Working Women and Family Lifestyles

4537 Words10 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Gender inequality in the workplace

Working Women and Family Lifestyles

The issues and concerns of this course are ones with which I am able to identify. Having been married for eight years, a working women and mother qualifies me to give much insight to each of the components listed in this course. My essay will address the following:

 Past and present status of women in the work place

 Balancing career and family

 Career Choices

 The future of the family

In addition, I will expand on the implications of single parenthood and how it affects women?s careers and raising a family.

PAST AND PRESENT STATUS OF WOMEN IN THE WORK PLACE

Every day in some office, bank, store, school, or wherever women work, someone announces an engagement or a wedding. But unlike past generations, the announcement doesn?t automatically mean the employee is leaving. She is just adding a new dimension to herself-marriage. Unlike her predecessor, she will work for a much longer period because she can decide when to begin her family. If she decides to have a family, her leave of absence is apt to be less than five years, because she is a member of the new breed of women who attempt to combine the roles of career woman, mother, and wife into a workable package.

Wives have been working for a much longer period than most people think. Before the Industrial Revolution, even wealthy women worked long hours supervising the needs of large families, household servants, and slaves. Most American families engaged in farming then. Often husband and wife worked together in order to make a profit. During the time of the Revolutionary, women worked in the fields plowing and harvesting, because all males were away fighting the war.

By the ...

... middle of paper ...

...y and to achieve what they want regardless if it is deemed a man?s job or woman?s job. In fact, my children see me do both. I mow the lawn, wash the cars, take out the garbage and do dishes, laundry and clean bathrooms. I also work, go to school but love to have fun water-skiing, snow-skiing and coaching and playing softball. My new husband does the same except he is indeed the bread-winner of the family. That to me is a fairly well-rounded parental example. I hope my children surpass me, at parallel age levels, in all ways.

Theories and principles related to the past and present status and role of women in work, behavioral, and socialization patterns affecting career choices and leadership abilities. Dual career couples, child-raising issues, and the future of the family. Special problems of re-entry women and current legislation affecting women at work.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Emma Griffith's Liberty Dawn

    1060 Words  | 3 Pages

    Men were considered as the breadwinner and women were supposed to do the household work and take care of children. But in fact, the Industrial Revolution in part was fuelled by the economic necessity of many women, single and married, to find waged work outside their home.

    Read More

  • Applying the Sociological Imagination to Sole-parent Familes

    1346 Words  | 3 Pages

    There is much debate on what constitutes as a family today. However, Ball (2002) states, “The concept of the traditional family…is not an immutable one. It is a social construct that varies from culture to culture and, over time, the definition changes within a culture” (pp. 68). There is a growing diversity of families today including the commonality of sole-parenting. In order to explore aspects of sole-parenthood objectively, I need to reflect and put aside my personal experience of growing up in sole-parent household. Furthermore, this essay will explore the historical origins, cultural aspects discussing the influences and implications of gender identity, and social structures of sole-parent families, as well as consider the implications in midwifery by applying the sociological imagination. Mills (2000/1959) describes the sociological imagination as “…a quality of mind that seems most dramatically to promise an understanding of the intimate realities of ourselves in connection with larger social realities” (pp.15). In other words, the sociological imagination involves the ability to consider the relationships between personal experiences and those within society as a whole.

    Read More

  • No Longer one of the Boys

    944 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...d had no evidence to back them up. With interviews, Ranson (2005) provided views from different women, but by using a small sample size the opinions still appeared to be biased. She also solely focused on the effect children would have on the women’s careers but failed to mention the financial penalties children would have on the women as well. This review considered the strengths and limitations of stating that motherhood is barrier to women’s careers, critiqued the methodology of the article and stated different approaches the author could have taken.

