THE GENDER DIVISION-OF-LABOR AND FAMILY CHANGE IN INDUSTRIAL-SOCIETIES - A THEORETICAL ACCOUNTING

Change data for 21 industrial nations for the decades 1960-90 demonstr ate overwhelming consistency: women's labor force participation and po stsecondary school enrollment rates increased; they married less frequ ently, especially in their early 20s and they increasingly deferred fi rst births until at least their late 20s; total fertility dropped and crude divorce rates rose. Our theoretical explanation focuses on the s ocial psycological mechanisms that link macro-level labor force change s, with resulting expansion of women's opportunities, to macro-level c hange in family institution. The relatively unchanging domestic/famili al obligations confronted by married women labor force participants, i n the absence of significant changes by men and employers, comprises a major context within which family changes are understood. A modified Rational Choice approach is used to argue that women increasingly atte mpt to satisfice two sets of values whose achievements are socially in stitutionalized as incompatible: economic and romantic/familial ''succ ess.''