The Roberts article gave a history of Black women’s relationship to the welfare system. Since welfare is now more in the hands of the states, restrictive laws (such as family caps) were able to be put into place. Roberts believes that welfare laws impact Black women the most because of their position at the bottom of the economic ladder, and she thinks that many Americans don’t support welfare because it primarily helps Black families. Contrary to popular belief, she thinks that welfare doesn’t encourage reckless reproduction, state aid doesn’t cause dependence, and marriage does not end children’s poverty.
I was shocked that certain states actually have family caps. It seems very invasive and authoritarian. I don’t think welfare encourages women to have more children, so they shouldn’t be punished if they accidentally (or even plan) to get pregnant. Since the American government considers welfare a gift, not a right, once you become dependent on the state, you forfeit privacy and certain personal liberties. You essentially become a ward of the state, which is probably supposed to discourage use of social services.
Sharon Hays discussed both the positives and negatives of welfare reform. Despite the fact that the principle idea behind welfare (taking care of your fellow citizens), the American social service system is “distorted” by cultural prejudices and trends. As a result, it both punishes and misguidedly rehabilitates recipients. Hays also gave a history of welfare is the U.S., with its constant theme of “deserving” versus “undeserving” poor.
Hays said that laws reflect a nation’s values. However, I don’t know if that is 100% true. In a democracy like ours, it represent the majority of voters. However, the majority might not actually be that big, and we know that many people do not vote. Also, we vote in representatives that make the decisions, and usually don’t vote directly on issues like welfare reform. Therefore, I disagree with her statement. I bet a lot of people would support welfare reform, and a lot probably don’t care either way.
The Glass article described a study done to see how use of family-related policies by working women impacted their wage growth over a period of a few years. She determined that use of the policies does not enhance wage-growth, and in some cases may make women’s wages stagnate. Managerial workers experience the most stagnation, though low-wage workers are also affected by it. The conclusion is that family-friendly policies do not in fact help women make it past the “glass ceiling”.
Naomi Gerstel examined how unions deal with members’ work-family needs by interviewing workers and union leaders about their positions. While some unions push for flex-time, there are drawbacks to that arrangement. Also, while some push for on-site childcare, many workers don’t see the point because they can’t afford it. FMLA is almost universally supported. The reason unions don’t get more done in this sphere is because they are not that strong right now and they don’t have many women in leadership.
“Unequal work for unequal pay” profiled some family-friendly companies, like the Neuville hosiery factory. However, the author made the point that childless workers at these companies may feel bitter about all the benefits that parent employees get. They may resent having to pick up the slack for coworkers with children, or not being able to take off as much time since the FMLA or company policy might not cover them.
These last two articles demonstrate that no law or policy will ever make everyone happy. There will always be detractors. However, a family-friendly policy is not hurting anyone (which I doubt many of them do), people should be okay with it. Just because it doesn’t apply to them doesn’t mean it’s not important. After all, family friendly policies will impact the well-being of the nation’s children, who are the future of the nation. In a way, even childless people will likely be taken care of by today’s children when they are older, so should be concerned with their well-being. I guess a way to keep everyone happy is for individual employers to provide comparable benefits for parents and childless employees.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
blog 10
This week’s readings about sex and emotion work were quite juicy. Not only were they fascinating on a human-interest level, but they also had important sociological implications.
Jean Duncombe’s “Whose Orgasm is this anyway?” discussed the sex work she thinks that many women perform in marriage. Since the modern sexual ideal is mutual orgasm, women feel like they have to work to enjoy their sex life, like it’s a duty to have fun. They may not really be fulfilled, since sex in marriage remains a male-dominated area. As the years go by and couples’ sex lives wane due to work/family obligations and resentment, husbands tend to want to bring in more and more exciting techniques to spice up their level of physical intimacy. But wives get sick of doing sex work to maintain what is supposed to be a mutually “satisfying” sex life, so resist their husbands’ advances.
This was a rather bleak, depressing take on sex in marriage. Granted, I am not married, but I hope that this is not what it’s like. While I understand her point that often women feel like they have to perform sex work, as dictated by gender roles, many men (nice guys at least) also perform sex work. While it is true that sex is often a venue for gender inequalities to show themselves, modern American men may have a different idea about sex than these older British men. I do understand her point, though, that the sexual ideals of the time (today’s is mutual orgasm) often put a lot of pressure on men and women, and may lead to a type of “inauthenticity” in intimate situations.
Duncombe’s “Emotion Work” article discusses women’s roles as nurturers to men. It takes a great deal of effort to constantly try to put men in touch with their feelings, make them feel good, and foster an emotional connection, she argues. Men also do emotion work, though it is generally work-related or done to prevent themselves from feeling emotions. The division of emotion work is dictated by gender-roles, and can lead to men and women being inauthentic. While men may just never acknowledge their full breadth of emotions, women often over-act their nurturance and end up burnt out.
The fact of the matter is, people grate on each other after years of being married to eachother. And, since women are often responsible for nurturing emotional ties in the family, the burden falls on them to keep things going. However, women get annoyed too, and emotion work can become increasingly laborious over time. Duncombe’s discussion of inauthenticity made me wonder if authenticity was ever truly feasible, especially in a marriage context. If we were all authentic (that is, being true to our impulses and feelings), we would all be pretty mean to each other on a regular basis. Also, people would probably not be monogamous. Therefore, marriage (and most other relationships) are build on some degree of inauthenticity. However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing; it’s just a fact of life.
Elizabeth Bernstein went undercover to get a deeper sense of the accuracy of feminist theories on prostitution. Radical feminist critiques say prostitution objectifies and victimizes women, forcing them to sell not just their bodies, but their selves. This is certainly true of the crack-addicted prostitutes in San Francisco’s ghetto. Pro-sex feminists see the sex worker as a powerful, independent professional, as corresponds with the college-educated escorts she profiled. The street-walking prostitutes are somewhere in between, subjugated to pimps and police but able to exercise some control over their clientele. She emphasizes that prostitution must be dealt with differently depending on its context.
In “Sex Work for the Middle Class,” Bernstein looks deeper into the phenomenon of college-educated, middle-class prostitutes. She uses Pierre Bordieu’s analysis of taste to describe these women’s business tactics. These women are attracted by the promise of easy money and often subscribe to an “ethic of fun,” which sees pleasure as a duty. They try to professionalize the work and often bring in techniques from their previous, legitimate jobs. They try to simulate authenticity with their clients, while not ignoring the fact that it’s an economic transaction.
These themes of authenticity and pleasure as duty arose once again in Bernstein’s articles. These ideas must be deeply linked to how we view sex in this society. Also, the fact that these prostitutes tried to professionalize their job showed how, even though they were trying to be rebellious, they still had the value systems of their middle-class upbringings engrained in their heads. The street-walking prostitutes also brought the values of their class situations to their work: they did what they had to do, answered to who they had to answer to, but still tried to retain some degree of choice and dignity. The crack-addicted prostitutes had the desperation of the truly impoverished.
Jean Duncombe’s “Whose Orgasm is this anyway?” discussed the sex work she thinks that many women perform in marriage. Since the modern sexual ideal is mutual orgasm, women feel like they have to work to enjoy their sex life, like it’s a duty to have fun. They may not really be fulfilled, since sex in marriage remains a male-dominated area. As the years go by and couples’ sex lives wane due to work/family obligations and resentment, husbands tend to want to bring in more and more exciting techniques to spice up their level of physical intimacy. But wives get sick of doing sex work to maintain what is supposed to be a mutually “satisfying” sex life, so resist their husbands’ advances.
This was a rather bleak, depressing take on sex in marriage. Granted, I am not married, but I hope that this is not what it’s like. While I understand her point that often women feel like they have to perform sex work, as dictated by gender roles, many men (nice guys at least) also perform sex work. While it is true that sex is often a venue for gender inequalities to show themselves, modern American men may have a different idea about sex than these older British men. I do understand her point, though, that the sexual ideals of the time (today’s is mutual orgasm) often put a lot of pressure on men and women, and may lead to a type of “inauthenticity” in intimate situations.
Duncombe’s “Emotion Work” article discusses women’s roles as nurturers to men. It takes a great deal of effort to constantly try to put men in touch with their feelings, make them feel good, and foster an emotional connection, she argues. Men also do emotion work, though it is generally work-related or done to prevent themselves from feeling emotions. The division of emotion work is dictated by gender-roles, and can lead to men and women being inauthentic. While men may just never acknowledge their full breadth of emotions, women often over-act their nurturance and end up burnt out.
