A microsociological study of the dual-career family focused on the extent to which career mothers and fathers share child care responsibilities. Dependent variables included the amount of time dual-career parents spend in child care and the number of caregiving tasks they share; independent variables were the employment-related determinants of time spent in child care. The 49 couples who participated in the study were individually given an initial interview, an explanation of the study, a child care time/task analysis log, and a 100-item questionnaire. Participants then selected a week during a given 2-month period to complete the log, recording their involvement in child care. Total minutes spent in caregiving tasks were tallied under five major child care dimensions: physical, affective, cognitive, social, and other. Couples were then categorized according to traditional, transitional, or role sharing/egalitarian patterns with respect to the total time they shared in child care and each child care dimension. The time analysis identified 20 egalitarian, 26 transitional, and 3 traditional couples, each of whom spent an average of 54 hours weekly in child care activities. Wives averaged 28 hours; husbands averaged 26. Chi square analysis employed to test associations between employment variables and parental role-sharing variables indicated no significant relationships. (RH)