AMONG THE MANY remarkable upheavals of the 20th century, the huge increase in women’s employment stands out. The shift of women to paid labor has led to a widespread transformation of the traditional rules and practices of daily life, not only at workplaces, but in families. As work and family changed, there were reverberations throughout society. The roles women play today would be unrecognizable to our forebears of 100 years ago.
Still, for all the change, the revolution remains incomplete. The arithmetic is simple—if women’s jobs require 30, 40 or more hours a week, they cannot spend those same hours caring for their families. Society has not focused on the need to provide alternative types of care, particularly for children and the elderly, during the time that caregivers are employed. To finish the revolulion, new institutions and new arrangements are in order…