The fact of the matter is, people grate on each other after years of being married to eachother. And, since women are often responsible for nurturing emotional ties in the family, the burden falls on them to keep things going. However, women get annoyed too, and emotion work can become increasingly laborious over time. Duncombe’s discussion of inauthenticity made me wonder if authenticity was ever truly feasible, especially in a marriage context. If we were all authentic (that is, being true to our impulses and feelings), we would all be pretty mean to each other on a regular basis. Also, people would probably not be monogamous. Therefore, marriage (and most other relationships) are build on some degree of inauthenticity. However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing; it’s just a fact of life.
Elizabeth Bernstein went undercover to get a deeper sense of the accuracy of feminist theories on prostitution. Radical feminist critiques say prostitution objectifies and victimizes women, forcing them to sell not just their bodies, but their selves. This is certainly true of the crack-addicted prostitutes in San Francisco’s ghetto. Pro-sex feminists see the sex worker as a powerful, independent professional, as corresponds with the college-educated escorts she profiled. The street-walking prostitutes are somewhere in between, subjugated to pimps and police but able to exercise some control over their clientele. She emphasizes that prostitution must be dealt with differently depending on its context.
In “Sex Work for the Middle Class,” Bernstein looks deeper into the phenomenon of college-educated, middle-class prostitutes. She uses Pierre Bordieu’s analysis of taste to describe these women’s business tactics. These women are attracted by the promise of easy money and often subscribe to an “ethic of fun,” which sees pleasure as a duty. They try to professionalize the work and often bring in techniques from their previous, legitimate jobs. They try to simulate authenticity with their clients, while not ignoring the fact that it’s an economic transaction.
These themes of authenticity and pleasure as duty arose once again in Bernstein’s articles. These ideas must be deeply linked to how we view sex in this society. Also, the fact that these prostitutes tried to professionalize their job showed how, even though they were trying to be rebellious, they still had the value systems of their middle-class upbringings engrained in their heads. The street-walking prostitutes also brought the values of their class situations to their work: they did what they had to do, answered to who they had to answer to, but still tried to retain some degree of choice and dignity. The crack-addicted prostitutes had the desperation of the truly impoverished.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
blog 9
The Tronto article analyzed the “nanny question” from three perspectives: the workers, the employing parents, and the children. She stressed that the nanny-employer relationship is a market one, despite it being in the home/love sphere. What makes the system so unjust is exactly what makes it so effective: the parents have all the power. With enough money, you can have both intensive mothering and dual-career family, though it often means exploiting a domestic servant. She calls feminists out for failing to predict that this would be a problem. She suggests that minimum wage and working condition standards should be put into place, as well as a more collective attitude towards child care. The notion of a child “belonging” only to his/her parents is partly to blame for this issue.
Her idea that child care should be more collectivized and children should not “belong” so much to one set of parents is similar to Rothman’s point in that article we read a few weeks ago. Though I understand what they are talking about and can see how that would solve many of the problems associated with childcare, it makes me uncomfortable. It just doesn’t seem right, to not have your own child belong solely to you, even if other people are taking more care of it than you. But that is exactly her point: our worldviews are so constructed around capitalist notions of ownership and private property that we even see ourselves as owning our kids. Though, I must say, we are collectivizing childcare in a way. Think about how many people raise a child today (mom, nanny, soccer coach, teacher). That’s collectivized childcare; the only difference is that the parents (the owners) pay the people to do it, as opposed to the unofficial mutual assistance way it was before.
Bonnar’s article explores how and why caregiving work is undervalued in our society. We can’t rationalize it completely, since it involves so much emotion, so it is not considered valuable “market” work. Feminism, she thinks, reiterated the idea that anything done in the home sphere was trivial. Her main point is that people need more than just money to survive, a notion that doesn’t necessarily fit well with our industrialized society. Her suggestions include: modifying the work day time requirements for parents, paying homemakers (questionable?), discontinuing the policy of pushing welfare recipients into paid labor.
Though I don’t think wages for homemakers is going to catch on anytime soon (we don’t live in a socialist state, the government does not have enough money from tax collection to pay for that, and people don’t seem in a hurry to switch over to a welfare state), I think that modifying the work day time requirements is a better idea. People might be more productive with a shorter day, since 8 hours is a tough time to get through. Having worked at standard 40 hour jobs, I know that people’s minds start wandering at 3 anyway. Also, parents should be able to have more flexible hours, like working late if they take the morning off to go to a child’s doctor appointment.
Chapter 1 of Domestica discusses the state of domestic work in the economically stratified Los Angeles area. Race, class, immigration, globalization, and ideas about carework all combine to create a very distinctive culture of domestic labor. The number of domestic workers, mainly Latino immigrants, is growing, and their wages and working conditions are often very subpar. California’s economic climate and immigration history, combined with the U.S.’s laissez-faire domestic worker market, has led to a large domestic labor market.
Chapter 2 talks about the working lives of Latina nanny/housekeepers. The live-ins have the worst conditions and receive very little privacy, respect, or pay. The live-outs are paid better and have a better separation of work and family time, and tend to emphasize care work over the assigned housework. Housecleaning is the best job for Latinas with families, since they can work independently, choose their hours, and supplement income. Latinas are preferred for these jobs because they are “other.” The Latinas themselves transpose a racial hierarchy on their employers, favoring some ethnic groups over others.
That is the trouble with a pluralistic society: everyone has prejudices against everyone. It is not just the dominant groups that have negative stereotypes about minorities, it can be the other way around. But in the cases of these Latina domestic workers, their experience has dictated that certain ethnic groups tend to be harsher employers. This is often due to cultural differences in attitudes about servants, as the author pointed out. Just as some cultures have attitudes towards domestic workers that strip them of their dignity, perhaps we can work harder to create a distinctive attitude here in America towards domestic workers that acknowledges their dignity. That is why I support the unionization of domestic workers, standardized wages, and minimum working conditions. However, I realize this would lead to a decrease in the demand for domestic workers, since it would be too expensive for most people to afford if they had to pay minimum wage. But I think a good number of people would still be willing to pay for the valuable services they provide.
Her idea that child care should be more collectivized and children should not “belong” so much to one set of parents is similar to Rothman’s point in that article we read a few weeks ago. Though I understand what they are talking about and can see how that would solve many of the problems associated with childcare, it makes me uncomfortable. It just doesn’t seem right, to not have your own child belong solely to you, even if other people are taking more care of it than you. But that is exactly her point: our worldviews are so constructed around capitalist notions of ownership and private property that we even see ourselves as owning our kids. Though, I must say, we are collectivizing childcare in a way. Think about how many people raise a child today (mom, nanny, soccer coach, teacher). That’s collectivized childcare; the only difference is that the parents (the owners) pay the people to do it, as opposed to the unofficial mutual assistance way it was before.
Bonnar’s article explores how and why caregiving work is undervalued in our society. We can’t rationalize it completely, since it involves so much emotion, so it is not considered valuable “market” work. Feminism, she thinks, reiterated the idea that anything done in the home sphere was trivial. Her main point is that people need more than just money to survive, a notion that doesn’t necessarily fit well with our industrialized society. Her suggestions include: modifying the work day time requirements for parents, paying homemakers (questionable?), discontinuing the policy of pushing welfare recipients into paid labor.
Though I don’t think wages for homemakers is going to catch on anytime soon (we don’t live in a socialist state, the government does not have enough money from tax collection to pay for that, and people don’t seem in a hurry to switch over to a welfare state), I think that modifying the work day time requirements is a better idea. People might be more productive with a shorter day, since 8 hours is a tough time to get through. Having worked at standard 40 hour jobs, I know that people’s minds start wandering at 3 anyway. Also, parents should be able to have more flexible hours, like working late if they take the morning off to go to a child’s doctor appointment.
Chapter 1 of Domestica discusses the state of domestic work in the economically stratified Los Angeles area. Race, class, immigration, globalization, and ideas about carework all combine to create a very distinctive culture of domestic labor. The number of domestic workers, mainly Latino immigrants, is growing, and their wages and working conditions are often very subpar. California’s economic climate and immigration history, combined with the U.S.’s laissez-faire domestic worker market, has led to a large domestic labor market.
