Some characteristics of a good family life are having enough time to properly raise children, having paid family leave, having health care for children and their parents and having child care that is generous and encourages and promotes a child’s development. In our society this is becoming increasingly difficult to create a good family life with the demands of work and home both mounting. What most parents need to do is to find a balance between a career and family in order to create that perfect family life.
Achieving a balance between a career and a family life is different for each family. A family who has a lucrative career may be able to take time off to spent time with their kids. They may also be able to afford impromptu child care if their work schedule suddenly changes. A family who doesn’t make as much money may struggle to make ends meet while spending enough time with their children. In the video clip we saw the different ways that families tried to achieve this balance. Some parents worked split shifts so their children would never be home alone. Others would work part time and sacrifice promising law profession in exchange to spend more time with the kids while others would leave the firm all together. One mother would leave her kids alone for a few hours and stress about whether or not they were alright in order to keep her job and provide for her family.
The factors that make the balance between work and home difficult to achieve are the high expectations in both environments. One mother mentioned being torn between being a team player at work by being on call and on site as a computer technician and being home and ensuring her children were being raised properly. Another factor that makes the balance between home and work difficult is the constant struggle to afford child care and which means sacrificing spending time at home in order to work and make enough money. Finally, long commutes to and from work can mean less time at home for parents who want to balance a career and family life. One mother who worked in New York had to commute for an hour and a half by taking several trains to make it home in time for dinner.
Some tips for balancing work and family life are to prepare to try to be as efficient as you can on the job in order to be sharp and focused. Figure out what helps you work better by either working less hours or changing the way your work. Parents can also do some work at home and in between their children’s school events in order to create a better balance.
Changes in traditional gender roles have made work and family issues more complex. This began with the rising educational levels of women that caused their career aspirations to rise. During World War II, women held non-traditional jobs while men were at war and this changed their views of what they could do in the work force. Also, clothes were being massed produced there was no need for women to stay at home to sew clothes anymore. By 1873 the economy took a fall and families could no longer survive solely off their husbands check so women had to go to work. By the 1980’s the hours that a couple worked increase by 600 hours a year so all that time at home meant less time spent at home. This left both parents in a bind because they had to make a choice about either furthering their careers or spending time with their families.
This choice can be become less of a burden if employers can be sensitive to their employees’ family needs or obligations. They can do this in several ways like for example offering part-time work, being more flexible, offering job share partnerships and allowed their employees to work from home.
Aside from having employers support having family support is very important not only in terms of raising children but also in terms of being a caregiver to a sick or elderly loved one. When a family supports each other during these though times it unites them and it creates loving warmth among them. Family support becomes essential when care giving for a terminally ill family member especially for coping with the death of a loved one. When family support is not offered all one can do is just let go because some people just do not have it in them to be a caregiver.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Blog #3
Household labor is unpaid labor that entails things like doing the laundry, washing the dishes and bathing and feeding children. All these tasks are necessary work for running a household. According to the video about Changing Gender Roles at Home, while even though women are currently doing far less work around the house than in the past, men are only contributing a little more.
Carework is the unpaid labor of caring for a loved one who is unable to care for themselves because of age, illness or disability. Personally I never had to do carework. I have only had to do chores like washing the dishes everyday since both my parents worked fulltime and they needed and expected us to help and contribute to our family. My brother was in charge of taking out the trash so our tasks were stereotypical to our gender which in turn affected the way our roles were socialized.
Since more women are joining the workforce than ever before their traditional family responsibilities like caring for children or caring for someone who cannot manage because or age, sickness or disabilities have become quite difficult. The first video of “Juggling Work and Care” addressed the issue of workers who need to leave their jobs in order to care for a sick loved one. In the UK they have created an online resource for people who work for a particular company that enables them to work from home if they need to care for a relative. Another issue presented in the second video clip was about a man who had four children and a wife who had suffered from depression since her first born. Choosing to be there for his family or be loyal to his job was a choice this man never had to make because the company he worked for valued care and were flexible for when he had no choice but to leave work.
Society needs to reconstruct their notions of the home as woman’s work for the sake of the sanity of all mothers. The video called The Mommy Mistique described how society is pressuring modern moms into being the perfect both in the workplace and at home. There are shows in the media like Super Nanny and Desperate Housewives that are setting the bar quite high for what a good mother is “supposed” to be. In order for society to change their notions of the home as women’s work they need to let go of the stereotypes that are portrayed in the media about women and the household. Mothers should also take political action in order for the government to increase their support for families, health care, education and day care. Over time improving some of these policies could change the way society views the home as woman’s work if the government could aid all families with these needs.
