The Work-Family Role System

作者：Joseph H. Pleck · 发表于：Social Problems · 年份：1977 · DOI：10.2307/800135 · 被引用次数：869 · 研究领域：Work-Family Balance Challenges、Labor Movements and Unions

The study of work and the study of the family have traditionally constituted separate sub-disciplines in sociology. Rapoport and Rapoport (1965) and Kanter (1976), among others, have aptly stressed the need for greater examination of work and family in relation to each other. Such joint consideration is necessary to describe how individuals' functioning in either of these spheres is affected by their involvement in the other. Further, the current examination of brings added impetus to the analysis of interrelationships. A major part of what is usually meant by change in sex roles is specifically change in the traditional allocation of work and family between men and women. Traditional role norms prescribed the specialization of work and family responsibilities by sex, but a new option for each to integrate in both work and the family is now emerging. This paper analyzes some aspects of what I term the work-family role system. The role system is composed of the male work role, the female work role, the female family role, and the male family role. Each of these may be fully actualized, or may be only partly actualized or latent, as is often the case with the female work role and the male family role. The analysis of these four as a system provides a useful way of organizing research about the relations among these roles, and suggests new relations to be examined. It also makes possible some inferences about the dynamics of future changes in women's and men's in work and the fa...