ABSTRACT
Instant messaging, 24-hour services, quick meals, and global interconnections are quickly erasing the boundaries between work and family life. As Presser (2003) noted in her recent book, Working in a 24/7 Economy: Challenges for American Families, the expansion of the service economy and the demand for around-the-clock services have been driven by changes in the organization of work by the composition of the workforce, which now includes a majority of working mothers, and by technological innovations that have made global communication an everyday occurrence. Such changes, and the time pressures they create for American families, have been the focus of several recent books, including Time for Life by Robinson and Godbey (1997), The Time Bind by Hochschild (1997), and It’s About Time edited by Moen (2003). In addition to charting changes in the organization of work and family life, these books attempt to explain why American families perceive that they have too little time to deal with the daily demands they face at work and at home.
