Work And Family Life In The United States

The thesis explores chiefly the contradictions between work and family life in the United States. Simultaneously, it examines what personal, governmental and institutional efforts have been made in a bid to help balance work and family life for most American people. The issue brought about a prominent social attention as the work/family conflicts became more complicated and more pervasive in the 1990s.An overview of the major economic and social factors impacting women's employment has, from a historical perspective been provided to serve as a backdrop for the examination of the conflicts and challenges faced by men and women in pursuing double wins in both their careers and family lives. The thesis examines the implications of women's employment for women themselves, their marriages, and children's growth, governments and employers respectively, but much attention has been devoted to the current approaches to managing work and family conflicts. The thesis concludes that women's employment in the last three decades of last century not only had important implications for American society but also caused great changes and problems to American workplaces as well families, and the changes are irreversible and problems are not sufficiently solved.With the entry into the new century, American society will meet new challenges and opportunities in the work and family integration. The solutions to the work/family problems lie in the efforts of people in every aspect.