This paper will explore and evaluate Kathi Weeks’ thoughts on the nature of work and its many implications within a political context. In particular, it will address the following inquiries addressed by Weeks: Is work a political issue? Is reduction of the work week to 30 hours (by means of a 6 hour a day maximum) a viable alternative to the current norms and why? It could be argued that some of Weeks’ conclusions about the nature of work and it being political are viable, however it seems that her arguments in favor of the 6 hour work week are much less successful if only because it becomes convoluted and perhaps dampened due to it being wrapped in the context of feminism. This context seemed to bolster her claim that work is a political …show more content…
The bosses are always looking for ways to get their employees to get more work completed at a faster rate. Boosting the production cause for a greater load an maybe even the risk of alternative time. Employees are given no choice but to bear heavy loads and produce when called upon because a great number of them depend on their jobs to support their basic needs. Weeks suggest having a basic income that will cover the basic needs of the people (p.138). Weeks agrees with another author statement that “the basic income should be paid unconditionally to individuals regardless of other incomes and regardless of their past, present, or future employment status (Van Parijs 1992, 3). Her focus on the need for the basic income to level the field for lower level professionals such as taxi drivers. Weeks understand that there are two different groups that exist. The groups consist of those who lives are tied to their assignments from their employers and those who depend on those assignments to exist so they can have a job to meet their basic needs. Weeks propose that the basic income should be given in spite of physical difference. Though the man is looked at as the one who has the greater income and the women are identified as the care takers both should receive the basic income and the women’s wages should not be less than men’s wages. In addition, receiving a universal basic income will give people time to consider options of which employer he or she will like to work for and not worrying about the basic necessities being met in the meantime
Even Though women have revolutionized themselves in relation to the world many other aspects of society have not. This phenomenon, originally coined by Arielle Hochschild in her book The Second Shift, is known as the stalled revolution. In essence while female culture has shifted male culture has not. This has created an unequal, unfair and oppressive atmosphere for women across the nation. The title of Hochschild's book tells it all. The second shift refers to the second shift of work women are and have been burdened with at home. Although they have made enormous leaps within the economy and workforce their gender roles at home and within society remain the same. Male culture and their ideas of female gender roles have not progressed. As a result needs of females have not been met. Working mothers today work more than any other demographic, a rough estimate of this comes out to be a whole extra month of work consisting of twenty four hour work days.
Ramisch, Claudia. ?Living on Minimum Wage.? ENGL 1302H Class Presentation, Kentucky Wesleyan College, Owensboro, KY. 13 March 2006.
Previous generations have a strong belief of keeping work and home life separate; that work is for work and home is for play (Rampell, 2011, para 21). Today’s professionals do not seem to abide by similar beliefs, constantly crossing the borders of one into the other. While many recognize this as an issue that could result in employees being less productive, it has actually resulted in them accepting that their work may run late into the evening or even into the weekend. I agree with this completely in that I grew up being taught that business is business and personal is personal; you leave your home life at the door. But now times have changed, and my weekends are no longer dedicated to my home life, but for work, because I attend classes during the week. Also, in my line of work in the Allied Health industry, it is a requirement to work off hours. Long gone are the days of working nine to five, Monday through Friday; technology and the demand of wanting affairs done and done as soon as possible, has made it so the “work week” is now 24-7. “Jon Della Volpe, the director of polling at Harvard Institute of Politics, said, ‘Some experts also believe that today’s young people are better at quickly switching from one task to another, given their exposure to so many stimuli during their childhood and adolescence’” (Rampbell,
Poverty and low wages have been a problem ever since money became the only thing that people began to care about. In Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich, she presents the question, “How does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled?” This question is what started her experiment of living like a low wage worker in America. Ehrenreich ends up going to Key West, Portland, and Minneapolis to see how low wage work was dealt with in different states. With this experiment she developed her main argument which was that people working at low wages can’t live life in comfort because of how little they make monthly and that the economic system is to blame.
Work is a word that one hears on a daily basis on multiple different levels; work out, work at school, go to work, work at home, work for change. Society today is made of people that work hard every moment of their day from sunrise to twilight, these workers work for food, housing, family, education, and transportation. Essentially in today’s world if one wants something they must work for it, gone are the days where handouts are common and charity is given freely. The question then arises, who speaks for these voiceless workers that are often working so hard they have no time to voice an opposition? The authors Levine and Baca speak very well for these workers and for society in general, their narrators speak of not only work but of the world
Ivanka Trump claims to be a Feminist and provides an idealistic example of a woman who is able to easily balance work with life. Jill Filipovic writes in The New York Times, how Women Who Work is an example of “fake feminism” as the book hardly applies to American women at all. Filipovic states, “Ms. Trump has written a book called Women Who Work, so must presumably think she has advice to offer other women. But trying to emulate the Ivanka model without her financial means is a precarious path.” It is difficult to apply Trump’s suggested methods without her financial means to do so.
