strategies to follow in order to provide women the same opportunities in the labour market as men. With these regulations set into place, women moved into the work force during the 1980's at full force, and have continued to do so. Not only did this put pressure on the paid labour force, but it also put pressure on the family unit. In order to carry out its daily functions as a family, the modern family depends heavily on all the institutions of a society for support. Where as in the past, the family was an independent unit that depended on nothing and no one. With this in mind, the family and the fact that the majority of families have both spouses working outside the home means that dual-earners and dual-career families are becoming the norm in American society (Mintz, 1996, 805). Indeed there are many positive outcomes to having both spouses in the paid labour force, but at the same time there are many stresses for these families (Mintz, 1996, 805). According to Mintz, these stresses usually revolve around balancing the demand of the paid labour and the demand of the family labour (Mintz, 1996, 805). Throughout the years, the family unit has changed drastically. With dual earner families being the most popular types of families. Three types of dual earner family ideologies were identified by Lye. Those three are the Traditional, Modern, and Egalitarian. As the trend of double income family household increases, the breakdown of the traditional system (Lye, 1993, 157) due to women entering the paid labour force has had profound transformation with respect to family life and gender roles. The Traditional family as identified by Mintz and Mahalik is described briefly as marriage based on a form on benevolent male dominance couple with clearly specialized roles that are assigned on the basis of gender (Mintz and Mahalik, 1996, 806). To further explain this, the traditional family is a women who identifies with her activiti...
