Family

Marriage

The married couple produces children. Some sociologists now dispute the degree to which this idealized arrangement has and does reflect the true structure of families in American society. Some sociologists now dispute the degree to which this idealized arrangement has and does reflect the true structure of families.

Yet Coontz argues in Marriage, recently, marriages have become increasingly unstable in the United States as individuals have begun to seek unions for the ideals of love and affection rather than social or economic expediency. This transition has blurred the division of labor within the breadwinner-homemaker model, such that maintenance of the household and childcare, called the “second shift,” are now topics for debate between marital partners.

Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild argues in The Second Shift that despite changes in perceptions of the purpose of marriage and the economic foundations for marriage, women continue to do the bulk of care work to the detriment of the American family.

Hochschild illustrates the ways in which an unequal division of the second shift undermines family welfare by reducing marital equality and spousal satisfaction.