meet these changes. Today, the family’s mostimportant task is to provide emotional security in a vastand impersonal world. Working parents often possess theskills necessary for responding adequately and creatively tothe increased stress placed on children to succeed in suchan environment. Parents who work must, out of necessity, beadept at providing fresh, innovative and effective modes ofparenting even when time with the child is limited. Thedebate as to whether or not both parents should work or notis really not significant anymore. Both parents are workingand will continue to do so and children are not being raisedtoday in the same way as they were in the past. The nextgeneration of parents will be more confident than theirpredecessors and they and their children will probably neverexperience the dichotomous feelings that t! oday’s parentshave about the dual income family and it’s effects on childrearing. Working outside the home and being a good parent atthe same time is possible and in both of these tasks thereis much to value and treasure. When Both Parents areEmployed Socio-economic conditions in North America havecontributed to the need for dual incomes for families.Economically, “the number of two parent families below thepoverty line would increase to an estimated 78% if they wereto become single income families.” (Ontario Women’sDirectorate 9) Socially, it was the norm, in the past, forwomen to stay at home having a more expressive role in thefamily; taking care of the children and providing emotionalsupport for the family. Presently, women feel that theirtraditional roles as child bearers and homemakers must besupplemented with a sense of achievement outside the home.Recent studies reflect an increased trend towards the dualincome family and projections are for this trend tocontinue. In 1961, 30% of married women were working; in1978, 38% were employed; by 1981 50% were working and in1985,...