    Read More

  • Women During The Market Revolution

    540 Words  | 2 Pages

    They were mostly in charge of raising children and keeping the house clean and properly functioning. They were mostly financially dependent on their husbands because it was it was considered odd for them to earn money themselves. When factories and new machines begin to revolutionize the American economy, women's roles were changed entirely. The Marketing Revolution creates opportunities for women to earn their own wages and buy things, like clothes and food, which they may not have been able to buy previously themselves without the permission of their husbands to use their money. Women were trying to change the views of gender roles that was implied in society. Most of these women had left their families and worked to achieve a future for themselves while only a small portion of them decided to stay with family back

    Read More

  • The Synchronization of the Genders within Families

    1166 Words  | 3 Pages

    Working women with families are often lead to inhabit several different lives all at once. In article “The Second Shift,” Arlie Hochschild discusses how women who have families and work are often subjected to having to stay a full time housewife along with their job, creating basically two sets of work, as the author calls it, the Second Shift. I think that the authors’s style of using many studies and examples helps to strengthen his points. Although he doesn’t directly express his opinion of the issue as much which weakens it to an extent but also helps to have the reader form their own opinion using the issues discussed. His use of vocabulary helps to express his opinion onto the issues discussed as it shows to be more sophisticated whenever he writes on supporting his own side of the issue. Hochschild doesn’t wait to get to the point when discussing the topics. He uses many studies and facts to help argue his points and is used efficiently, but also in a way it’s also ineffective as the lack of studies and facts that have used that would even try to support the other side of the discussion. I agree to the author's argument of how even families should continue evolving along side with the economy, to help couples to support one another as equals, rather then opposites with specific assignments.

    Read More

  • The New Republic - Women's Rights

    521 Words  | 2 Pages

    A huge part of the economical grow of the United States was the wealth being produced by the factories in New England. Women up until the factories started booming were seen as the child-bearer and were not allowed to have any kind of career. They were valued for factories because of their ability to do intricate work requiring dexterity and nimble fingers. "The Industrial Revolution has on the whole proved beneficial to women. It has resulted in greater leisure for women in the home and has relieved them from the drudgery and monotony that characterized much of the hand labour previously performed in connection with industrial work under the domestic system. For the woman workers outside the home it has resulted in better conditions, a greater variety of openings and an improved status" (Ivy Pinchbeck, Women Workers and the Industrial Revolution, 1750-1850, pg.4) The women could now make their own money and they didn’t have to live completely off their husbands. This allowed women to start thinking more freely and become a little bit more independent.

    Read More

  • American Marriage In Transition Analysis

    1952 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dating back to the early 20th century, women’s roles in the United States were very limited. In regards to family life, women were expected to cook, clean, and take care of their homes. Men, on the other hand, were in charge of working and providing for the family. Together, these designated roles helped men and women build off of each other to ultimately keep their families in check. As the years progressed, society began to make a greater push to increase women’s rights. As women started receiving greater equality and freedom, their roles began to shift. More women had to opportunity to leave the house and join the workforce. The norm for a married couple slowly began to change as men were no longer expected to individually provide for their

    Read More

  • Taking Responsibility: Women in STEM Fields

    2654 Words  | 6 Pages

    Whitmarsh, Lona, and Diane Keyser Wentworth. "Gender Similarity Or Gender Difference? Contemporary Women's And Men's Career Patterns." Career Development Quarterly 60.1 (2012): 47, 48, 49. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.

    Read More

  • Changes in the American Family Since 1970

    634 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the video clip Changes in the American Family Since 1970 we were learning about the changes that had occurred in American families since 1970, which have, even since then, changed in other ways. At the time of the video clip we were learning different things from experts Arlie Hochschild and Timothy Biblarz. One of the changes that have been made, this change being the most drastic, is the amount of women who were working in the labor force at the time. According to Arlie Hochschild, mothers of children 18 and under, less than half of them (43%) were in the labor force in the 1970s. Today over 2/3 of women are now working in the labor force, and taking care of children when they arrive home from work. Once women joined the labor force it seemed that the roll of men seemed to change drastically also. Once women were gone at work during the day, along with the men, the men were beginning to help more around the house. Hochschild had made the comment during the video clip that men are doing more work at home and women are doing a lot less, which all together means that less work is being done at home. In the home in the 1970s the rolls that each spouse had were different in many ways. Before women joined the labor force women took care of the children. By taking care of them, women did the important things such as bathing them, brushing their teeth, combing their hair, as the video stated, the maintenance things. As a father in the 70s th...

