Abstract
The authors contend that employer-initiated workplace policies should be considered as part of the patchwork that constitutes U.S. family policy. To provide a background, historical evidence of employer-initiated policies intentionally used as family policies is summarized. The view is then explicated that failure to take economic conditions and workplace policies into account may lead to faulty conclusions about the reasons for major changes in family life. The current status of selected employer-initiated workplace policies and recent trends is summarized. Next, some of the dilemmas inherent in considering connections between government- and employer-initiated policies are identified. Finally, suggestions for future directions are offered. The article should be considered with the following caveat in mind: the focus is exclusively on the influence of policies on families, but families are not merely reactive.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aldous, J., Dumon, W., with Johnson, K. (Eds.) (1980).The politics and programs of family policy. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame and Leuven University Press, Center for the Study of Man.
Anderson, E. A. (1991). The future of family policy: A postscript. In E. A. Anderson & R. C. Hula (Eds.),The reconstruction of family policy (pp. 237–240). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Anderson, E. A., & Hula, R. C., (Eds.). (1991).The reconstruction of family policy. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Blum, L. M. (1991).Between feminism and labor: The significance of the comparable worth movement. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Brown, C., Hamilton, J., & Medoff, J. (1990).Employers large and small. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Cherlin, A. J., Ed. (1988).The changing American family and public policy. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.
Cherry, R., D'Onofrio, C., Kurdas, C., Michl, T. R., Moseley, F., & Naples, M. I. (Eds.). (1987).The imperiled economy (Book 1). New York: Union for Radical Political Economics.
Cowan, P. A. (1993). The sky is falling but Popenoe's analysis won't help us do anything about it.Journal of Marriage and the Family, 55, 548–553.
Davis, M. (1986).Prisoners of the American dream: Politics and economy in the history of the working class. London: Verso.
de Bie, P. J. L. (1980). The rationale and social context of family policy in Western Europe. In J. Aldous, W. Dumon, & K. Johnson (Eds.),The politics and programs of family policy (pp. 3–38). Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame and Leuven University Press, Center for the Study of Man.
Diamond, I. K. (Ed.). (1983).Families, politics, and public policy: A feminist dialogue on women and the state. New York: Longman.
Dornbusch, S. M., & Strober, M. H. (1988).Feminism, children and the new families. New York: Guilford.
Ferber, M. A., & O'Farrell, B., with Allen, L. (1991).Work and family: Policies for a changing workforce. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Ferree, M. M. (1990). Beyond separate spheres: Feminism and family research.Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52, 866–884.
Flax, J. (1983). Contemporary American families: Decline or transformation? In I. K. Diamond (Ed.),Families, politics and public policy: A feminist dialogue on women and the state (pp. 21–40). New York: Longman.
Freeman, R. B., & Medoff, J. L. (1984).What do unions do? New York: Basic Books.
Galinsky, E., Bond, J. T., & Friedman, D. E. (1994).Highlights: The national study of the changing workforce. New York: Families and Work Institute.
Googins, B. K. (1991).Work-family conflicts: Private lives—public responses. New York: Auburn House.
Green, J. R. (1980).The world of the worker: Labor in twentieth century America. New York: Hill and Wang.
Harvey, D. (1989).The condition of postmodernity: An enquiry in the origins of cultural change. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Hoffman, L. W. (1989). Effects of maternal employment in the two-parent family.American Psychologist, 44, 282–292.
Jones, J. (1992).The dispossessed: America's underclasses from the Civil War to the present. New York: Basic Books.
Kamerman, S. B., & Kingston, P. W. (1982). Employer responses to the family responsibilities of employees. In S. B. Kamerman & C. D. Hayes (Eds.),Families that work: Children in a changing world (pp. 144–208). Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Kanter, R. M. (1977).Work and family in the United States: A critical review and agenda for research and policy. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Kessler-Harris, A. (1976). Women, work, and the social order. In B. A. Carroll (Ed.),Liberating women's history: Theoretical and critical essays (pp. 330–343). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Kessler-Harris, A. (1982).Out to work: A history of wage-earning women in the United States. New York: Oxford.
