Career Choices for Women in Today's Society
Today's woman faces a myriad of opportunities. Will she climb the "career ladder" and reach for the same goals that were reserved only for men just a decade ago? Will she choose to stay home, raise her children, and care entirely for the needs of her husband and family? Or will she try to do both? For some women, the decision is simple. They feel that the woman's place is in the home, and would never even consider having a job away from the family. For others, the decision is complicated and they may have no choice but to work. This may be due to being a single mom or having a disabled husband. In order for the decision, "to work or not to work," to be a truly successful decision --one that will be good for the marriage, the family, and the mother-- it must be done according to God's principles, because using biblical ideals provides guidance in successful decisions.
Women in today's world have an infinite number of options when it comes to career choices. They can choose to work outside the home and perform the same jobs that were generally held by men only ten years ago. It is now much more common for women to work in the business world alongside men (Berg 17). They can also make the choice to work at home. Some women may choose to have a typing service or to do accounting out of their homes. Other women choose to make crafts and handmade items or to baby-sit for other mothers to make extra money. A woman can also choose not to work inside or outside the home for extra money, but only to take care of her family and do housework. It may depend on the energy and determination that a woman has as to whether she will be able to combine a career with a family. Whic...
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There was an article entitled why woman can’t have it all, and our readings that stated women struggle to both work and be a great mom. Kim is fortunate, being able to continue her job while working from home, so she is there to experience being a full time mom, but Kim also gets to work and make her own money as well. Kim’s family is a traditional family in a sense, with Aden’s father going to work daily away from the house, and his mom being home with him, but my aunt is working from home as well. Kim will be the first to tell you it is not easy being a great wife, mom, employee and keeping up the house chores, but she will also be the first to tell you how rewarding it is for her to balance all her hats. Comparing Kim to what we learned in class, she has many similarities and differences to our lectures. One example is how she spends more time on housework than her significant other, and also works which does not appear to affect her marital relationship or her child. Sometimes I can see role strain with her, especially when she gets busy at the end of the month, but she is great at balancing everything and doing what is important first, realizing her most important roles are mommy, wife, employee, and then homemaker. Kim sees the differences in genders, leaning towards the nature side of it, saying her son is all boy, but also sees the similarities between the genders as an
At what point does work life start interfering with family life to an extent that it becomes unacceptable? Is it when you don’t get to spend as much time with your family as you would like, or is it the point where you barely get to see your family due to long hours at work? Is it even possible to balance work with family life? Anne-Marie Slaughter, the author of “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All”, believes this balance is impossible to achieve in this day and age. In contrast, Richard Dorment, the author of “Why Men Still Can’t Have It All”, believes that there will never be a day when someone will have it all, certain sacrifices will always have to be made. Both of these articles are similar in the respect that they both examine balancing a demanding career with raising children. The two authors’ views on the subject differ greatly, especially regarding how gender roles have a significant impact on our society.
An argument has been raised that women have to be in charge of their home due to a man’s unwillingness to take over parenting responsibilities. That is quite beneficial to the women’s rights movement for the reason father’s helping a lot more time with children, building a stronger family relationship. Women have been subjected to fit into a certain image to suit society eyes for a long time, one of the main images being a stay at home mom nut they a capable of so much more. Females have more of a broader range of abilities than men do regardless of widespread idea that they are incapable of doing most activities.
College degrees, jobs, and income stream are all quantifiable items, however, a gauge on work-life balance, parenting abilities, and dedication at home cannot be measured by a number. In the past, men have been viewed as the backbone of the family. The typical day consists of getting up the earliest, going to work, coming home late at night, maybe missing out on trivial matters, but ultimately paying the bills. As time progresses, roles in households have shifted significantly. Now more than ever women are extremely active in the workforce, local communities, and politics. The obstacles faced by men and women are inherently different, but men seem to fall under an intensified microscope when it comes to intertwining family life with a career. Richard Dorment dives deep into these issues in his piece, "Why Men Still Can't Have It All." Although the argument may seem bias in favoring the rigorous lifestyle of men, the
Instead these life decisions are primarily influenced by an individual’s personal limits, beliefs, and morals. Though sexism and pay discrimination still exist there are so many regulations and penalties in place that such behavior has become very uncommon. Dorment creates a new scene where he asks women to not only take on the same sacrifices men past and present have all while realizing that men are doing the best that they can. I believe that this scenario created is key to realizing that women can only take on leadership roles or progress in their careers if they are willing to make sacrifices. They can’t expect special treatment or think that being successful doesn’t come with downsides when the thing they are fighting for is equality. According to the Pew Research Center 60 percent of two parent homes with children younger than eighteen consist of dual-earning couples. This study explicitly shows how men are no longer the sole provider, but instead that women are taking on careers while giving up the stay at home role. In addition, despite men typically spending a little less time at home than women it is become increasingly normal for the home work load to be more evenly divided in dual-earning households. As Richard Dorment mentions, this raises the question “Why does the achievement gap still exist?” Men and Women are increasingly splitting the home work load between each other yet men still appear to be achieving more in the workplace than women. Though the opportunities available to each are the same it is the personal motivation and limits that are resulting in the gap. Women value family time over work time greatly while men are much more willing to sacrifice personal time for work because they feel it is for the good of their family. The difference in personal importance is one factor that contributes to the gap and
Traditional gender roles in the United States and other societies have always been dictated as where the man goes and works for a salary as women stay at home to take of house related work. However, many changes in the traditional family has made gender roles go through significant changes. Many women have gone through college and have obtained college education degrees, which has allowed women to advance their careers. The break down of rigid gender roles and the increase in participation of women in the workplace have granted women more choices in life. The choices many women now have in there career fields has made some controversial views on the intelligence of women achieving the status of their male counterparts The first view obtained in the workplace is the ability to make a even paying field for both men and women. Many constituents have pledge to achieve equality for women through laws forbidding the use of any sexist policies that may constitute discrimination against sex. The second is weather working women have been allowed to working women have the same opportunities rewarded to them as men do. Many political action committees have help perpetuate feminist movements which intended to build equal opportunity workplaces for both men and women however, many questionable issues still arise at weather working conditions have become better for women.