Chapter 2 talks about the working lives of Latina nanny/housekeepers. The live-ins have the worst conditions and receive very little privacy, respect, or pay. The live-outs are paid better and have a better separation of work and family time, and tend to emphasize care work over the assigned housework. Housecleaning is the best job for Latinas with families, since they can work independently, choose their hours, and supplement income. Latinas are preferred for these jobs because they are “other.” The Latinas themselves transpose a racial hierarchy on their employers, favoring some ethnic groups over others.
That is the trouble with a pluralistic society: everyone has prejudices against everyone. It is not just the dominant groups that have negative stereotypes about minorities, it can be the other way around. But in the cases of these Latina domestic workers, their experience has dictated that certain ethnic groups tend to be harsher employers. This is often due to cultural differences in attitudes about servants, as the author pointed out. Just as some cultures have attitudes towards domestic workers that strip them of their dignity, perhaps we can work harder to create a distinctive attitude here in America towards domestic workers that acknowledges their dignity. That is why I support the unionization of domestic workers, standardized wages, and minimum working conditions. However, I realize this would lead to a decrease in the demand for domestic workers, since it would be too expensive for most people to afford if they had to pay minimum wage. But I think a good number of people would still be willing to pay for the valuable services they provide.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
blog 8
Uttal’s article described a study into why black and Mexican-American mothers utilize kin for childcare more than whites. Three theories exist already: that it’s due to cultural preference, it’s an adaptive response to structural constraint, or it’s a combination of structural and cultural reasons. Anglos tended to say kincare was inappropriate (since it imposed on their relatives and they didn’t want to owe them), but Mexican-Americans and black mothers said it was appropriate, though it wasn’t necessarily their first preference of child care. Mex-Americans saw it as providing their relatives with decent jobs. The study showed that people take the needs of their relatives into account, not just their own preferences.
I am glad that this article dug deeper into the question of why exactly non-whites tend use kincare and whites don’t. The difference is usually chalked up to vague “cultural differences” or generic “poverty.” But this study added a new dimension by suggesting that Mexican-Americans see kincare as a way of providing their relatives with jobs. This article also looked at the issue from a new perspective, acknowledging that people don’t just use relatives for their own purposes, but also take their relatives’ needs into account. However, the author is right in admitting that more research needs to be done on black family systems, since she was not able to provide much information.
“The Color of Family Ties” discussed how the media and policy makers focus mainly on the nuclear family, though black and Latinos have a more extended kin system. Whites tend to help relatives out financially and emotionally, but black/Latinos tend to help out with practical tasks. The authors suggest that it is class, rather than race, that determines how involved people are with their extended kin. Reliance on kin is related to a lack of marital ties, since marriage weakens extended ties. They suggest that social policies, like the FMLA, should acknowledge extended family ties.
I agree with the authors’ point that the use of extended kin systems correlates more to class than to race, though I’m sure cultural values have some impact. In my own experience, I have seen that working- or lower-class whites have similar extended kincare situations as lower- or working-class people of other ethnicities. It makes sense, since people with less resources and human capital have to rely on their extended family networks more to get help with necessary tasks like childcare and housing. Also, lower-class people are less likely to spend time giving their relatives emotional support if what they really need is immediate practical help, regardless of race.
In “Explaining the gender gap in help to parents,” Gerstel and Sarkisian seek to answer this question: to what extent are differences in job and employment responsible for women helping out elderly parents more than men? They suggest that higher wages correspond to less hours of helping, so men’s economic privilege means they help less. But men and women with the same job help about the same. Also, married people help parents less than single, because marriage eats up people’s time. Policy implications: stop decreasing public aid for elderly, since their children have less time/ability to help out.
The finding that men and women with similar jobs help out about the same amount calls the stereotype that women are naturally more caring into question. While men and women may care in different ways, such as doing different tasks or using different affection styles, they are equally likely to help out. I wonder if the reason that men and women care differently is in fact “natural” (as in evolutionary) or if it culturally constructed. It is probably a mixture of both. But at least literature like this acknowledges that men and women are both caring, provided they are economically/occupationally equal. As we get closer to gender equality in the job market, a transformation of ideas about caring will follow.
Di Leonardo’s article discussed the ‘work of kinship,’ the efforts that people, usually women, go to for the sake of maintaining extended family ties. It competes for women’s time, along with paid work, housework, and carework. As the home sphere separated from the work sphere, the women became responsible for the emotional/home labor. The author addressed the debate about whether women do it out of natural nurturance or did it unwillingly out of indirect coercion. But she maintains that kinwork is both labor and a form of emotional gratification, and that it’s nature will likely change along with residential patterns, the economy, technology, and gender roles.
This was perhaps my favorite article that we read all year. I had never heard that type of work labeled before, and I think the “work of kinship” is a fitting title. At least in my family, it is such a huge part of our daily life, and maintaining kinship ties really does take a lot of effort and time. But the author was also correct in saying it is unlike most other forms of work, because it is emotionally gratifying and practically useful. I also liked her moderate position on whether women do it out of nurturance or begrudging obligation. It can be both. I would love to see another, wider-scale study in a few decades to see how the work of kinship changes from generation to generation. It is likely that more men will get involved, though it would be quite interesting if that DIDN’T happen, even as gender roles get more egalitarian.
I am glad that this article dug deeper into the question of why exactly non-whites tend use kincare and whites don’t. The difference is usually chalked up to vague “cultural differences” or generic “poverty.” But this study added a new dimension by suggesting that Mexican-Americans see kincare as a way of providing their relatives with jobs. This article also looked at the issue from a new perspective, acknowledging that people don’t just use relatives for their own purposes, but also take their relatives’ needs into account. However, the author is right in admitting that more research needs to be done on black family systems, since she was not able to provide much information.
“The Color of Family Ties” discussed how the media and policy makers focus mainly on the nuclear family, though black and Latinos have a more extended kin system. Whites tend to help relatives out financially and emotionally, but black/Latinos tend to help out with practical tasks. The authors suggest that it is class, rather than race, that determines how involved people are with their extended kin. Reliance on kin is related to a lack of marital ties, since marriage weakens extended ties. They suggest that social policies, like the FMLA, should acknowledge extended family ties.
I agree with the authors’ point that the use of extended kin systems correlates more to class than to race, though I’m sure cultural values have some impact. In my own experience, I have seen that working- or lower-class whites have similar extended kincare situations as lower- or working-class people of other ethnicities. It makes sense, since people with less resources and human capital have to rely on their extended family networks more to get help with necessary tasks like childcare and housing. Also, lower-class people are less likely to spend time giving their relatives emotional support if what they really need is immediate practical help, regardless of race.
In “Explaining the gender gap in help to parents,” Gerstel and Sarkisian seek to answer this question: to what extent are differences in job and employment responsible for women helping out elderly parents more than men? They suggest that higher wages correspond to less hours of helping, so men’s economic privilege means they help less. But men and women with the same job help about the same. Also, married people help parents less than single, because marriage eats up people’s time. Policy implications: stop decreasing public aid for elderly, since their children have less time/ability to help out.
The finding that men and women with similar jobs help out about the same amount calls the stereotype that women are naturally more caring into question. While men and women may care in different ways, such as doing different tasks or using different affection styles, they are equally likely to help out. I wonder if the reason that men and women care differently is in fact “natural” (as in evolutionary) or if it culturally constructed. It is probably a mixture of both. But at least literature like this acknowledges that men and women are both caring, provided they are economically/occupationally equal. As we get closer to gender equality in the job market, a transformation of ideas about caring will follow.
Di Leonardo’s article discussed the ‘work of kinship,’ the efforts that people, usually women, go to for the sake of maintaining extended family ties. It competes for women’s time, along with paid work, housework, and carework. As the home sphere separated from the work sphere, the women became responsible for the emotional/home labor. The author addressed the debate about whether women do it out of natural nurturance or did it unwillingly out of indirect coercion. But she maintains that kinwork is both labor and a form of emotional gratification, and that it’s nature will likely change along with residential patterns, the economy, technology, and gender roles.
This was perhaps my favorite article that we read all year. I had never heard that type of work labeled before, and I think the “work of kinship” is a fitting title. At least in my family, it is such a huge part of our daily life, and maintaining kinship ties really does take a lot of effort and time. But the author was also correct in saying it is unlike most other forms of work, because it is emotionally gratifying and practically useful. I also liked her moderate position on whether women do it out of nurturance or begrudging obligation. It can be both. I would love to see another, wider-scale study in a few decades to see how the work of kinship changes from generation to generation. It is likely that more men will get involved, though it would be quite interesting if that DIDN’T happen, even as gender roles get more egalitarian.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
blog 7
Jackie Woods Fam and Work Blog 7
Hocschild’s “Joey’s Problem” follows a married couple, Nancy and Evan. The author pays particular attention to how they divide the household labor and what impact it has on their family life. Even though Nancy considers herself a feminist, she still finds herself working the dreaded “second shift”. She resented Evan for his lack of assistance with household tasks, but convinced herself that everything was fair (since Evan took care of the garage and therefore the upstairs was her domain). Their different expectations surrounding gender roles took a toll on their marriage, however. They are a prime example of the “stalled revolution” in household work.
