Women Autonomy

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Question Three
Despite most members of the gender revolution wanting an egalitarian position when it comes to work and family, both the men and women that Gerson talks to in The Unfinished Revolution have fallback positions. However, these fallbacks differ in accordance to gender.
For women, the fallback position is self-reliance. Ideally, most of the young women discuss family and careers in terms of having it all. However, they realize that their standards for relationships and what they want out of them are extremely high. However, seeing their mother’s mixed messages, especially those of homemaker mothers who encouraged their daughters to get a good career and work hard, have pushed them to the fallback position of self-reliance. For most of the women who chose self-reliance, their fears allowed for this to become their fallback. They discuss marriage as being a potential false security, especially in a world where marriage is not considered permanent. They realize that to have the life and stability you need and desire, you must create that for yourself. One young woman feels the need to be self-reliant so she does not lose who she is as a person and has control over her own life and surroundings. (Gerson, 137) These women want to be able to support themselves and their potential families in a world where marriage is optional and reversible. They know from their own and their parents’ experiences, that financial situations and supporting a family can take a huge hit when couples separate, and these women don’t want to find themselves in a situation in which they cannot take care of themselves. (Gerson, 139) The main fear for these women who believe self-reliance is the best fallback is simply that of future stabi...

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...nt while also feeling the societal pressures and their own desires to be involved parents and partners are clearly still relevant between younger women and men today.

Works Cited
Gerson, Kathleen. The Unfinished Revolution: Coming of Age in a New Era of Gender, Work, and Family. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.
Shows, Carla, and Naomi Gerstel. "Fathering, Class, and Gender: A Comparison of Physicians and Emergency Medical Technicians." Gender & Society 23.2 (2008): 161-87. Print.
Stone, Pamela. Opting Out?: Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home. Berkeley: University of California, 2007. Print.
Williams, Christine L., Chandra Muller, and Kristine Kilanski. "Gendered Organizations in the New Economy." Gender and Society 26.4 (2012): 549-73. Web.
Williams, Joan. Reshaping the Work-family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2012. Print.

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