Boston-area families described the ambivalence of male responses to pressures of increased participation in homemaking. Because of different social support networks, men obtain little support and help in performing housework. Men perceiving paid employment as their primary contribution hesitate to acknowledge responsibility for homemaking…

Case studies examine men's family situations. Attempts to beat time by working from noon to midnight result in unintended negative consequences for one family. For another, creation of a split-shift family when a wife returns to work brings a father closer to his children and wife. (Author)