The story of Nancy and Evan was very vividly relayed. It was quite refreshing to see how these gender-division issues play out in real life, not just from a statistical perspective. One thing that stuck out in my mind was how the author brought up Nancy and Evan’s relationships with their mothers as the most influential reason behind their respective views about housework (and their respective neuroses). As we have discussed in class, our culture today relies heavily on psychological theories that “blame the parent” for people’s problems. It is the go-to explanation for almost every personality problem. Since the mother is the parent that is more commonly considered the culprit, women feel even more pressure to intensively mother their children. This perpetuates the system of domesticity by keeping women feeling like they should be putting the most work into being the main caregiver.
In “Autonomy, Dependence, or Display?”, Gupta looks at the relationship between married women’s income and the amount of household work they do. He critiques the two existing explanations of the lack of correlation between women’s income and the division of labor: that wives are economically dependent on their husbands so feel obligated to do work for them, or that high-earning women feel the need to keep up on housework to confirm their femininity to themselves and their husbands. His study determined that women act as free economic agents based on their own income, and that higher earnings matter little in explaining the labor division.
I was rather confused by this article. I did not quite understand how Gupta used the point that there is little correlation between women’s income and household work to conclude that women are free economic agents based on their income. But, regardless, his critique of the two theories about labor-inequality was interesting. In my own personal life, I could see how the theory about doing housework to assert femininity could be legitimate. Women (my two student-athlete friends included) often do things here at college like bake cookies or clean the house and then say light-heartedly “I just wanted to feel all housewifey”. I know that these girls compete in college athletics, so often are insecure about being perceived as “girly” enough. Consequently, they overcompensate by doing ‘traditionally’ female things, like putting on lots of makeup after practice or baking things. A high-powered career can be considered similar to athletics in the sense that neither is considered an overwhelmingly “female” realm. So I imagine that women in both realms use similar coping mechanisms.
Carrington’s “Domesticity and the Political Economy of Lesbigay Families” consisted of personal interviews with lesbigay couples and the analysis of their household labor dynamics. Like many heterosexual couples, gay couples subscribe to the myth that everything is, and should be, egalitarian. But most modern relationships consist of a partner who is more domestically geared and one who is better described as a “breadwinner”. In lesbigay couples, the partner who has the less intensive (read: more ‘feminine”) job often shoulders more domestic responsibility. Carrington makes the point that lesbigay couples often find themselves falling into traditional domestic gender-roles.
The examples Carrington used of lesbigay couples struggling with the same issues as heterosexual couples demonstrated just how deeply we have internalized domestic gender roles. It is likely that these lesbigay people have internalized these ideas about domesticity and gender roles from their parents, since their parents were of the generation where that ideology prevailed. They revert back to the homemaker-breadwinner model even though they are both of the same gender. It would be interesting to see if these lesbigay couple’s children have the same notions about the division of household labor (that there is a domestic one and an earner one) and how it lines up to gender. If they do, despite being raised in a relatively egalitarian household, then it may warrant further investigation. Though, I don’t personally see how a household could get by without one partner being a little more domestic, though I understand the author’s point that it often perpetuates pseudo-gender stereotypes.
In “Doing Housework,” DerVault describes housework, particularly feeding, as something different than paid work. She explains that the process of meal-planning and meal-making is very involved, and is often looked upon as a labor of love. The meal-maker, usually the woman, tends to be deferent to other family members’ needs, tailoring it to their tastes and schedules and maybe even forgoing food her own food. DerVault ‘s purpose was to show that housework is complicated, necessary, and symbolic, not the busywork it is often portrayed as.
This article called attention to the hard work that goes into housework. So often, full-time workers see themselves as working “harder” than homemakers. This article proves that “hard” is such a relative distinction, it is difficult to really say who puts more effort into their respective tasks. I think that full-time workers may feel they work harder because they have less flexibility and less control over their workplace than homemakers. But, homemakers actually have to keep a lot of “rules” (albeit informal ones) in mind when they work to do things like create meals. This article just goes to show how housework is something different than paid work, so it is very difficult to compare.
Hocschild’s “Joey’s Problem” follows a married couple, Nancy and Evan. The author pays particular attention to how they divide the household labor and what impact it has on their family life. Even though Nancy considers herself a feminist, she still finds herself working the dreaded “second shift”. She resented Evan for his lack of assistance with household tasks, but convinced herself that everything was fair (since Evan took care of the garage and therefore the upstairs was her domain). Their different expectations surrounding gender roles took a toll on their marriage, however. They are a prime example of the “stalled revolution” in household work.
The story of Nancy and Evan was very vividly relayed. It was quite refreshing to see how these gender-division issues play out in real life, not just from a statistical perspective. One thing that stuck out in my mind was how the author brought up Nancy and Evan’s relationships with their mothers as the most influential reason behind their respective views about housework (and their respective neuroses). As we have discussed in class, our culture today relies heavily on psychological theories that “blame the parent” for people’s problems. It is the go-to explanation for almost every personality problem. Since the mother is the parent that is more commonly considered the culprit, women feel even more pressure to intensively mother their children. This perpetuates the system of domesticity by keeping women feeling like they should be putting the most work into being the main caregiver.
In “Autonomy, Dependence, or Display?”, Gupta looks at the relationship between married women’s income and the amount of household work they do. He critiques the two existing explanations of the lack of correlation between women’s income and the division of labor: that wives are economically dependent on their husbands so feel obligated to do work for them, or that high-earning women feel the need to keep up on housework to confirm their femininity to themselves and their husbands. His study determined that women act as free economic agents based on their own income, and that higher earnings matter little in explaining the labor division.
I was rather confused by this article. I did not quite understand how Gupta used the point that there is little correlation between women’s income and household work to conclude that women are free economic agents based on their income. But, regardless, his critique of the two theories about labor-inequality was interesting. In my own personal life, I could see how the theory about doing housework to assert femininity could be legitimate. Women (my two student-athlete friends included) often do things here at college like bake cookies or clean the house and then say light-heartedly “I just wanted to feel all housewifey”. I know that these girls compete in college athletics, so often are insecure about being perceived as “girly” enough. Consequently, they overcompensate by doing ‘traditionally’ female things, like putting on lots of makeup after practice or baking things. A high-powered career can be considered similar to athletics in the sense that neither is considered an overwhelmingly “female” realm. So I imagine that women in both realms use similar coping mechanisms.
Carrington’s “Domesticity and the Political Economy of Lesbigay Families” consisted of personal interviews with lesbigay couples and the analysis of their household labor dynamics. Like many heterosexual couples, gay couples subscribe to the myth that everything is, and should be, egalitarian. But most modern relationships consist of a partner who is more domestically geared and one who is better described as a “breadwinner”. In lesbigay couples, the partner who has the less intensive (read: more ‘feminine”) job often shoulders more domestic responsibility. Carrington makes the point that lesbigay couples often find themselves falling into traditional domestic gender-roles.
The examples Carrington used of lesbigay couples struggling with the same issues as heterosexual couples demonstrated just how deeply we have internalized domestic gender roles. It is likely that these lesbigay people have internalized these ideas about domesticity and gender roles from their parents, since their parents were of the generation where that ideology prevailed. They revert back to the homemaker-breadwinner model even though they are both of the same gender. It would be interesting to see if these lesbigay couple’s children have the same notions about the division of household labor (that there is a domestic one and an earner one) and how it lines up to gender. If they do, despite being raised in a relatively egalitarian household, then it may warrant further investigation. Though, I don’t personally see how a household could get by without one partner being a little more domestic, though I understand the author’s point that it often perpetuates pseudo-gender stereotypes.
In “Doing Housework,” DerVault describes housework, particularly feeding, as something different than paid work. She explains that the process of meal-planning and meal-making is very involved, and is often looked upon as a labor of love. The meal-maker, usually the woman, tends to be deferent to other family members’ needs, tailoring it to their tastes and schedules and maybe even forgoing food her own food. DerVault ‘s purpose was to show that housework is complicated, necessary, and symbolic, not the busywork it is often portrayed as.
