The Second Shift

A compassionate view of couples struggling to find time and energy for jobs, children and marriage. The last 20 years have seen a revolution in the job-market and at home as increasing numbers of women have entered the workforce. For working parents today, there is a second shift - the job they do before they get to the office and after they return home. In many marriages, it is the job that tears the family apart. This book aims to help couples through the practical and ideological difficulties of raising children and maintaining a household while both parents work. Over an eight-year period, Fr. Hochschild interviewed couples and observed them as they cooked dinner, shopped, bathed their children and fought against time to accomplish the consuming tasks they'd undertaken. She looks at the division of domestic tasks and the way men and women cope with the gap between their ideals and the reality of overextended lives.