Bringing Elder Care Home

Balancing Work and Family:
Where Does the U.S. Stand Globally?

By John Paul Marosy, President
Bringing Elder Care Home LLC
jpmarosy@charter.net
(508) 854-0431

The Project on Global Working Families at the Harvard School of Public Health recently issued a report, The Work, Family, and Equity Index - Where Does the U.S. Stand Globally? In this series, we share excerpts from this report that relate to elder care/work balance. You can obtain the full report at www.globalworkingfamilies.org. We welcome your feedback and we will share the comments we receive with our readers.

"Throughout human history, both mothers and fathers, in addition to rearing children, have been engaged in productive activity. In recent history, what has markedly changed is not the fact that mother and fathers work at multiple tasks but rather the location and nature of that work. Parents are increasingly working away from their homes and any children and adults they are caring for. Moreover, their work hours and conditions fall less under their own control and are increasingly dictated by supervisors and managers.

"The demographic and social transformations that occurred in North America and Europe between the mid-1880's and the end of the 1900's have occurred and are continuing to take place worldwide. First single women and men, then married women, moved into the industrial and post-industrial work forces.

"A brief review of countries with significant recent increases of women in the paid workforce includes the United States, where the female share of the labor force increased from 32% to 46% between 1960 and 2000. In Canada, it increased from 25 to 48%. South America also saw a marked increase in the female labor force…"

"Only 18% of the world's population lived in urban areas in the beginning of the 20th century. By the century's end, nearly half the world's population did. The United Nations estimates that by the year 2030, more than 60% of the developing world's population will live in cities…

"Urbanization plays a key role in the changes that are occurring in community, work and family life for several reasons. When individuals migrate to urban areas, they often move away from their extended family. Even when extended family migrate together to urban areas, the available housing often restricts the ability of large, extended families to live in one location. Families living in urban areas often need to have a larger number of adults in the paid workforce in order to subsist, and informal as well as formal work in urban areas is often designed in ways that make it hazardous, if not impossible, for children and other dependents to accompany adults to work…

"The twin trends of urbanization and rising paid labor force participation in most of the world's regions mean that fewer adults are near their children or other family members during the work day. Even in rural areas, the transformation of the agricultural economy is pulling the spheres of work and home apart and dramatically changing how children and other family members are cared for.

"What do these trends and transformations mean for the well-being of families globally? Our research (the Project on Global Working Families - ed.) suggests that the transformation in labor force participation and urbanization on family health are critically influenced by working and social conditions."

What do you think? Take a moment now to send us an e-mail with your opinion to jpmarosy@bringingeldercarehome.com We will publish your thoughts in the next issue.

John Paul Marosy is the author of Elder Care: A Six Step Guide to Balancing Work and Family, available from Bringing Elder Care Home Publishing online at www.bringingeldercarehome.com or by calling 508-854-0431. Visit www.bringingeldercarehome.com or call or email today to learn how your organization can offer this effective resource: (508) 854-0431 or jpmarosy@bringingeldercarehome.com

This newsletter may be reprinted in whole or in part so long as the author, John Paul Marosy, is credited and the Web site address, www.bringingeldercarehome.com, is provided.