GersonKathleen. The Time Divide: Work, Family and Gender Inequality.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. An overview of trends in working time, our book shows why and how time pressures have emerged in America over the past three decades, how they are linked to gender inequality and family change and what we can do to alleviate them.
7.
RobinsonJohn P.GodbeyGeoffreyTime For Life. The Surprising Ways Americans Use Their Time. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999. Drawing on time diaries, Robinson and Godbey conclude that Americans' leisure time has increased.
8.
SchorJulietThe Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure. New York: Basic Books, 1991. This early and original analysis of how Americans are overworked sparked a national discussion on and concern for the problem.
