Balancing Family and Work

"Highlights of The 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce" from Families and Work Institute find large-scale transformations taking place in the work and home lives of American men and women. Among the study's key findings:

* Today, women are more likely to work as managers or professionals than men (38% of women versus 28% of men), and are better educated, with 62% of women versus 56% of men having completed 4-year college or some post-secondary education.

*Fathers in dual-earner couples today spend 42 minutes more doing household chores on workdays than fathers in 1977. Mothers have reduced their time by approximately the same amount. So the combined time that spouses in dual-earner couples with children spend on household chores has not changed over 25 years-what has changed is how family work is divided.

*Employees with families report significantly higher levels of interference between their jobs and their family lives than employees 25 years ago (45% vs. 34% report this "some" or "a lot"). And men with families report higher levels of interference between their jobs and their family lives than women in the same situation.

*As the population ages, more and more employees are providing elder care for relatives. In 2002, 35% of workers, men and women alike, say they provided regular care for a parent or in-law over 65 in the past year, helping them do things that they could not otherwise do themselves.

*Flexible work arrangements are found to provide significant benefits to both employees and employers. Workers who have more access to flexible work arrangements report significantly better mental health than other employees, and are more likely to be committed to their employers and to plan to stay at their current company.