This article called attention to the hard work that goes into housework. So often, full-time workers see themselves as working “harder” than homemakers. This article proves that “hard” is such a relative distinction, it is difficult to really say who puts more effort into their respective tasks. I think that full-time workers may feel they work harder because they have less flexibility and less control over their workplace than homemakers. But, homemakers actually have to keep a lot of “rules” (albeit informal ones) in mind when they work to do things like create meals. This article just goes to show how housework is something different than paid work, so it is very difficult to compare.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Work and Family Response 5
In her article, Frances Goldsheider determined that household tasks are gender-differentiated, and hence perpetuate the unequal division of labor between men and women. Though kids don’t do that many chores, older children tend to get more involved in household work. Teenage girls take on a lot more than boys, though teenage boys do a substantial amount if they live with a single mother. Tasks are generally allocated based on traditional gender roles (girls do laundry, boys do yardwork), though boys with single mothers learn how to do traditionally female tasks as well. Interestingly, both boys and girls living with stepfathers do more work than their two-parent counterparts.
Ellen Galinsky asked children what they thought about their mothers working. She hoped to add children’s input to some of the current debates surrounding this issue. She concluded that most children don’t mind their mothers working. Kids want to spend more time with their fathers. Child care is good for kids, unless it is low-quality. Also, she determined that kids would rather spend fewer hours with their parents if they are not stressed and tired than spend more time with grouchy parents. She said that we as a society should help mother find a middle ground, since working and parenting does not have to be an “either-or” situation. She also thinks it is vital to get kids’ input on these types of issues.
In “How to Succeed in Childhood”, Judith Harris questions whether the emphasis on parents modeling and instilling values is really necessary. She says that a “successful” child is really just learning what different behaviors they need to adopt to be accepted at home or at school or with their peers. She argues that most socialization occurs with peers, and that children’s groups/cliques are how they truly learn their own identity. The purpose of her article, she says, is to take some of the burden off parents.
Zelizer traces the changing notions of children’s economic usefulness. She outlines some of the current debates going on about whether children should work, and whether it should be for pay. The image of the child as “priceless” is changing, as people see t hem as obstacles to career success or encourage them to act like adults too early. Also, as more mothers work outside the home, it is becoming more necessary for kids to help out around the house. Consequently, people argue that children should do more work in the home, though there is debate over whether they should be paid. She points out that attitudes about children’s money will have to change if they begin to take a larger part in work, whether in our outside the home.
I liked the Goldsheider and Galinsky articles because they provided a factual (statistical) background to the debates around these issues. Though surveys don’t tell the whole story, they help set up the framework for studying topics further. Both articles also resonated with me because of my own personal history. When Galinsky stated that children would rather spend less time with their parents if it meant that they were less stressed and tired, I was reminded that I often felt like that as a child. Both my parents worked very long hours, and would often be grouchy and exhausted on weeknights. I remember thinking that I would rather only see them on weekends, because that is when they were happy and we had fun. Also, I agree with Goldsheider that tasks are gender-differentiated. While this may sometimes be appropriate (like if teenage boys lift heavy objects instead of girls), it doesn’t have to be as divided as it is. I have noticed that many males in my generation do know how to do “feminine” household tasks, especially if their parents were egalitarian/progressive, but most still are a little shaky. In fact, many girls are shaky on them too. As Zelizer reiterates, people our age, on average, did not grow up doing that many household chores. If we did, they were pretty light ones. As Zelizer implied, this is rather counterintuitive. Since our mothers are working and our parents have less time than ever before to do housework, wouldn’t it make sense that children helped out more? However, our notion that childhood is a time for play and study, not work, prevents parents from delegating too many tasks to their children. It is almost as if parents want children to spend time preparing for the workforce so that they will be so successful they will not need to do their own housework. Housework is becoming less and less valued, so now kids are being taught that it is something that they should avoid. But, Harris would argue, it is not what parents are teaching their kids about the value of housework that will shape their attitudes about it, but rather their peer groups.
Ellen Galinsky asked children what they thought about their mothers working. She hoped to add children’s input to some of the current debates surrounding this issue. She concluded that most children don’t mind their mothers working. Kids want to spend more time with their fathers. Child care is good for kids, unless it is low-quality. Also, she determined that kids would rather spend fewer hours with their parents if they are not stressed and tired than spend more time with grouchy parents. She said that we as a society should help mother find a middle ground, since working and parenting does not have to be an “either-or” situation. She also thinks it is vital to get kids’ input on these types of issues.
In “How to Succeed in Childhood”, Judith Harris questions whether the emphasis on parents modeling and instilling values is really necessary. She says that a “successful” child is really just learning what different behaviors they need to adopt to be accepted at home or at school or with their peers. She argues that most socialization occurs with peers, and that children’s groups/cliques are how they truly learn their own identity. The purpose of her article, she says, is to take some of the burden off parents.
Zelizer traces the changing notions of children’s economic usefulness. She outlines some of the current debates going on about whether children should work, and whether it should be for pay. The image of the child as “priceless” is changing, as people see t hem as obstacles to career success or encourage them to act like adults too early. Also, as more mothers work outside the home, it is becoming more necessary for kids to help out around the house. Consequently, people argue that children should do more work in the home, though there is debate over whether they should be paid. She points out that attitudes about children’s money will have to change if they begin to take a larger part in work, whether in our outside the home.
I liked the Goldsheider and Galinsky articles because they provided a factual (statistical) background to the debates around these issues. Though surveys don’t tell the whole story, they help set up the framework for studying topics further. Both articles also resonated with me because of my own personal history. When Galinsky stated that children would rather spend less time with their parents if it meant that they were less stressed and tired, I was reminded that I often felt like that as a child. Both my parents worked very long hours, and would often be grouchy and exhausted on weeknights. I remember thinking that I would rather only see them on weekends, because that is when they were happy and we had fun. Also, I agree with Goldsheider that tasks are gender-differentiated. While this may sometimes be appropriate (like if teenage boys lift heavy objects instead of girls), it doesn’t have to be as divided as it is. I have noticed that many males in my generation do know how to do “feminine” household tasks, especially if their parents were egalitarian/progressive, but most still are a little shaky. In fact, many girls are shaky on them too. As Zelizer reiterates, people our age, on average, did not grow up doing that many household chores. If we did, they were pretty light ones. As Zelizer implied, this is rather counterintuitive. Since our mothers are working and our parents have less time than ever before to do housework, wouldn’t it make sense that children helped out more? However, our notion that childhood is a time for play and study, not work, prevents parents from delegating too many tasks to their children. It is almost as if parents want children to spend time preparing for the workforce so that they will be so successful they will not need to do their own housework. Housework is becoming less and less valued, so now kids are being taught that it is something that they should avoid. But, Harris would argue, it is not what parents are teaching their kids about the value of housework that will shape their attitudes about it, but rather their peer groups.
Friday, October 2, 2009
work and family response 4
The Deutsch article talks about working-class couples who work on alternating shifts to avoid placing children in daycare. While the mothers are at work, many fathers have to take over the role of “Mr. Mom.” This goes against traditional notions of gender roles. Though these people, especially the men, cling to the values of the breadwinner system, their financial situations don’t allow them to live that way. Without aspiring to, these couples have adopted a more egalitarian division of labor, even when still subscribing to old-fashioned ideas of father as earner and mother as care-taker. She determines that many of these Mr. Moms would revert to traditional roles if they could afford it, though many of the wives enjoy having careers.
Dorothy Roberts argues that, contrary to popular belief, the poverty of black children is caused by racial oppression, not by their fathers being absent. Fatherlessness is a convenient excuse that dominant whites use to explain why many black families are living in poverty (it puts the onus on the black people themselves, not the system, for their troubles. She also speaks out against the policy of collecting child support for poor children in lieu of providing them welfare; since many black men are unemployed, their children would have more money coming to them if they received public assistance. People are so quick to judge the black family system as dysfunctional, she believes, since it is in contrast to the dominant white patriarchal image of a good father as a “married breadwinner.” (p. 152)
In Chapters 1 and 9 of No Man’s Land, Kathleen Gerson emphasizes that the modern reality that most men live does not match the dominant breadwinner image. Since women’s place has changed so much in recent decades, men find themselves redefining their roles too. Loss of men’s economic entitlement, the employment of women, and changes in family patterns have led to questions about what constitutes masculinity these days. If a man doesn’t necessarily run the house and win the bread, what does he do? Gerson’s research suggests that, though some men cling to the vestiges of patriarchy, many are abandoning the breadwinner system that they grew up in. A new image of father/husband as emotionally and practically involved in the family is emerging, albeit slowly.