Carework is the unpaid labor of caring for a loved one who is unable to care for themselves because of age, illness or disability. Personally I never had to do carework. I have only had to do chores like washing the dishes everyday since both my parents worked fulltime and they needed and expected us to help and contribute to our family. My brother was in charge of taking out the trash so our tasks were stereotypical to our gender which in turn affected the way our roles were socialized.
Since more women are joining the workforce than ever before their traditional family responsibilities like caring for children or caring for someone who cannot manage because or age, sickness or disabilities have become quite difficult. The first video of “Juggling Work and Care” addressed the issue of workers who need to leave their jobs in order to care for a sick loved one. In the UK they have created an online resource for people who work for a particular company that enables them to work from home if they need to care for a relative. Another issue presented in the second video clip was about a man who had four children and a wife who had suffered from depression since her first born. Choosing to be there for his family or be loyal to his job was a choice this man never had to make because the company he worked for valued care and were flexible for when he had no choice but to leave work.
Society needs to reconstruct their notions of the home as woman’s work for the sake of the sanity of all mothers. The video called The Mommy Mistique described how society is pressuring modern moms into being the perfect both in the workplace and at home. There are shows in the media like Super Nanny and Desperate Housewives that are setting the bar quite high for what a good mother is “supposed” to be. In order for society to change their notions of the home as women’s work they need to let go of the stereotypes that are portrayed in the media about women and the household. Mothers should also take political action in order for the government to increase their support for families, health care, education and day care. Over time improving some of these policies could change the way society views the home as woman’s work if the government could aid all families with these needs.
Blog #2
1)What is meant by “sex segregation”? How do you see sex segregation exist in employment at ASU?
Sex segregation is when men and women hold different jobs requiring different kinds of skills. It is usually the “male” jobs that get higher earnings than “female” jobs. In the 1970’s there was a decrease of sex segregation but even within the same job category women still performed in a lower occupational classification. Occupation classifications measure the tasks that people perform. For example when more women became bakers they usually dominated the more automated or simpler job of making cakes and cookies while the men still performed the more difficult and higher paying job of making breads.
The biggest contributors to sex segregation are employers who discriminate in hiring placement and promotion based on their company’s personal taste. Taste discrimination refers to a preference for not hiring members of a particular group. They define taste as something one is willing to pay to indulge. For example employers with a discriminatory taste may have to decide how much money they are willing to lose to avoid hiring women. An example of this happened to me when I worked as a back waiter in an upscale restaurant. Three of the servers had called off and instead of placing me as the server my supervisor got another male back waiter to act as server. She said that he was more likely to be able to carry the heavy trays than I was even though I had the same experience as he did doing the same job.
Finally there is a gender gap in pay that can be explained in terms of individual and structural factors. The individual factors may be the skills or motivations that a particular group has in regards to their job. An example of this is that more males than females receive paid job training. This could be because males tend be with a particular firm longer than women. Statistics show that men on average have 20 years of job experience while women only have 14. In terms of structural factors, some companies are structured to reward employees to detriment women’s achievement. For example some employers do not offer reasonable maternity leave policies which can affect the woman’s overall salary.
At ASU sex discrimination can be seem in the from the administration offices of our colleges to the kitchens in the cafeterias. For example the assistant dean, like at the college of Liberal Arts and Sciences, may be female while the more lucrative position as dean may be male. It can also be seen at Pitchforks Buffet where the only women are seen re-stoking the salad bar, a relatively simple task, while only males are seen grilling burgers. The males grilling burgers wear chef’s hats while the women only wear hair nets which leads me to believe that the male’s salaries are much higher than the women’s.
2)Identity the ways your own socialization at home, school and work reproduce gender roles. How is this socialization related to patriarchy?
The process by which we learn to conform to society’s norms, values and roles and helps us shape who we are is called socialization. The nature factor establishes who we are by the genetic background that we have inherited from our parents. The nurture factor takes into account how much of our definition of self came from the environment we grew up in. My own socialization was established in a patriarchal family. Patriarchy is a form of social organization where the father is the head authority of a family. I was taught that my mother was the one who would cook and clean and take care of my brother while my dad worked two jobs to pay the bills and support our family.
This type of nurturing while growing up was a huge contributor to my socialization and my role as a person. For example, I feel that that I should know how to cook and clean so that I can take care of my children like my mother did but I also know that I want don’t want to depend on a man for my financial stability like my mom did. This helped shape my strong drive to get into college so that I can find a good job so that I can support my own family alone if I have to.
My socialization also came from watching the media which plays a huge role in gender stereotypes. A stereotype in the media helps the viewer make a quick assessment as to what the character is like or should be. According to the video clip on Sexual Stereotypes in the media these stereotypes are affecting both males and females. Although in the recent years the gender roles are becoming more gender neutral, we still have a long way to go.