Kingston, P. W. (1990). Illusions and ignorance about the family-responsive workplace.Journal of Family Issues, 11, 438–454.
Lambert, S. J. (1993). Workplace policies as social policy.Social Service Review, June, 237–260.
MacDermid, S. M. (1991, April).Changing families, changing workplaces. Paper presented at YWCA Spring Lecture Series, Lafayette, IN.
MacDermid, S. M., Williams, M., Marks, S., & Heilbrun, G. (1994). Is small beautiful? Work-family tension, work conditions, and organizational size.Family Relations, 43, 159–167.
Marshall, C. M. (1992). Family influences on work. In S. J. Bahr (Ed.),Family research: A sixty year review, 1930–1960. Vol 2. (pp. 115–166). New York: Lexington Books.
May, M. (1987). The historical problem of the family wage: The Ford Motor Company and the five dollar day. In N. Gerstel and H. E. Gross (Eds.),Families and work (pp. 111–131). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Menaghan, E. G., & Parcel, T. L. (1990). Parental employment and family life: Research in the 1980's.Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52, 1079–1098.
Meyer, S., III (1981).The five dollar day: Labor management and social control in the Ford Motor Company, 1908–1921. Albany, NY: State University of New York.
Mishel, L., & Frankel, D. M. (1991).The state of working America. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
Moen, P., & Schorr, A. L. (1987). Families and social policy. In M. B. Sussman & S. K. Steinmetz (Eds.),Handbook of marriage and the family (pp. 795–813). New York: Plenum.
O'Hare, W. P. (1985). Poverty in America: Trends and new patterns.Population Bulletin, 40(3), 1–44.
Ooms, T., & Preister, S., (Eds.). (1988).A strategy for strengthening families: Using family criteria in policymaking and program evaluation. Washington, DC: Family Impact Seminar, AAMFT Research and Education Foundation.
Oppenheimer, V. K. (1970).The female labor force in he United States: Demographic and economic factors governing its growth and changing composition. (Population Monograph Series, 5). Berkeley: University of California, Institute of International Studies.
Perrucci, C. C., Perrucci, R., Targ, D. B., & Targ, H. R. (1988).Plant closings: International context and social costs. Hawthorne, New York: Aldine De Gruyter.
Piotrkowski, C. S., Rapoport, R. N., & Rapoport, R. (1987). Families and work. In M. B. Sussman & S. K. Steinmetz (Eds.),Handbook of marriage and the family (pp. 251–283). New York: Plenum.
Popenoe, D. (1993a). American family decline, 1960–1990: A review and appraisal.Journal of Marriage and the Family, 55, 527–542.
Popenoe, D. (1993b). The national family wars.Journal of Marriage and the Family, 55, 553–555.
Presser, H. B. (1989). Can we make time for children? The economy, work schedules, and child care.Demography, 26, 523–543.
Raabe, P. H. (1990). The organizational effects of workplace family policies: Past weaknesses and recent progress toward improved research.Journal of Family Issues, 11, 477–491.
Rubin, R. M., & Riney, B. J. (1994).Working wives and dual-earner families. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Scharf, L. (1980).To work and to wed: Female employment, feminism, and the Great Depression. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Schultz, E. E. (1994, June 17). Advantages of employer health plans are disappearing.The Wall Street Journal, pp. C1, C15.
Schwarz, J. E., & Volgy, T. J. (1992).The forgotten Americans. New York: Norton.
Service Employees International Union. (1989, July).Employer-paid health insurance is disappearing: A survey of benefit takeaways in contract bargaining. Service Employees International Union, Department of Public Policy.
Shaikh, A. (1987). The falling rate of profit and the economic crisis in the U.S. In R. Cherry, C. D'Onofrio, C. Kurdas, T. R. Michl, F. Moseley, & M. I. Naples (Eds.),The imperiled economy (Book 1, pp. 115–126). New York: Union for Radical Political Economics.