I was glad that we did a chapter on men and fatherhood. Oftentimes, sociological literature concentrates on women’s issues. Though the study of women’s role in society is undeniably important, social changes affect men’s lives too. And since men’s lives are intertwined with those of women and children, it is a good idea to know how they as a gender are faring.
The Deutsch and Gerson articles talked about the changing roles of fathers, and to what extent they cling to or abandon the values of the breadwinner system. I think that 100 years from now, people in a history class are going to read their articles as primary sources, to learn about how things were back when we were making the transition from the “old” breadwinner system to the “new” egalitarian system. I think we are in the midst of a major sea change. As the economy changes, a new definition of family is emerging, along with entirely new gender roles. As the articles discuss, even people who want to cling to the traditional breadwinner family-organization are being forced to accept a more egalitarian way of life. Since children are being raised with their parents having a more egalitarian relationship, they will likely go onto model that when they start their own families. Many more children may even elect to remain unmarried, since divorce and nonmarraige among their parents today is so common. Roberts’ article also touched upon this generational influence: many black fathers are comfortable raising their children in “nontraditional” family units because that is how they were raised. Though none of these authors (except Roberts) explicitly call for policy reform, these articles demonstrate that the notion of the “proper” family is changing. So, policies are going to have to change with it.
Dorothy Roberts argues that, contrary to popular belief, the poverty of black children is caused by racial oppression, not by their fathers being absent. Fatherlessness is a convenient excuse that dominant whites use to explain why many black families are living in poverty (it puts the onus on the black people themselves, not the system, for their troubles. She also speaks out against the policy of collecting child support for poor children in lieu of providing them welfare; since many black men are unemployed, their children would have more money coming to them if they received public assistance. People are so quick to judge the black family system as dysfunctional, she believes, since it is in contrast to the dominant white patriarchal image of a good father as a “married breadwinner.” (p. 152)
In Chapters 1 and 9 of No Man’s Land, Kathleen Gerson emphasizes that the modern reality that most men live does not match the dominant breadwinner image. Since women’s place has changed so much in recent decades, men find themselves redefining their roles too. Loss of men’s economic entitlement, the employment of women, and changes in family patterns have led to questions about what constitutes masculinity these days. If a man doesn’t necessarily run the house and win the bread, what does he do? Gerson’s research suggests that, though some men cling to the vestiges of patriarchy, many are abandoning the breadwinner system that they grew up in. A new image of father/husband as emotionally and practically involved in the family is emerging, albeit slowly.
I was glad that we did a chapter on men and fatherhood. Oftentimes, sociological literature concentrates on women’s issues. Though the study of women’s role in society is undeniably important, social changes affect men’s lives too. And since men’s lives are intertwined with those of women and children, it is a good idea to know how they as a gender are faring.
The Deutsch and Gerson articles talked about the changing roles of fathers, and to what extent they cling to or abandon the values of the breadwinner system. I think that 100 years from now, people in a history class are going to read their articles as primary sources, to learn about how things were back when we were making the transition from the “old” breadwinner system to the “new” egalitarian system. I think we are in the midst of a major sea change. As the economy changes, a new definition of family is emerging, along with entirely new gender roles. As the articles discuss, even people who want to cling to the traditional breadwinner family-organization are being forced to accept a more egalitarian way of life. Since children are being raised with their parents having a more egalitarian relationship, they will likely go onto model that when they start their own families. Many more children may even elect to remain unmarried, since divorce and nonmarraige among their parents today is so common. Roberts’ article also touched upon this generational influence: many black fathers are comfortable raising their children in “nontraditional” family units because that is how they were raised. Though none of these authors (except Roberts) explicitly call for policy reform, these articles demonstrate that the notion of the “proper” family is changing. So, policies are going to have to change with it.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
response 3
Crittendon’s “The Price of Motherhood” discusses the ambivalence Americans have towards motherhood: it is glorified as the most important job in the world, yet it is still considered a non-productive, immaterial job. In our culture, work is that which produces capital. Since motherhood produces human capital (good workers and consumers for the future), she argues that mothers should get more concrete benefits. She suggests changing policies to reward mothers for their work by granting them income support (treating stay-at-home mothering like any other job) and not denying them benefits because they don’t hold a paying job. She says we should avoid “free-riding” on their labor.
The Budig article was a rather technical analysis of several studies on the wage penalty that seems to affect mothers. According to the article, mothers may take a earnings cut because they lose job experience, are less productive at work, take lower-paying jobs if they are more mother-friendly, or are discriminated against by employers. The conclusion was that mothers, especially married ones, take a 2/3 wage penalty, and earn less with each child. The article proposed the collectivization of child-care (everyone pays into it) as a solution to this problem.
The Budig and Crittendon articles brought up a similar point: American society puts mothers in a real bind. Women still feel like they as mothers should still be the main caregiver, and they feel responsible for creating the workers/people of the future. Yet they now must holdfull-time jobs at the same time. As of right now, a woman can’t give both tasks her all, even though they feel like they should. I agree will both authors suggestions that society give mothers more support by providing them with monetary benefits (like the English parental stipend, which gives parents a sum of money to help with childcare or expenses) and employers should make work more flexible to accommodate people’s family responsibilities. The collectivization of childcare seems like a good idea, especially if the state made it a priority to have quality child care. But Crittendon’s discussion of how mothers have the job of raising human capital so should be rewarded as if they did another job made me kind of sad; it just goes to show how capitalism and its emphasis on production, consumption, and efficiency has become more than just an economic system. It infiltrates how we view the individual as a person and hence how we set up our families. I guess that family and the economic system are always closely intertwined. It just seems sad that people value mothers for their ability to produce workers and consumers, and that it is so clearly all about the dollar bill.
The Rothman article was an interesting essay on how the patriarchal system and its emphasis on the genetic “seed” producing the child and the father owning “his” child has influenced our current notions of parenthood. Now that women are become more equal in status to men, they have adopted this notion of providing the seed to produce their “own” child. Women are gaining freedom, though still under the context of a male-created system of power and worldview. But with new reproductive technologies, like surrogate mothers and test tube fertilization, it is hard to determine who a child “belongs” to. Is it the genetic parent, or the person who raises and loves it? Nannies are the new mother in the sense that they are powerless and devalued, despite their responsibility. She suggests a new way of looking at childcare, that whoever is minding the child is not a replacement for a parent, but a parent in themselves and therefore has rights.
“Black Women and Motherhood” argues that, despite the glorification of the self-sacrificing mother by the black community (especially men), motherhood is still oppressive for black women in many respects. She discusses five themes that have persisted throughout the history of African-American mothering: women-centered kin networks and “othermothers” have always been responsible for childcare; mothers had to socialize daughters for survival, even if it meant teaching them to degrade themselves; the language of motherhood and family has been used in political activism; motherhood had been a symbol of power in the community; motherhood both empowers and oppresses black women, often because they have to mother in such terrible conditions. The author thinks that the verbal affirmations of mothers by their children are good, but they must be given more actual support by men and society at-large.
I found this article quite informative. It is rare that the literature about feminism and family issues explicitly addresses cultural differences. Many articles mention cultural differences, but most do not concentrate exclusively on minority culture unless they are comparing it to the mainstream. It is important to acknowledge that other cultures, such as African Americans, can have totally different ideas and experiences of mothering, even though they mother in a culture that has very different notions. Understanding how a culture does something so essential as mothering/parenting is helpful because policymakers hopefully will take the differences into account when designing plans. It is always a shame when a policy doesn’t take into account how a group of people traditionally do things, like the system of “othermothering”, so they essentially force the minority to conform to their notions of how things should be. For example, the othermothering structure may begin to dissipate because it is not legally recognized as a parent-child relationship. This connects to what Rothman brings up about our society’s emphasis on genetic parentage. Though I think her theory was at times extreme (she seemed to be stretching the facts a little bit to fit the ideology), it was certainly an interesting take on our current notions of parenthood and how it connects to the patriarchal system. I can think of a lot of examples of how women becoming equal means taking on traditionally masculine roles (such as taking on “masculine” traits in the workplace). If you looked at everything through a gender-power lens, it makes sense that now hired nannies are equivalent to “mothers”, the powerless ones. But I do think there is something to be said for the instinctual connection that exists between genetic parent and child. To my knowledge, no society exists where the raising of children is completely collectivized such that nobody cares who is genetically related to whom. I think a society like that would go against our basic biology, though I agree that things are changing. As more and more families are organized in ways other than genetically, policy must change to recognize these relationships. People are starting to be more open to the group-raising of children. But I don’t think genetics will or should seize to matter at all, like she seems to suggest.
