Family Work and Relationships: Lessons From Families of Men Whose Jobs Require Travel

• Author: Margaret Manoogian,Catherine Richards Solomon,Anisa M. Zvonkovic,Áine M. Humble
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2005.00327.x
• Published date: 01 July 2005
• Date: 01 July 2005

Family Work and Relationships:

Lessons from Families of Men

Whose Jobs Require Travel

Anisa M. Zvonkovic Catherine Richards Solomon A

´ine M. Humble Margaret Manoogian*

Abstract: This study explores how family members experience their lives when family breadwinners must be absent

from home because of their jobs. Informed by general systems theory and contextual perspectives, we described

wives’ family work that supports the breadwinner role and maintains the emotional connections among family

members. From our findings about how families of commercial fishermen and long-haul truckers manage their time

and their paid and unpaid work, we applied their challenges and strategies to other families experiencing difficulties

related to time and work involvement.

Key Words: commercial fishermen, family time, long-haul truckers, systems theory, work and family.

When a family member is frequently away from

home because of work, the family as a system must

manage both the absence and the presence of the

frequently gone member. General systems theory,

combined with a contextual perspective, provides

a useful theoretical lens to examine the lives of such

families (Broderick & Smith, 1979; Bronfenbrenner,

1986; Whitchurch & Constantine, 1993). These

perspectives illustrate the ways in which family

behaviors are patterned into roles, informing our

understanding of how husbands’ absences related to

these patterns. Our analyses of families with a bread-

winner who is frequently absent because of the

demands of a job additionally provide illustrations of

equifinality—the notion that there can be many pos-

sible means toward desirable outcomes, such as fam-

ily closeness (Whitchurch & Constantine, 1993).

Using a contextual perspective, we examine the work

and home environments of these families. The pur-

pose of our study is to examine how marital partners

view breadwinning and emotional connection in

their families when men travel for work, as commer-

cial fishermen and long-haul truckers.

Background and Significance

Major functions of families include work and emo-

tional support (Galvin, Bylund, & Brommel, 2004).

Many families feel pressure to earn more money

while maintaining family responsibilities in the face

of paid work demands on their time (Daly, 1996,

2001; Hochschild, 1997; Jacobs & Gerson, 2004;

Perry-Jenkins, Repetti, & Crouter, 2001). However,

there is scant information in the literature on how

families with a breadwinner who is frequently absent

because of the demands of a job manage their family

work and time. Family work, including housework,

child care, and managing the household, can be fre-

quent, time consuming, and stressful (Coltrane,

2000; Mederer, 1993). Some families, most notably

military families, must manage family work under

*Anisa M. Zvonkovic is an Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences, 322 Milam Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97330

(zvonkova@oregonstate.edu). Catherine Richards Solomon is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Quinnipiac University. A

´ine M. Humble is an Assistant Professor

of Family Studies and Gerontology at Mount Saint Vincent University. Margaret Manoogian is an Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies at Ohio University.

Family Relations, 54 (July 2005), 411–422. Blackwell Publishing. Printed in the USA.

Copyright 2005 by the National Council on Family Relations.