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This is the thesis sociologist Arlie Hochschild argues in her noted book, The Second Shift. From her study of 50 mostly middle-class couples, Hochschild concluded that instead of having it all, most working wives are merely doing it all, coming home after a day of work to a "second shift" of housework and childcare.

When it comes to parenting, responsibilities seem a bit more evenly distributed among CT readers. Female and male respondents report that they "shared equally" in administering discipline (74 percent and 81 percent respectively), giving attention to children's spiritual growth and development (72 percent and 86 percent), listening to children's problems when they are hurting (65 percent and 78 percent), and playing with the children (75 percent and 86 percent). In each of these areas of parent-child involvement, fathers more than mothers believe that the male contributes an equal share to child care.

It is interesting that while there are no parenting tasks that are reported to be done mainly by husbands, the vast majority of parents report that it is mainly the mother who changes diapers, coordinates children's schedules, cares for children (dresses, feeds, bathes), and takes care of other parenting duties.

Do men actually involve themselves more in these parenting activities when the wife works outside the home? In comparing homes in which mothers do and do not work outside of the home, we find that husbands report helping out more in coordinating children's schedules and caring for them, though wives' reports would tend to dispute that perception. The sharing of the remaining six parenting tasks (administering discipline, listening to problems, playing with the children, changing diapers, giving attention to spiritual development, and managing needs such as clothes shopping) changes little even if the mother works outside the home. In the vast majority of cases, then, women have the same child-rearing responsibilities, whether they work outside the home or not. A recent article in Newsweek on the "reluctant father" reported similar findings. While 74 percent of dads in the Newsweek survey said they "should share child-care chores equally with the mother," only 13 percent do so.

How do CT readers feel about women who have young children and who work outside of the home? An equal number approve and disapprove of this involvement. While a near-equal number of females agree (40 percent) and disagree (39 percent) with the statement, "Working women with young children are less effective as mothers," males are much more likely to agree (52 percent) than disagree (31 percent) with this statement.

The interest in this issue only confirms the seriousness of the question of who will be available to and responsible for our children. Since the industrial revolution, most children living in urban areas have been deprived of daytime contact with their fathers. With an increasing number of mothers now working outside the home, the problem is accentuated.

Demographic data also suggest that nearly half of all children in the United States spend part of their growing-up years with just one parent in the home.

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March (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46