The Budig article was a rather technical analysis of several studies on the wage penalty that seems to affect mothers. According to the article, mothers may take a earnings cut because they lose job experience, are less productive at work, take lower-paying jobs if they are more mother-friendly, or are discriminated against by employers. The conclusion was that mothers, especially married ones, take a 2/3 wage penalty, and earn less with each child. The article proposed the collectivization of child-care (everyone pays into it) as a solution to this problem.
The Budig and Crittendon articles brought up a similar point: American society puts mothers in a real bind. Women still feel like they as mothers should still be the main caregiver, and they feel responsible for creating the workers/people of the future. Yet they now must holdfull-time jobs at the same time. As of right now, a woman can’t give both tasks her all, even though they feel like they should. I agree will both authors suggestions that society give mothers more support by providing them with monetary benefits (like the English parental stipend, which gives parents a sum of money to help with childcare or expenses) and employers should make work more flexible to accommodate people’s family responsibilities. The collectivization of childcare seems like a good idea, especially if the state made it a priority to have quality child care. But Crittendon’s discussion of how mothers have the job of raising human capital so should be rewarded as if they did another job made me kind of sad; it just goes to show how capitalism and its emphasis on production, consumption, and efficiency has become more than just an economic system. It infiltrates how we view the individual as a person and hence how we set up our families. I guess that family and the economic system are always closely intertwined. It just seems sad that people value mothers for their ability to produce workers and consumers, and that it is so clearly all about the dollar bill.
The Rothman article was an interesting essay on how the patriarchal system and its emphasis on the genetic “seed” producing the child and the father owning “his” child has influenced our current notions of parenthood. Now that women are become more equal in status to men, they have adopted this notion of providing the seed to produce their “own” child. Women are gaining freedom, though still under the context of a male-created system of power and worldview. But with new reproductive technologies, like surrogate mothers and test tube fertilization, it is hard to determine who a child “belongs” to. Is it the genetic parent, or the person who raises and loves it? Nannies are the new mother in the sense that they are powerless and devalued, despite their responsibility. She suggests a new way of looking at childcare, that whoever is minding the child is not a replacement for a parent, but a parent in themselves and therefore has rights.
“Black Women and Motherhood” argues that, despite the glorification of the self-sacrificing mother by the black community (especially men), motherhood is still oppressive for black women in many respects. She discusses five themes that have persisted throughout the history of African-American mothering: women-centered kin networks and “othermothers” have always been responsible for childcare; mothers had to socialize daughters for survival, even if it meant teaching them to degrade themselves; the language of motherhood and family has been used in political activism; motherhood had been a symbol of power in the community; motherhood both empowers and oppresses black women, often because they have to mother in such terrible conditions. The author thinks that the verbal affirmations of mothers by their children are good, but they must be given more actual support by men and society at-large.
I found this article quite informative. It is rare that the literature about feminism and family issues explicitly addresses cultural differences. Many articles mention cultural differences, but most do not concentrate exclusively on minority culture unless they are comparing it to the mainstream. It is important to acknowledge that other cultures, such as African Americans, can have totally different ideas and experiences of mothering, even though they mother in a culture that has very different notions. Understanding how a culture does something so essential as mothering/parenting is helpful because policymakers hopefully will take the differences into account when designing plans. It is always a shame when a policy doesn’t take into account how a group of people traditionally do things, like the system of “othermothering”, so they essentially force the minority to conform to their notions of how things should be. For example, the othermothering structure may begin to dissipate because it is not legally recognized as a parent-child relationship. This connects to what Rothman brings up about our society’s emphasis on genetic parentage. Though I think her theory was at times extreme (she seemed to be stretching the facts a little bit to fit the ideology), it was certainly an interesting take on our current notions of parenthood and how it connects to the patriarchal system. I can think of a lot of examples of how women becoming equal means taking on traditionally masculine roles (such as taking on “masculine” traits in the workplace). If you looked at everything through a gender-power lens, it makes sense that now hired nannies are equivalent to “mothers”, the powerless ones. But I do think there is something to be said for the instinctual connection that exists between genetic parent and child. To my knowledge, no society exists where the raising of children is completely collectivized such that nobody cares who is genetically related to whom. I think a society like that would go against our basic biology, though I agree that things are changing. As more and more families are organized in ways other than genetically, policy must change to recognize these relationships. People are starting to be more open to the group-raising of children. But I don’t think genetics will or should seize to matter at all, like she seems to suggest.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
blog 2
The selections from Joan Williams’ “Unbending Gender” discuss the rise of “domesticity” and the “breadwinner system.” Domesticity (work and home are both physically and characteristically separate) is the prevailing system in the U.S. today. The rhetoric has three main tenets: employers have a right to “ideal” workers who will not be compromised by family responsibilities, men are required to be full-time ideal workers, and mothers should be fully available to tend to the physical and emotional needs of their children. Williams argues that it caused, and now perpetuates, many of the gender problems that exist today, since only full-time workers who can give their all to the job (usually men) are considered valuable and successful. Women now have to work outside the home, but also feel they should be there for their kids. They are presented with a “choice”: be either a worker or a mom. But, most have to be both. Williams thinks that this system hurts all members of the family by stretching them too thin and restricting them to roles that might not be the best for their particular situation.
I had never heard our current work/family system referred to as “domesticity.” But I am glad that there is a name for it. I definitely agree with William’s argument that this system of domesticity, with its sharp distinction between work and home, hurts all members of the family. It puts so much pressure on both genders to stick to their role and stick to it well: men have to work 40+ hours a week, women have to have parenting as their main concern, even if they are working an additional job. Many men are all but excluded from parenting, and many women are all but excluded from workplace success. Why can’t both genders take part in both the economic and domestic sides of life? As Williams points out, it is not as if this breadwinner system is the “natural” way to go about things. For centuries, work and home were intertwined, with both men and women sharing the burdens of raising and supporting a family. Now masculinity is associated with being a workaholic at your job. As women strive to gain equality in the workplace, many have adopted these workaholic traits to be taken seriously at their professions. At the same time they are expected to give their job 100%, they are expected to give their family 100%. The math just doesn’t work out. At some point, I would like to read the rest of Williams’ book to see what alternatives she offers to this clearly flawed system of domesticity.
In “From Rods to Reason,” Sharon Hays traces the historical development of attitudes towards child-rearing. She focuses mainly on middle-class white families, but acknowledges the differences among working-class and other ethnic populations. Throughout the article, she uses a “shepherd, sheepdog, sheep” metaphor to illustrate the roles of the father, mother, and children (respectively). Parenting styles transformed throughout the centuries as attitudes towards childhood changed and the breadwinner system came into prominence (mother’s took over almost all of the child-rearing). She follows these developments through to today, where the permissive style dominates and parents look to experts like Doctor Spock to tell them how to raise their child properly.
“American Fathering from a Historical Perspective” by Joseph Pleck follows the changing role of fathers in the family throughout the decades. Up until the 19th century, the father was the “moral overseer” of the family and was responsible for guiding the children and wife in worldly affairs. From the early 19th to the mid-20th centuries, when work and home spheres became separate, the father became the “distant breadwinner” who earned the money but spent little time with the children. During this phase, the father also became idealized as the model of masculinity for his children, teaching his sons how to be men. Today, the breadwinner model still dominates, though Pleck acknowledges that a “New Father” is emerging, who involves himself more with the day-to-day aspects of childrearing.
Like the other authors we read this week, Sharon Hays and Joseph Pleck laid a great historical groundwork for the study of work and family. The history of work/family issues isn’t just interesting to learn about; it helps us better understand what is going on today. As they both demonstrated in their articles, styles of parenting and running families have changed pretty drastically in the last few centuries. They can be broken down into distinct stages. But these stages didn’t just happen out of nowhere. As with most social trends, they developed on top of one another. For example, the “new father” of today, with his involved style of parenting, is a direct reaction to the breadwinner system. Many men did not like how absent their workaholic fathers were when they were young, so now they are very present in their children’s lives. The passive parenting method, which dictates that children should be allowed to develop relatively unhindered by parental restrictions, didn’t just show up out of nowhere. As Hays said, parents have been getting gradually less authoritarian ever since the 17th century, when the notion of the child as an innocent came into fashion. When studying today’s society, it is so helpful to look at in historical context, to better understand where we are today. Also, I liked how both Hays and Pleck acknowledged that the childrearing trends varied (and still vary) between classes and ethnic groups.
