Key Concepts for Who Should Work (Outside the Home)
UPDATED SINCE PRESENTATION******
Within the textbook, work is defined as 'how people in the culture gain purchasing power and the status that comes with that'.
The main argument of this
portion of Chapter 9 argues through a critical gendered lens directed at
organizational communication, work-family dilemmas that are prevalent in
today’s society is not to be blamed on ‘individual problems’ or ‘private
choices’. Rather, it blames the “social arrangements over which individual
women and men have only limited control.”
Rather than blaming
individuals, researchers should redirect their research towards “understanding
the larger social contexts to which personal choices and strategies are
crafted.”
As you read the section Who Should Work (Outside the Home) Is Gendered/Sexed within Chapter 9, begin to think about the cultural ideologies that exist within this definition of work. In the United states, people generally define work as paid work outside of the house.
When examining the cultural ideologies involved with who should work outside of the home, especially when we think about men and women who have children, we can then understand that these ideas are gendered/sexed.
"Working Mothers" are those women with young children who also work outside the home for a wage. You don't often hear people use the term "working father".
If you were to ask a mother
who doesn’t have an actual wage-paying job if she works, should she say yes?
-->Although child work is difficult and full time,
people do not think of it as work because it is not paid
It is expected that men
continue to work at wage labor after the birth of their children.
-While women who work outside
the home are criticized for placing their children in day care, poor women who
have had to rely on welfare if they remain home to care for young children are
considered bad mothers because they do not work.
-“The only women for whom
wage work is an unambivalently assigned social responsibility are welfare
mothers.”
-If you are a mother who
seeks assistance through government programs, then your are encouraged to work;
otherwise if you have other sources of economic stability, work is best
perceived as a ‘temporary indulgence’ or a ‘discouraged activity’.
-Judging women as either
“good mothers” or “bad mothers” through the cultural practice of defining women
as mothers first (or only), rather than as people forced to make difficult
decisions within cultural restraints, is a systematic problem that needs to be
addressed.
-When it comes to African
American women, this cultural expectation put on mothers is dismissive.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/353763.pdf
When reading the supplemental
reading, keep in mind the following:
This article talks about work/family as a balancing act and examines the differences on this concept between males and females.
-for men, imbalance is due to
longer work hours, perceived unfairness in sharing house work, marital
unhappiness and tradeoffs made at work or family at home for work
-for women, only marital
unhappiness and sacrifices at home are imbalancing, and for women who are
employed full-time young children are
-The most central challenge
in womens lives as we enter a new century is the balancing act and often
overwhelming demands of paid work and family commitments
-Using the gender perspective
(which focuses on gender as a hierarchal structure that infuses everyday
relations in the family and workplace), researchers examine and compare the
perceptions of balance and the factors that relate to successful balance
between men and women
-Suggests men and women have different role qualities-
actual and felt expectations and demands- and that womens demands are higher
overall
-Women’s location in the
social structure affords them less power and control in work/family aspects and
likely contributes to a greater total workload, more sacrifices, and difficulties
in balancing work and family
When examining this concept
of balancing work and family, research examines related areas of time use, role
harmony, and work/family tradeoffs
- shows that it is difficult to delegate
responsibilities to others (time spent on job may indicate commitment to it,
time spent with children/spouse may indicate commitment or love)
- the types of roles, as well
as the characteristics of those roles are important to consider in
understanding the balancing of work and family
-beliefs about the proper
balance and ones actual experience or distributions of paid and unpaid work and
quality or relations among role partners are different between men and women
-Particular roles and role
qualities that impact the feeling of successfully balancing work and family are
gendered.
Through the hierachal
structure of the gender perspective…….The structure of everyday relations and
cultural norms suggests that women having less power may lead to women making
greater sacrifices so that work-family life runs smoothly.
KEY TAKEAWAY FROM FACILITATION:
Cultural Ideologies > influence on individuals perceptions/decisions on who should work outside of the house
-Working mothers seen negatively because they aren't there for their children, the only mothers who are encouraged to work are ones who depend on the government for income.
Gender and the Work-Family as a 'balancing act'.
Perceptions of successful balancing work/family is different between men and women
Women have a > demand in task roles/expectations thus making them more susceptible to feeling unbalanced, stressed, or not satisfied
Women tend to make more sacrifices than men when it comes to helping men feel more balanced because of this gender hierarchy that views men of higher status than women
Based of these concepts,
think about these questions:
1) Do you think that these greater demands from women when balancing work/family will ever be resolved? If so, how do you think that this problem can be alleviated?
2) Think about your own perception of balancing work/family, do you think it differs from somebody of the opposite sex within your family? If so, where do you think these differences stem from?
3) From the video we watched in class, what ways does this accurately depict the life of a 'working mother' and what ways does is it inaccurate? Think of the different contextual features that can be included that would make it similar or different