Including scientific research done on the topic and taking the results of previously conducted studies in her article, Elizabeth Svoboda supports her claim that true happiness is love based on scent from her piece titled Scents and Sensibility. Svoboda quotes Rachel Herz, an author of The Scent of Desire, and Randy Thornhill, and evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico to emphasize her stance. Svoboda quotes: “’I’ve always been into smell, but this was different; he really smelled good to me,’” from Herz as an example the claim supported in the environment. The quote: “’But the scent capability is there, and it’s not surprising to find smell capacity in the context on sexual behavior,’” (Thornhill) applies factual evidence
“Designated Survivor” is the second series of Kiefer Sutherland that is in perfect timing with Donald Trump’s win in the United States presidential election. The first was “24” which ran for eight seasons and have won Emmy Awards.
The inability to achieve “work-life balance” has become a major focus for workplace equality activists. When this topic is brought about it is primarily used to describe how woman cannot have a work and home life but instead are forced to choose. Richard Dorment took on this point of interest from a different perspective in his article “Why Men Still Can’t Have It All” published with esquire. Going against the normal trend he describes how women are not the only ones put into the same sacrificial situations, but instead that men and women alike struggle to balance work and home. Dorment opens up by saying “And the truth is as shocking as it is obvious: No one can have it all.” In doing so Richard Dorment throws out the notion that one
On September 2, 2014, after three decades of waiting for their death row, Henry Lee McCollum, 50, and his half-brother, Leon Brown, 46, were declared innocent and ordered released with $750,000 in compensation from the state (Brothers Henry McCollum). After thirty years of isolation, the brothers are both mentally and physically affected. McCollum and Brown, who are now middle-aged men, have no education, job, or family, have to reorganize their lives in which they could have done 30 years ago. The two brothers, who were only scared, mentally challenged teenagers, while under pressure, confessed to committing a capital murder. Moreover, the question, whether race played a role in the two brothers’ sentence remain unjustified.
Article Assignment 1. Clearly identify the author’s argument The article, “Free Speech, Hate Speech, and the Problem of (Manufactured) Authority,” authored by Sarah Sorial, states several conceptions that reflect towards speech as a civil issue that plays two important roles of either the person is being manipulative with their words and also not being legally compromised to it. Overall, from thoroughly reading Sarah Sorial’s article, I was able to know the importance of how speeches can be defined as they can be shown in different perceptions. Sarah’s argument is clearly shown as she sees the form of speech in two type of ways. The fact that speech is legally protected since the legality is based on the presentation of the actual speech
Have you ever felt stuck? Wherever you are, it’s the absolute last place you want to be. In the book Into the Wild, Chris McCandless feels stuck just like the average everyday person may feel. Chris finds his escape plan to the situation and feels he will free himself by going off to the wild. I agree with the author that Chris McCandless wasn’t a crazy person, a sociopath, or an outcast because he got along with many people very well, but he did seem somewhat incompetent, even though he survived for quite some time.
Watson, T. (2008) The Meaning of Work. The Sociology of Work and Industry. London: Routledge.
Tan includes a direct quote from her mother in paragraph six of the reading, and she does not shorten it for an important reason. Tan decides to keep the entire quote instead of paraphrasing to add an effect that a reader can only understand with the full quote. It shows that even though some people speak the language of English it is hard for others to understand based on the person’s full understanding and comprehension of the language. In Tan’s case she is used to the way her mother speaks and uses the language, but to others it is almost impossible to understand. If it were not for Tan summarizing what the quote meant before putting it in the text, few readers would have understood what the mother was trying to convey with her use of the language. Tan’s strategy in including this direct quotation is to show that language differs from person to person even if they all speak the same language. She is implying that the whole world could speak English; however, it would not be the same type of English because of how everyone learns and how others around
In this essay I will be critically assessing Elizabeth Anderson’s proposal of racial integration to prove that while not perfect, it is one of the only options that seems to want to better society on a whole. I will first explain what Anderson’s proposal is and how each of her steps provides a positive outcome all the while arguing against obvious arguments that are against her. I will also look at how simply integrating within schools is not enough to better society, as well as Tommie Shelby’s argument that Anderson is not properly taking into account that some people of colour do not want to integrate. Concluding that some flaws in Anderson’s proposal must be rectified, but it is currently the most sensible solution. Elizabeth Anderson’s