In a panoramic study that draws on diverse sources, Jerry Jacobs and Kathleen Gerson explain why and how time pressures have emerged and what we can do to alleviate them. In contrast to the conventional wisdom that all Americans are overworked, they show that time itself has become a form of social inequality that is dividing Americans in new ways--between the overworked and the underemployed, women and men, parents and non-parents. They piece together a compelling story of the increasing mismatch between our economic system and the needs of American families, sorting out important trends such as the rise of demanding jobs and the emergence of new pressures on dual earner families and single parents. Comparing American workers with their European peers, Jacobs and Gerson also find that policies that are simultaneously family-friendly and gender equitable are not fully realized in any of the countries they examine. As a consequence, they argue that the United States needs to forge a new set of solutions that offer American workers new ways to integrate work and family life. Table of Contents: Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: Trends in Work, Family, and Leisure Time 1. Overworked Americans or the Growth of Leisure? 2. Working Time from the Perspective of Families Part II: Integrating Work and Family Life 3. Do Americans Feel Overworked? 4. How Work Spills Over into Life 5. The Structure and Culture of Work Part III: Work, Family, and Social Policy 6. American Workers in Cross-National Perspective with Janet C. Gornick 7. Bridging the Time Divide 8. Where Do We Go from Here? Appendix: Supplementary Tables Notes References Index Jacobs and Gerson present the most fine-grained analysis yet offered of working time and its impacts on families. They successfully combine sophisticated analyses of quantitative data with breakthroughs in the conceptualization of work time. Their focus on household work time and their incorporation of subjective aspects of work-family conflict are welcome additions to the study of work time. As a result of their nuanced treatment, they avoid making simplistic generalizations that have marked many previous treatments of this topic. --Rosalind Chait Barnett, Brandeis University, and co-author of Same Difference: How Myths About Gender Differences Are Hurting Our Relationships, Our Children, and Our Jobs This is an outstanding book. It offers powerful arguments in the debates over work-family conflict going on in academia and society. The data the authors bring to bear on the subject offer new insights that support their analysis and policy recommendations. Scholars of the workplace and of contemporary American society as well as public policy advocates must read this book! --Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, City University of New York, and co-author of The Part-time Paradox: Time Norms, Professional Life, Family and Gender The Time Divide makes a substantial contribution to the work-family literature and will be cited often by those with an interest in women's employment, children's well-being, family functioning, and work in America. Its appeal will be broad and capture the attention of policy makers along with academics in a number of disciplines including sociology, family studies, and public policy. The book is engagingly written and the logic of the analysis is sound. --Suzanne Bianchi, University of Maryland, and co-author of Continuity and Change in the American Family The main thesis is original and important: that Americans are not, in general, overworked; rather, they can be divided into both the overworked and the underworked. The former are usually found in the upper half of the occupational distribution, the latter in the lower half. The overworked wish they could work less, and the underworked wish they could work more. Overall, The Time Divide significantly advances our understanding of just where the time divide lies. And that's an important contribution. --Andrew J. Cherlin, Johns Hopkins University, and author of Public and Private Families

Is Your Occupation Also Your Preoccupation? Let’s face it. With all the demands of the workplace and all the details of a family it’s only a matter of time before one bumps into the other. And many of us end up cheating our families when the commitments of both collide. In this practical book, Andy Stanley will help you... • establish priorities and boundaries to protect what you value most. • learn the difference between saying your family is your priority and actually making them your priority. • discover tested strategies for easing tensions at home and at work. Watch as this powerful book transforms your life from time-crunching craziness to life-changing success. Includes a four-week discussion guide Previously released as Choosing to Cheat