Sinclair, U. (1937).The flivver king: A story of Ford-America. Chicago: C. H. Kerr.
Spakes, P. (1991). A feminist approach to national family policy. In E. A. Anderson & R. C. Hula (Eds.),The reconstruction of family policy (pp. 23–42). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Spalter-Roth, R., & Hartmann, H., with Clearwaters, D. (1992). Raising women's earnings: The family issue of the 1990's. In J. Greenberg & W. Kistler, (Eds.),Buying America back (pp. 384–395). Tulsa, OK: Council Oak Books.
Stacey, J. (1990).Brave new families: Stories of domestic upheaval in late twentieth century America. New York: Basic Books.
Stacey, J. (1993). Good riddance to “the family”: A response to David Popenoe.Journal of Marriage and the Family, 55, 545–547.
Starrels, M. E. (1992). The evolution of workplace family policy research.Journal of Family Issues, 13, 259–278.
Strober, M. H. (1988). Two-earner families. In S. M. Dornbusch & M. H. Strober (Eds.),Feminism, children and the new families (pp. 161–190). New York: Guilford.
Strober, M. H., & Dornbusch, S. M. (1988). Public policy alternatives. In S. M. Dornbusch & M. H. Strober (Eds.),Feminism, children and the new families (pp. 327–355). New York: Guilford.
Targ, D. B. (1981). Ideology and utopia in family studies since the Second World War.Women's Studies International Quarterly, 4, 191–200.
Targ, D. B., & Perrucci, C. C. (1990). Plant closings, unemployment and families. In R. S. Hanks & M. B. Sussman (Eds.),Corporations, businesses and families (pp. 131–145). Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press.
Trzcinski, E. (1994). Family and medical leave, contingent employment, and flexibility: A feminist critique of the U.S. approach to work and family policy.Social Policy and Social Work Practice, 18, 71–87.
Trzcinski, E., & Finn-Stevenson, M. (1991). A response to arguments against mandated parental leave: Findings from the Connecticut survey of parental leave policies.Journal of Marriage and the Family, 53, 445–460.
U.S. Bureau of the Census. (1975).Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial Edition (Part 2). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
U.S. Bureau of the Census. (1992). Statistical abstract of the United States (112th Edition). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
U.S. Bureau of the Census. (1993a). Poverty in the United States: 1992. (Current Population Report, Series P-60, No. 185). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
U.S. Bureau of the Census. (1993b).Statistical abstract of the United States (113th Edition). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
U.S. Congressional Budget Office. (1993).Displaced workers: Trends in the 1980's and implications for the future. Washington, DC: Congress of the United States.
U.S. Small Business Administration. (1990).The state of small business: A report to the president. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Wilkie, J. R. (1991). The decline in men's labor force participation and income and the changing structure of family economic support.Journal of Marriage and the Family, 53, 111–122.
Williams, L. (1994, May 29). Childless workers demanding equity in corporate world.New York Times, pp. 1, 11.
Winnick, A. J. (1988). The changing distribution of income and wealth in the United States, 1960–1985: An examination of the movement toward two societies, “separate and unequal”. In P. Voydanoff & L. C. Majka (Eds.),Families and economic distress: Coping strategies and social policy (pp. 232–260). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Zimmerman, S. L. (1992).Family policies and family well-being: The role of political culture. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
She received her Ph.D. and M.B.A. from The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests center on relationships between jobs and family life, with emphasis on work-family relationships in small businesses, and on adult workers as developing individuals.
Her research interests focus on the intersection of social problems and family problems, including families and work, coping with unemployment, and adult children as caregivers of dependent parents. She received her Ph.D. from Purdue University.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
MacDermid, S.M., Targ, D.B. A call for greater attention to the role of employers in developing, transforming, and implementing family policies. J Fam Econ Iss 16, 145–170 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02353670
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02353670