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in Society

    1030 Words  | 3 Pages

    Most of the time these issues are taken lightly, and go unnoticed until someone or some group pays attention to the inequality and typical roles. It becomes interesting when roles are reversed in society to see how others react to those situations. Society seems to be getting more comfortable with female success, and less obsessed with women staying home to do housework. No matter how successful, there is always a struggle for dominance. It also seems to depend on how children are brought up as to how strongly those individuals strive to achieve their specific role. It will be interesting to see as society changes over time how the defined gender roles will continue to change as well. Whether it is the conflict of success, supremacy, or need for perfection roles will sustain time just as they have from the beginning.

    Read More

  • Sexism Against Women Essay

    637 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Women in the Workforce

    1672 Words  | 4 Pages

    The sight of a working woman today is not something that causes one to look twice. However, this was not always the case. It was a long struggle for women to get to where they are today, and there is still a long way to go. There were a few momentous occasions throughout history that caused a shift in the way women were viewed as workers, such as the need for workers during World War II, the Equal Pay Act, and the appointment of Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court. Women have made great strides in integrating themselves into the workforce alongside men and continue to do so today.

    Read More

  • The Gender Revolution: Uneven And Stalled By Maudia Wland Analysis

    1277 Words  | 3 Pages

    Story’s article, “Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood,” introduces Cynthia Liu, an ambitious student at Yale who plans on going to law school. However, she expects a different future by the time she is thirty. Cynthia states, “My mother always told me you can 't be the best career woman and the best mother at the same time” (Story, 2005, p. A1). This particular situation sets up the rest of the article, focusing on this idea that the nation 's most elite colleges say they 've already decided to set aside their careers to take care of their children instead. The article further supports the situation of working women in the past couple decades, and how this influence has changed over time. “What seems to be changing is that while many women in college two or three decades ago expected to have full time careers, their daughters, while still in college, say they have already decided to suspend or end their careers when they have children” (Story, 2005, p. A1). This is evidence supporting why gender in the workplace has worsened in the past two decades, because women are being stressed to make decisions based on other people 's judgement instead of their own. The article continues to talk about this trend of women 's set career paths to motherhood, but they also address how social change plays into the decision making.

    Read More

  • Women In Society: A Vindication Of The Rights Of Women?

    1220 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women face an unofficial barrier called the glass ceiling, which limits how high a women can advance in a profession. “Women holding the titles of chairman, CEO, COO (chief operating officer), and executive vice president remain at about 7 percent of the population of executives in the United States” (Hoobler, Wayne, & Lemmon, 2009). Women seem to have more of a family-work conflict then men, so bosses don’t seem to have as much desire, to promote females compared to men (Hoobler, Wayne, & Lemmon 939-940). Men still view women as having a social role, examples are cooking, childcare, and household chores. Men feel threatened, and scared when females are able to handle both work and their personal life. Excuses are created by men, where they believe females should focus on one role, because they won’t be able to accomplish family roles and work roles efficiently. Women can help themselves with this issue of family-work conflict, by, improving communication with their employers. Women can communicate to their employer, by explaining and clarifying their expectations on how much workload they can

    Read More

  • Gender Inequality and Family Structure

    784 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...er burden for single mothers. The problem is exacerbated by concentrated levels of single-parent households in low-income areas, less parental involvement in education, and low levels of social capital. Many poor families rely on welfare for subsistence, which in some ways, enable males to shirk responsibilities while undermining the provider role. Policies that will help a large number of families to escape poverty will focus on providing education and training to parents as well as programs that promote egalitarian gender and parenting roles. The root of gender inequality can be seen at the family level through each structural level of society. Our goal as a society should be to create equality of opportunity to pursue a happy, fulfilling life. True equality exists in the fail and equal distribution of responsibilities to families at the most basic parental level

    Read More

More about Working Women and Family Lifestyles

Open Document