Women, Culture, and History

The Shriver Report: The Changing Role of Women in the U.S. History
by Yoon Joung Lee

 For the first time in our nation’s history, one-half of the U.S. workforce consists of women.  This change has affected many parts of American life.  Considering all of the implications, questions like the following arise: How does the changing role of women affect American culture?

In the study, “The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything,” the Center for American Progress and Maria Shriver respond to these questions by examining this significant social transformation.

“The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything” is a 454-page study that includes a comprehensive national poll of the changing face and attitudes of the American men and women, and 24 essays from economists, sociologists and other academic experts examining this seismic workforce shift and how this transformation will influence our society in areas like media, government, business, and education.

According to the report, in 2008, 50% of employees in the U.S. work force are women and the women in 63.3% of the American households are either the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners for the first time. Compared to a report conducted in 1967 showing that one third of American workforces were women, the recent percentage of women in the U.S. workplace shows a dramatic surge. 

The report notes that this social transformation is not just about change in the American woman’s story, but it signifies a change for men, women, and their families as well as women’s day to day responsibilities with spouses, family members, bosses, colleagues, and employees.  Four-fifths of American families do not limit their lifestyles to the traditional family paradigm- men works outside the home and women are stay-at-home housewives. 

Rather, many women are leading their families as primary income earners.   The report found that the Great Recession, which began in December 2007, was the springboard of this phenomenal transformation. Many housewives started to work outside the home to support their families, as 3 out of 4 workers to lose their job were male.

The findings of The Shriver Report include:

Men, Women, Family and Work in a Seismic Transformation

• Half of all people on payrolls are women. 
• Many women, especially professional women, are investing more time than before on their careers and delaying motherhood to their 30s or 40s.  Thus, the number of single women has been dramatically increased. 40% of women over age 25 are now unmarried and 40% of children born in 2007 had an unmarried mother.
• Millions of workers now have a female boss and their collaborative management styles bring various improvements and advantages to the workplace.  As many businesses recognize the importance of some kind of family care responsibility, which women used to do for free in the home, the role of women as a workforce become greater than ever before and women are fulfilling those demands.
• Nearly 39.7% of mothers in the U.S. are primary breadwinners and 62.8% are primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners.   However, women continue to be paid 77 cents for every dollar men earn in the workplaces.
• Many workingwomen today are providing for their family by working out of the home while also taking the lead in care-giving responsibilities inside the home.
• As women delay marriage decisions, the marriage rate is currently at the lowest point in its recorded history.  Even though the divorce rate is down, it is still significant.  According to the report, more than one in three families with children is headed by a single parent.
• More than a quarter of a million children are being raised by gay or lesbian parents who have no legal right to marry under the law of the federal government.
• Women have successfully entered every arena of American life meaning that the man’s world of the past has become more accepting and reliant on women.  Many women today are working in various fields and roles, such as: heads of corporate boardrooms, the athletic playing field, the legal and medical professions and even in the theater of military operations.    Women feel as comfortable in these fields as they would in more traditional roles.
• The transformation of American public life as a result of women’s changing roleshas significantly influenced the core of American manhood as well as the lives of American men.
• For some, the changes have gradually taken hold in American families without much struggle or fanfare because men have recognized the contributions women make to their households and to lives of their children and loved ones. The traditional family paradigm has drifted into a more egalitarian relationship and it began in the American home.
• The transformation of the workforce and women’s emergence as primary breadwinners has also shaken some men’s identity to its foundation.   Some men see women’s entry into their workplace not just as “entry” but as “invasion,” while other men see that women’s increased empowerment only contributes to the loss of masculine vigor in American men.
• Men’s share of housework, especially childcare, has significantly increased in the past few decades.   They are also more likely to do more housework than in the past and to be expressive of their love toward their children than in previous decades.
• Men’s increased participation in childcare has its challenges and they report significantly higher levels of work-family conflict compared to 30 years ago (3 out of 5 fathers in dual-earner households experience significant work-family conflict).
• The spouses of egalitarian husbands report the highest levels of marital satisfaction, and the lowest rates of depression.  As for the benefits men enjoy, the men who do more housework are physically healthier and more likely to stay in shape because they smoke less, drink less, and take recreational drugs less often.
• According to the research by psychologist John Gottman at the University of Washington, couples engage in intercourse at higher rates where men do more housework and child care.
• As womens' education levels increase, they are more capable of making their own ways in the world and can be more selective in choosing a marriage partner.  This independence gives women the ability to enter into fairer marriages with improved marital quality and stability.  As a result, educated couples with egalitarian gender views have the highest marital quality of all.
• Men and women both agree on most life goals and how they value their roles in marriage, as partners, parents and in their jobs. Interestingly, 63% of men today are less interested in playing the "macho" role at home.

How does this movement change Americans’ personal and professional lives? How does it change the way we raise our children and interact with our spouses? 

The Shriver Report emphasizes that what we may have considered as “womens' issues” are no longer only womens’ fare, but are “family issues.”   While Ms. Shriver was meeting and talking to men and women around kitchen tables and at The Women’s Conference across the nation, she was able to understand how stressed today’s Americans feel, especially when they are grappling with financial insecurity.  Society still believes that childcare and eldercare are womens’ responsibilities even though the responsibilities of women at workplaces have increased.  What makes the situation more difficult is that while most workplaces have ignored or chosen to not respond to this transformation, many women are afraid to ask for work schedules with more flexibility to allow them to meet the demands of their domestic lives.  The situation has had the effect of forcing many women to start their own businesses.  Today, women make up 35% of all self-employed people in the nation and this percentage has doubled since 1979.

How does it change the views of the society regarding the value of womens' contributions?  

Another interesting finding according to the study is that the battle of the sexes is over.  This battle has been replaced by negotiations.  Men and women both agree on a need of negotiations about their domestic responsibilities, childcare, eldercare, work and family.   Men also agree with women that our society must pay attention to what today’s American family needs in this period of transformation and respond to those needs with adequate policies and laws.  The future of our country may be greatly dependent on women who have achieved high level status and power and made significant changes in every part of our lives, including business, education and home.  Therefore, womens’ problems are Americans’ problems that men and women must solve together.

Maria Shriver, the main author of this report, is an award-winning journalist.  She has won a Peabody Award and two Emmy Awards.  She is also the First Lady of California who married to actor and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and a niece of former President John F. Kennedy.  Her study was modeled on the study called “American Women” in 1963 undertaken almost 50 years ago during the administration of John F. Kennedy and later led by Eleanor Roosevelt.

The Shriver Report is available at http://www.awomansnation.com.  

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