I had never heard our current work/family system referred to as “domesticity.” But I am glad that there is a name for it. I definitely agree with William’s argument that this system of domesticity, with its sharp distinction between work and home, hurts all members of the family. It puts so much pressure on both genders to stick to their role and stick to it well: men have to work 40+ hours a week, women have to have parenting as their main concern, even if they are working an additional job. Many men are all but excluded from parenting, and many women are all but excluded from workplace success. Why can’t both genders take part in both the economic and domestic sides of life? As Williams points out, it is not as if this breadwinner system is the “natural” way to go about things. For centuries, work and home were intertwined, with both men and women sharing the burdens of raising and supporting a family. Now masculinity is associated with being a workaholic at your job. As women strive to gain equality in the workplace, many have adopted these workaholic traits to be taken seriously at their professions. At the same time they are expected to give their job 100%, they are expected to give their family 100%. The math just doesn’t work out. At some point, I would like to read the rest of Williams’ book to see what alternatives she offers to this clearly flawed system of domesticity.
In “From Rods to Reason,” Sharon Hays traces the historical development of attitudes towards child-rearing. She focuses mainly on middle-class white families, but acknowledges the differences among working-class and other ethnic populations. Throughout the article, she uses a “shepherd, sheepdog, sheep” metaphor to illustrate the roles of the father, mother, and children (respectively). Parenting styles transformed throughout the centuries as attitudes towards childhood changed and the breadwinner system came into prominence (mother’s took over almost all of the child-rearing). She follows these developments through to today, where the permissive style dominates and parents look to experts like Doctor Spock to tell them how to raise their child properly.
“American Fathering from a Historical Perspective” by Joseph Pleck follows the changing role of fathers in the family throughout the decades. Up until the 19th century, the father was the “moral overseer” of the family and was responsible for guiding the children and wife in worldly affairs. From the early 19th to the mid-20th centuries, when work and home spheres became separate, the father became the “distant breadwinner” who earned the money but spent little time with the children. During this phase, the father also became idealized as the model of masculinity for his children, teaching his sons how to be men. Today, the breadwinner model still dominates, though Pleck acknowledges that a “New Father” is emerging, who involves himself more with the day-to-day aspects of childrearing.
Like the other authors we read this week, Sharon Hays and Joseph Pleck laid a great historical groundwork for the study of work and family. The history of work/family issues isn’t just interesting to learn about; it helps us better understand what is going on today. As they both demonstrated in their articles, styles of parenting and running families have changed pretty drastically in the last few centuries. They can be broken down into distinct stages. But these stages didn’t just happen out of nowhere. As with most social trends, they developed on top of one another. For example, the “new father” of today, with his involved style of parenting, is a direct reaction to the breadwinner system. Many men did not like how absent their workaholic fathers were when they were young, so now they are very present in their children’s lives. The passive parenting method, which dictates that children should be allowed to develop relatively unhindered by parental restrictions, didn’t just show up out of nowhere. As Hays said, parents have been getting gradually less authoritarian ever since the 17th century, when the notion of the child as an innocent came into fashion. When studying today’s society, it is so helpful to look at in historical context, to better understand where we are today. Also, I liked how both Hays and Pleck acknowledged that the childrearing trends varied (and still vary) between classes and ethnic groups.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Historical Perspectives
Chapter 4 of Feminism, Children, and the New Families begins by stating a well-known fact: married American women under the age of 60 are entering the workforce at higher and higher rates and will likely match the rates of working husbands soon. The author attributes this shift in part to the physical separation of the home and work spheres that occurred during the Industrial Revolution, breaking down the true division of labor between husband and wife. In its place, the “breadwinner” system emerged, where the husband goes out to earn money and the wife tends to domestic chores and childrearing. This system became deeply embedded in our culture and laws, until recently, when women began to leave the home to take outside employment. Postponed marriage (to avoid financial burden of supporting a stay-at-home wife), couples having less children (women had time to work), and people living longer (women had many years after their kids left home to work) all contributed to the disintegration of the breadwinner. The article then goes on to predict that law and morality will change to facilitate a greater connection between work and family, counter-acting the jarring separation that exists between the two today.
Chapter 2 of From Marriage to the Market addresses many of the same topics as the previous article, though it discusses African-American women’s experiences as well as whites’. Susan Thistle talks about the gradual disappearance of support for women’s domestic labor. During the late 19th century and early 20th, women were kept at home to do all the chores, which were very time consuming, while men went out of the home to earn wages. As women entered the workforce, employers used the excuse that they had to do all the chores in addition to work (which would prevent them from giving their full attention to the job) to avoid paying them full wages. Many white women avoided having to enter the workforce, but countless black women became responsible for both paid and domestic work. Though the breadwinner system persisted, the fundamental gender roles and tasks that kept it together were starting to fall apart.
Having set the stage, Thistle then goes on in Chapter 3 to talk about why married women entered the workforce in droves in the second half of the 20th century. Basically, she attributes it to the fact that domestic chores became easier, thanks to new technologies and the fact that women lives many years after their children left the house. Since women didn’t have to be working at chores all day, their husbands (and the state) did not want to have to support them sitting at home. Coupled with a growing sense of dissatisfaction with domestic life, since many of them were now educated, women got outside work. This shift had major implications for marriage and family life, as well as family law and the economy.
Though I found the Feminism article informative (I especially like how the authors pointed out that the breadwinner is not actually “traditional” as it is usually considered), I preferred the Thistle chapters. The Feminism article did a great job of discussing how the egalitarian system both reflected and influenced the changes in family/work patterns in the 20th century, but Thistle got a little more in-depth in her analysis. She approached a commonly-discussed issue from a different perspective: usually women’s entering the workforce is attributed simply to their desire for equality. But Thistle talked about the practical reasons for getting jobs. It just didn’t make sense for women to stay home all day anymore. I also think it was helpful that she tied in women’s new economic independence into the changes in sex and birth control, as well as gender roles. Our generation is dealing right now with confusions over gender roles (for example, who pays on a date?), and these two articles did a good job of explaining the factors that led to these ambiguities. I am very interested to hear what experts are predicting for the future of the work-family connection and how gender roles will play into it.
Chapter 2 of From Marriage to the Market addresses many of the same topics as the previous article, though it discusses African-American women’s experiences as well as whites’. Susan Thistle talks about the gradual disappearance of support for women’s domestic labor. During the late 19th century and early 20th, women were kept at home to do all the chores, which were very time consuming, while men went out of the home to earn wages. As women entered the workforce, employers used the excuse that they had to do all the chores in addition to work (which would prevent them from giving their full attention to the job) to avoid paying them full wages. Many white women avoided having to enter the workforce, but countless black women became responsible for both paid and domestic work. Though the breadwinner system persisted, the fundamental gender roles and tasks that kept it together were starting to fall apart.
Having set the stage, Thistle then goes on in Chapter 3 to talk about why married women entered the workforce in droves in the second half of the 20th century. Basically, she attributes it to the fact that domestic chores became easier, thanks to new technologies and the fact that women lives many years after their children left the house. Since women didn’t have to be working at chores all day, their husbands (and the state) did not want to have to support them sitting at home. Coupled with a growing sense of dissatisfaction with domestic life, since many of them were now educated, women got outside work. This shift had major implications for marriage and family life, as well as family law and the economy.
Though I found the Feminism article informative (I especially like how the authors pointed out that the breadwinner is not actually “traditional” as it is usually considered), I preferred the Thistle chapters. The Feminism article did a great job of discussing how the egalitarian system both reflected and influenced the changes in family/work patterns in the 20th century, but Thistle got a little more in-depth in her analysis. She approached a commonly-discussed issue from a different perspective: usually women’s entering the workforce is attributed simply to their desire for equality. But Thistle talked about the practical reasons for getting jobs. It just didn’t make sense for women to stay home all day anymore. I also think it was helpful that she tied in women’s new economic independence into the changes in sex and birth control, as well as gender roles. Our generation is dealing right now with confusions over gender roles (for example, who pays on a date?), and these two articles did a good job of explaining the factors that led to these ambiguities. I am very interested to hear what experts are predicting for the future of the work-family connection and how gender roles will play into it.
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