In today's industrialized societies, the majority of parents work full time while caring for and raising their children and managing household upkeep, trying to keep a precarious balance of fulfilling multiple roles as parent, worker, friend, & child. Increasingly demands of the workplace such as early or late hours, travel, commute, relocation, etc. conflict with the needs of being a parent. At the same time, it is through work that people increasingly define their identity and self-worth, and which provides the opportunity for personal growth, interaction with friends and colleagues, and which provides the income and benefits on which the family subsists. The interface between work and family is an area of increasing research, in terms of understanding stress, job burn out, self-esteem, gender roles, parenting behaviors, and how each facet affects the others. The research in this area has been widely scattered in journals in psychology, family studies, business, sociology, health, and economics, and presented in diverse conferences (e.g., APA, SIOP, Academy of Management). It is difficult for experts in the field to keep up with everything they need to know, with the information dispersed. This Handbook will fill this gap by synthesizing theory, research, policy, and workplace practice/organizational policy issues in one place. The book will be useful as a reference for researchers in the area, as a guide to practitioners and policy makers, and as a resource for teaching in both undergraduate and graduate courses.

Based on the William E. Massey Sr. lectures in the history of American Civilization.

This book explores the effects of shift work and non standard working hours on family and social life. It features analysis and case studies from an international body of researchers from Europe, the Americas and Australia. It includes contributions from Germany, the United States, the Netherlands, Croatia, Italy, Poland, Australia, and Brazil, that fully examine this increasingly prevalent, and global, issue. The book starts by introducing the problems of work-family linkages, shift work and non-standard work hours. Next, it details the consequences of specific features of shift schedules, such as decreased opportunities for social participation, family problems and negative effects on partners and children as well as the impact of working time arrangements on work-family conflict over time. The book then looks at the consequences of shift work and non-standard work hours on family members and the workers themselves, including the sleep and daytime functioning of adolescent family members and the ways that non-standard work schedules intersect with the particular challenges and stresses of family responsibilities and strategies that workers use to manage these challenges in sectors where non-standard schedules are the norm. Last, the book considers the role of individual differences in understanding problems of work-family relationships, including a consideration of safety and health at work from the perspective of gender and an examination of the moderating role of chronotype and circadian type characteristics on work-family conflict and work-family facilitation among male shift workers.

______________________ 'Too much to do? Stop and read this' - Guardian 'For a fresh take on an eternal dilemma, Overwhelmed is worth a few hours of any busy woman's life – if only to ensure that she doesn't drop off the bottom of her own “To Do” list' - Mail on Sunday ______________________ In her attempts to juggle work and family life, Brigid Schulte has baked cakes until 2 a.m., frantically (but surreptitiously) sent important emails during school trips and then worked long into the night after her children were in bed. Realising she had become someone who constantly burst in late, trailing shoes and schoolbooks and biscuit crumbs, she began to question, like so many of us, whether it is possible to be anything you want to be, have a family and still have time to breathe. So when Schulte met an eminent sociologist who studies time and he told her she enjoyed thirty hours of leisure each week, she thought her head was going to pop off. What followed was a trip down the rabbit hole of busy-ness, a journey to discover why so many of us find it near-impossible to press the 'pause' button on life and what got us here in the first place. Overwhelmed maps the individual, historical, biological and societal stresses that have ripped working mothers' and fathers' leisure to shreds, and asks how it might be possible for us to put the pieces back together. Seeking insights, answers and inspiration, Schulte explores everything from the wiring of the brain and why workplaces are becoming increasingly demanding, to worldwide differences in family policy, how cultural norms shape our experiences at work, our unequal division of labour at home and why it's so hard for everyone – but women especially – to feel they deserve an elusive moment of peace. ______________________ 'Every parent, every caregiver, every person who feels besieged by permanent busyness, must read this book' - Anne-Marie Slaughter, author of Why Women Still Can't Have It All

The United States has seen a dramatic increase in the number of dual-earner and single-adult families. This volume reviews accompanying changes in work and family structures and their effects on worker productivity and employer practices. It presents a wide range of approaches to easing the conflicts between work and family, exploring appropriate roles for business, labor, and government. Work and Family offers up-to-date information, looking at how the family and the workplace arrived at their current relationship and evaluating the quality and the cost of care for dependents in this nation. The volume describes the advantages and disadvantages of being part of a working family and takes a critical look at the range of benefits provided, including existing and proposed employer programs for families. It also presents a comparative review of family-related benefits in other countries.