These shifts also make flexibility in paid work and care work not only desirable but essential. The erosion of single-earner paychecks, the rising expectations for modern marriages, and the expanding options for and pressures on working women all require partners to invent new ways of combining caretaking and breadwinning. In this irrevocably changed social context, flexible approaches to work and parenting help all types of families overcome economic uncertainties and interpersonal tensions. On the other hand, inflexibility in the face of new social realities leaves all sorts of families ill
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