ABSTRACT This project will study the causes and consequences of dual- earner couples' decisions to share parenting equally. The background characteristics of equally-sharing couples, the ways in which they develop an equal division of childcare responsibilities, and the impact of this nontraditional division of labor on wives, husbands, marriages, and children will be examined. The project will entail three phases: 1) telephone interviews with husbands and wives in 400 couples, designed to identify a sample of equal-sharing couples and to illuminate the factors that influence parents' assessments of the division of childcare; 2) of paternal participation, including 60 middle- class and working class couples who share parenting equally; 3) a set of interviews with husbands and wives in 30 expectant couples who intend to share parenting equally and follow-up interviews with husbands and wives in the original 60 equally sharing couples. The research will inform our understanding of the development of identity in adulthood, the link between sex-role ideology and family organization, the barriers that keep men from full participation in the family, and the potential benefits that fathers' full participation might bring.