The "glass ceiling" has held women back from certain positions and opportunities in the workplace. Women are stereotyped as part-time, lower-grade workers with limited opportunities for training and advancement because of this "glass ceiling". How have women managed their careers when confronted by this glass ceiling? It has been difficult; American women have struggled for their role in society since 1848. Women’s roles have changed significantly throughout the past centuries because of their willingness and persistence. Women have contributed to the change pace of their role in the workplace by showing motivation and perseverance.
All occupations in the workforce are categorized as jobs for women or jobs for men, but women have another option of not going into the workforce and being a stay at home parent since being a stay at home parent is not considered a job. Women are pushed towards staying home, having children and consequently taking care of those children, while men are expected to be the breadwinners even though "fewer than one in five married families with children fit the stereotype of Dad as breadwinner, Mom full-time at home" (Bravo, Santa Anna, Meric 179). Gender roles have not caught up with the reality of American households, which is that women are working, as they always have been. Female dominated fields are fields such as maids, food preparation, secretaries, and social workers whereas male dominated fields are fields such as business, computer science, and the medical field. There is a hierarchy related to the different fields of work and fields of work that are dominated by men are thought highly of. Every field of work and every job requires hard work, time and effort so "why does society value accountant more than social workers" (Bravo, Santa Anna, Meric 178). The dualistic thinking towards fields of work creates a hierarchy since, as Crawley, Foley and Shehan stated; there are rarely dualisms that are created equally. The hierarchy of these fields of work causes female
occupations” (“Women in the Labor Force in 2010”). The modern woman is free to make
Men are likely to get hired if they have children and tend to get paid more. In contrast, women are less likely to get hired even though they have more quality and children. This is when the gender inequality come in. In this article “The Motherhood Penalty vs. the Fatherhood Bonus” the author presented the role and the impact between the roles of the genders. Michelle Budig, a sociology professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst put it this way, “The inequality of gender role reveals when men get paid high for having children and women pay the biggest price for the low income” (Qtd. in Miller). According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, 71 percent of mothers are with their children working at home and 40 percent are the primary bread winner (Pew Research Center). In this perspective of women working at home and men working in career shift the qualification between them. The inequality is that employer sees the father as a commit worker and a mother as a distraction in workplaces because women have extra hours of work to do at home with their children and house chores. Claire Miller states that, “one of the worst career moves a women can make is to have children” (Claire Miller). As for the women in the United States, there are a lot of negative impact for them if they decide to have babies. The quality for them shrink to the corner while men hold the advantage of having
On the other hand, studies show that the number of women working has dramatically changed since 1970. These studies show that back then, the workforce was made up with 37.97 percent of women. Comparing this percentage to the studies made from 2006 to 2010, the presence of women in the workplace has increased at least 10 percent. In the 1970’s, it was really rare to see a woman working as an accountant; today, 60 percent of those accountants are women. Also, they have kept their own “careers for women” because more than 90 percent of dental assistants, secretaries and other work fields are composed by
For centuries, women has always been dominated and controlled by men. Society has viewed women as the weaker gender and relied on men in order to survive. As time went on, things have changed, society has became more advance and so are women. During the World War II, women have increased their role in the society by replacing the men’s in the labor market and also increased their status in the society. Today, the growth of women in the work force continually to raise and so are their status. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the National Bureau of Economic Research, statistics have shown 58.1% of women were in the labor market in 2011 (USBLS) compared to employment rate during the war was 35% of women in the labor market in 1945 (Bussing-Burks). So what factors must have interested women to move from being housewife to the work force? Explanations can be derived through observations of their relationship in the household, their relative status in the society, and their rationality in decision-making.
Women used to stay home and take care of children or work part-time jobs. However, economic times have made it almost impossible to survive off of solely one income. Therefore, more women have joined the workforce which greatly contributed to the shrink of the wage gap, but there is still a large difference in working hours between men and women. From what we have already seen through Sobering’s research, women still obtain large responsibilities outside of the home. Because of this, women are not able to work the same amount of hours as men. Mandel and Semyonov’s research concluded that, “..in all decades, more than 90 % of men work more than 40 weekly hours), whereas the variance among women is much larger (more than one-third of working women worked fewer than 40 hours)” (Mandel and Semyonov). Therefore, women have greatly increased their working hours in the past decade, but most women still work less hours than men.
Furthermore, women are still expected to give up their job pursuits for children. Men, when they get married tent to earn more power. However, women lose their power or even have to give up everything that they had been working toward their whole life to bear the child who will keep the lineage for her husband’s family. “It is not false that today, almost half of infants’ mothers are employed” and the percentage of working moms has risen much over recent years. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that it is unfair for women to have to be pressured by both work and children.
Men and women are working harder than ever to survive in today's tough economy. It's a big challenge for low and middle class families to survive. To meet growing demands, it's getting difficult for families to depend on one income. To contribute to family income, mothers are coming forward and joining the workforce. Working mothers are the one who takes care of the family and work outside the home. They may be a single mothers or married mothers. Working mothers usually work to support their family financially. Some of the mothers work, just because they are more career-oriented. Working mothers may work part time or full time. Women are now the primary or only income source for 40% of US households with kids, according to a new Pew survey (Wang, Parker and Taylor, ch. 1). They play a major role in raising their family and doing household chores. There are many reasons that why mothers should work.