ABSTRACT
The natural habitat of a society, of course, influences its social organisation. But, the precise ways in which it does so are mediated by the technological and economic structure of the society. The term economy refers, most generally, to the linkage between living organisms in societies and then the environments from which they take resources to maintain and expand their life functions. The husband remains an economic and status provider, tentative female dissents and protests notwithstanding. The socially and psychologically absent husband-father is the rule rather than the exception, as is the socially isolated and child-engulfed housewife, or alternatively, the double-role, over-worked, employed housewife with small children. In 1971 the Norwegian Family Council, a group of researchers, and several volunteer work-sharing couples, decided that a work-sharing family and occupational pattern was important to experiment with and study.
