Before they were able to obtain their own jobs and make their own money, women relied entirely on men and thus tended to stay with and have children with that one man (Bianchi 21). Now, however, women are contributing just as much if not more than the men which has made the family dynamic that much more complex (Bianchi 22). For example, “there has been a dramatic delay in entering into (legal) marriage and a rise in unmarried (heterosexual and same-sex) cohabitation” (Bianchi 22). In other words, now that women no longer have to rely on men to provide for them, they can go out and do things that they have never been able to do while still maintaining financial stability. Undoubtedly this new trend resulted in not just a decrease in heterosexual marriages but in children being born through requited sex as same-sex couples tend to adopt children since they cannot have any of their own naturally.
The rise in women workers has also led to the men taking up some of the parental duties as they find themselves spending more and more time with their children (Bianchi 25). While the mothers do not lose any time they spend on their children, they do lose some of the time they use to take care of the household (Bianchi 25). Nevertheless the working mom is often found to be a lot happier than the father who appears exhausted and somewhat depressed (Hochschild 4). All in all, the dual-household has led to a major change in the fact that the wife is also contributing to the household’s income while the husband is helping out with the raising of the children.
Work Cited
Bianchi, Suzanne M. Family Change and Time Allocation in American Families. N.p.: Sage Publications, Inc., Nov. 2011. PDF.
Hochschild. A Speed-Up in the Family. N.p.: n.p., n.d. PDF.
