•regardless of income, time is a scarce commodity in
dual-earner households. With two jobs, two commutes,
often long work hours, high job demands, business travel,
several cars, children, ailing relatives, and/or pets -
time is always an issue.
•time is built into jobs and career paths in ways that make
continuous full-time (40 or typically more hours a week) paid
work a fact of life in American society.
•the multiple strands of life--career, family and
personal--unfold over time. Spouses move through their life
courses in tandem, with early choices - to have children or
not, to work long hours or not, to switch jobs or not, to
relocate for his or her career or not--all having long-term
consequences for life quality and for gender inequality. The evidence from this book suggests that it is about time for the United States to confront the realities and needs of contemporary working couples and indeed, all members of the new workforce. To do so requires more than Band-Aid, short-term (and often short-sighted) policy remedies. It’s about Time argues that it is essential to re-imagine and reconfigure work hours, workweeks, and occupational career paths in ways that address the widening gaps between the time needs and goals of workers and their families, at all ages and stages of the life course.
