Care and career: A family identity‐based typology of dual‐earner couples

Abstract

The rise of dual-earner couples challenges traditional gender stereotypes of women as "caregivers" and men as "breadwinners" and significantly impacts the ways in which partners define their roles as family members. The way in which individuals construe their family identities has implications not only for the decisions they make at home but also decisions in the workplace. In this paper, we propose an updated understanding of the different ways in which men and women can construe their family identity-specifically, in terms of care and/ or career. Based upon this nuanced understanding of family identity, we outline five dual-earner couple typestraditional, non-traditional, family first, outsourced, and egalitarian-that stem from distinct combinations of partners' family identities. We also outline an agenda for theory and research that challenges scholars to further explore our proposed construals of family identity, work-family decisions at the couple level of analysis, and the interplay between family identity and social context.

Impact of individual coping strategies and organisational work–life balance programmes on Australian employee well-being

“…However, these programmes had indirect effects, mediated by individuals' 'PA' and 'LCS', on helping improve employee's overall well-being. In particular, organisational WLB coping programmes appear to increase employees' problem-solving abilities and provide emotional support (Allvin, 2008;Masterson & Hoobler, 2014;Pienaar, 2008). The results from the current study found that the non-monetary-based organisational WLB coping programmes (i.e.…”

“…Stressful situations may also arise when dual-earner couples try to manage their spouse'/partner's work commitments (Lapierre & Allen, 2012;Masterson & Hoobler, 2014). For example, Premeaux, Adkins, and Mossholder (2007) found that the existence of a partner/spouse without work commitments helped reduce the drain of resources on an individual and provided support in conflict situations.…”

“…Dual-earner couples were also reported to have an issue of compromising childcare responsibilities and career development opportunities (Masterson & Hoobler, 2014). The number of children was found to be positively correlated with parental overload and with a high level of work -family conflict (e.g.…”

“…Based on the argument of individual problem-focused coping presented by Pienaar (2008) earlier, it appears that modern organisational WLB policies and programmes were largely designed to help individual employees cope with work and family conflicts/problems derived from changing work patterns with a phenomenal increased number of dual-earner couples in the workforce (Allvin, 2008;Masterson & Hoobler, 2014). It might not be helpful for individuals to focus on their emotional reactions to job-related stress, using emotion-focused coping, which was found to be associated with higher levels of psychological distress (Pienaar, 2008, p. 242).…”

Gender differences in the family-relatedness of relocation decisions

“…The latter is particularly salient in the context of women's increased labor force participation, as it is not uncommon for both adult partners in a household to have career ambitions. Western societies have witnessed a steady increase in dual-earner households and non-traditional gender roles in recent decades (e.g., Haddock, Zimmerman, Lyness, & Ziemba, 2006;Marks, 2006;Masterson & Hoobler, 2015), and as the traditional single-wage earner model fades, decision-making in the work domain increasingly is affected by family factors. We therefore believe that the shift toward dual-earner families has important implications for the study of work decisions.…”