Public Policies to Help Dual-Earner Families Meet the Demands of the Work World

Abstract

This paper focuses on the problems of families in which both spouses work, which have grown rapidly as a percentage of all families in recent decades. The author argues that the United States has been conspicuous among advanced industrialized countries in failing to develop national policies responsive to the needs of such families, and that the few enlightened employers, states, municipalities, and private organizations that have attempted to correct for that omission have been able to do so only incompletely. She cites examples of programs in some European countries that provide for child care, maternity and parental leave, leave for care of sick family members, transportation to and from work, and special housing, and argues that the proven experience of other countries should be helpful in fashioning needed programs of this sort in the United States.