Discuss the two big changes in recent decades that have affected how families negotiate the competing demands of income generation and managing households.What do you see as being the next major change,and why?

Answers will vary by student.
The first is a change in the number of hours of income-generating work required to support a household. Today, the standard of living for an average family of two adults and two children requires more paid hours than it did 30 years ago. In the 1970s, only 44 hours of income-generating work per week were required to sustain such a household, whereas by the 1990s, 65 to 80 hours per week were required. The need for more paid labour hours to maintain the average standard of living has translated into a higher proportion of women working in the paid labour force, and families with two income earners are now the statistical norm among Canadian families.
The second big change affecting Canadian families is the major cutbacks in government support to schools, health care, and social service agencies over the past 20 years. These spending cuts have resulted in caregiving responsibilities falling increasingly to families, and most often to women. In other words, the cutbacks mean that more unpaid work is required in order for households to survive.