Uncertainty and the rise of the work-family dilemma

Existing research argues that women's wages, consumerism, and changing atti tudes dismantled the male bread-winner system. Families' economic need is d ismissed with the suggestion that mothers' rhetoric of "need" was a smoke s creen to defend against social stigma for working mothers. Drawing on bienn ial data from 1965 to 1987, I suggest that consumptive certainty, of the 19 50s and 1960s gave way to economic uncertainty in the 1970s and beyond. Eco nomic uncertainty provided impetus, legitimacy, and justification for young families to adopt new work-family arrangements. Hence, Economic uncertaint y is conceptualized as a real circumstance that substantiates families' rea sonable perceptions of need.