3) Reflecting on the radio report, “Moms Become Breadwinners As Job Losses Hit Men,” explain how sex segregation and the wage gap persists even when more men are unemployed.
According to the NPR report job losses are hitting men heavily. Sex segregation and the wage gap still exist because the job sectors that have affected men the hardest were male dominated to begin with. It is not likely for a construction company to hire a women or anyone for that matter after laying off workers. The wage gap remains the same because women still earn $.77 for every $1.00 that men earn. I feel that regardless of the economy, women are just more likely to take time off because their jobs as mothers often times require them too which leads to lower overall earnings than men. Finally the main reason that women are becoming the breadwinners because this because women are taking on second jobs; about 14% of working mothers have taken second jobs in the last year to make ends meet.
Sex segregation is when men and women hold different jobs requiring different kinds of skills. It is usually the “male” jobs that get higher earnings than “female” jobs. In the 1970’s there was a decrease of sex segregation but even within the same job category women still performed in a lower occupational classification. Occupation classifications measure the tasks that people perform. For example when more women became bakers they usually dominated the more automated or simpler job of making cakes and cookies while the men still performed the more difficult and higher paying job of making breads.
The biggest contributors to sex segregation are employers who discriminate in hiring placement and promotion based on their company’s personal taste. Taste discrimination refers to a preference for not hiring members of a particular group. They define taste as something one is willing to pay to indulge. For example employers with a discriminatory taste may have to decide how much money they are willing to lose to avoid hiring women. An example of this happened to me when I worked as a back waiter in an upscale restaurant. Three of the servers had called off and instead of placing me as the server my supervisor got another male back waiter to act as server. She said that he was more likely to be able to carry the heavy trays than I was even though I had the same experience as he did doing the same job.
Finally there is a gender gap in pay that can be explained in terms of individual and structural factors. The individual factors may be the skills or motivations that a particular group has in regards to their job. An example of this is that more males than females receive paid job training. This could be because males tend be with a particular firm longer than women. Statistics show that men on average have 20 years of job experience while women only have 14. In terms of structural factors, some companies are structured to reward employees to detriment women’s achievement. For example some employers do not offer reasonable maternity leave policies which can affect the woman’s overall salary.
At ASU sex discrimination can be seem in the from the administration offices of our colleges to the kitchens in the cafeterias. For example the assistant dean, like at the college of Liberal Arts and Sciences, may be female while the more lucrative position as dean may be male. It can also be seen at Pitchforks Buffet where the only women are seen re-stoking the salad bar, a relatively simple task, while only males are seen grilling burgers. The males grilling burgers wear chef’s hats while the women only wear hair nets which leads me to believe that the male’s salaries are much higher than the women’s.
2)Identity the ways your own socialization at home, school and work reproduce gender roles. How is this socialization related to patriarchy?
The process by which we learn to conform to society’s norms, values and roles and helps us shape who we are is called socialization. The nature factor establishes who we are by the genetic background that we have inherited from our parents. The nurture factor takes into account how much of our definition of self came from the environment we grew up in. My own socialization was established in a patriarchal family. Patriarchy is a form of social organization where the father is the head authority of a family. I was taught that my mother was the one who would cook and clean and take care of my brother while my dad worked two jobs to pay the bills and support our family.
This type of nurturing while growing up was a huge contributor to my socialization and my role as a person. For example, I feel that that I should know how to cook and clean so that I can take care of my children like my mother did but I also know that I want don’t want to depend on a man for my financial stability like my mom did. This helped shape my strong drive to get into college so that I can find a good job so that I can support my own family alone if I have to.
My socialization also came from watching the media which plays a huge role in gender stereotypes. A stereotype in the media helps the viewer make a quick assessment as to what the character is like or should be. According to the video clip on Sexual Stereotypes in the media these stereotypes are affecting both males and females. Although in the recent years the gender roles are becoming more gender neutral, we still have a long way to go.
3) Reflecting on the radio report, “Moms Become Breadwinners As Job Losses Hit Men,” explain how sex segregation and the wage gap persists even when more men are unemployed.
According to the NPR report job losses are hitting men heavily. Sex segregation and the wage gap still exist because the job sectors that have affected men the hardest were male dominated to begin with. It is not likely for a construction company to hire a women or anyone for that matter after laying off workers. The wage gap remains the same because women still earn $.77 for every $1.00 that men earn. I feel that regardless of the economy, women are just more likely to take time off because their jobs as mothers often times require them too which leads to lower overall earnings than men. Finally the main reason that women are becoming the breadwinners because this because women are taking on second jobs; about 14% of working mothers have taken second jobs in the last year to make ends meet.
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