The Communicative Relationship Between Dialogue and Care By Mari ...

separated lines of action for the two sexes…to march at an equal pace but on different paths” (2001, p. 574). In the delineation of duties, the man is clearly the head of the household and his rightful place is in the public sphere. On the other hand, the woman's place is in the domestic circle, caring for others and nurturing the mores of her family. According to de Tocqueville, in any free society it is the women who make the mores, and nowhere is the duty of women more needed than in the home where they are responsible for the moral stability of the family and ultimately society. The description of the American family provided by de Tocqueville revealed several important facts that are no longer true today. First, the conception of a family was universal; a father, the head of the household, his wife, the mother, and in most cases children constituted the family. The roles for men and women in the family were clearly defined and rarely challenged. The husband, the totalitarian leader of his home, established a presence in the public sphere. The wife, on the other hand, managed the domestic circle. It was her responsibility to care for the children, the house, and any other family members in need of care. De Tocqueville stressed an essential duty of the wife and mother: It was clearly the woman's responsibility to instill, develop, and maintain the moral sensibilities of her family. This face of the family and these roles were a relative constant for many generations, but with the onset of the Second World War, everything changed, especially the face of the family.

The crisis of caring stems from the fact that after World War II and ever since, women have continued to leave the home, and the delicate balance so well designed by early Americans has been disrupted. The roles of men and women are no longer clear, and the face of the family has changed completely. According to a recent study, the percentage of mothers in the labor force rose from 47.4% in 1975 to 72.2% in 2002 (Steen, 2003, p. 1). Traditionally, it was women who were responsible for the majority of the caregiving of children. Today, with the rise of single-parent homes and dual-income homes, the face of the American family has changed. Women are no longer the only ones caring for children; in many cases, they are not the ones doing the caregiving at all.