Diverging Destinies in Rural America

This chapter extends McClanahan and Jacobsen's (Chap. 1) arguments to rural America with an emphasis on better understanding the converging downward destinies of women without a high-school education and those with a high school education in contrast to the increased gains in wealth and life circumstances of college-educated women. We examine how the 24-h economy has transformed the lives of less-educated women with more and more of them working nonstandard hours in rural America in comparison with college-educated women who work very few nonstandard hours. The impact on family life is explored using the Family Life Project, a representative sample of rural children followed since birth. Data suggest that parenting, including parental talk to children, is similar and much lower for women who have less than a college degree in comparison with the higher levels of parenting and talk to children for the college-educated mothers.