Blog # 4 - work and family

When I was younger and my great-grandmother was still alive she would always tell me how a good family life was supposed to be. She was born in the early 1900’s so she had a different view on life than I do now, but always said that the key to a good family life was love. She used to say that a good family life was loving your children and husband and making sure they know you love them; cherishing the family support you receive and respect those who respect you. These simple words from my great-grandmother have greatly influenced my views of a good family life. I think loving and cherishing the family is the most important thing in having a good family life. This is not always easy considering the craziness of our world today. I personally feel that I have a good family life because my mom has always made it known how important my brother and I are to her and I think knowing that I am loved makes a big difference to me in my life choices.

Having a balance between a career and family life can be very difficult. To balance a career with family life means being able to distinguish that the two do not blend and being able to dedicate the same amount of time to the workplace as well as the family. This would mean making certain career choices that would allow for the distinct separation. There are many factors that make it difficult to balance family life and a career. Career’s can be very demanding because there are always deadlines that have to be met, also traveling with careers take away from family time. I know growing up my parents tried to separate work with family life but it was very difficult. Both my parents would get phone calls at home when there was something that went wrong, my dad was always traveling to different locations, so he would be gone during the weeks and come home late in the evenings. Also, many jobs require overtime which cuts into family time. Lastly, there are many single parents who take on second jobs in order to support their families.

Family issues are defiantly more complex now because of traditional gender roles. Our society has changed because now it takes two incomes to get by and support the family in most situations. In the early 1900’s there were two jobs for every family, the breadwinner and the caretaker. The man was the breadwinner and the woman was the caretaker, which made a clear distinction of the roles. The men would go to work and come home and be able to spend time with the family, while the women stayed home and made sure all the house work was done, so there could be family time. Now, roles have changed in the sense that both women and men are in the workforce, but many woman are still expected to do the carework as well. This creates an issue because many careworkers feel they are not giving their family the full attention they need and it causes feelings of guilt and stress. The term “women’s work” still exists, which makes it more difficult for men to accept doing housework as part of their daily tasks as well. Also, many families feel a strain because there are different schedules and family time has decreased in the amount of hours spent together weekly. This alone is an issue because the value of family has gone down as well and many children are not aware that they are loved by their parents and they are not aware that they have family support.

I think in certain aspects many employers can be more sensitive to family needs. There are many jobs out there that are sensitive to family needs, however studies have shown that most of those jobs are lower paying jobs and have less benefits. Those jobs that have higher pay and good benefits require people to put the time in. This means the product is more important than personal needs which put family needs below the companies needs. I think that employers should be more flexible with schedules to accommodate their employee’s. Certain things like start and end times should be left up to the employee, however the employer can choose certain times where the employees are required to be present. This alone would make managing a schedule more easy. Another thing that can be done some work done out of the home. Many would argue that this could further blend the career and family spheres however this would also allow for more flexibility as well as getting the job done. When personal needs are met, many employees are more likely to be satisfied with their positions and would feel better about having deadlines and certain things to accomplish. If there is a give and take relationship it is bound to be beneficial for both the employee and the employer.

I definitely think having support makes it much easier to balance priorities. For example, a support system is more likely to encourage certain things that should be priority and discourage others. Having a support system also makes the day to day things easier. For example, it is less stressful if a mother is going to be working late to be able to call her parents to go pick up the kids from school instead of trying to find a way to get to the kids and back to work to complete the work task. Having the help is always easier than doing everything strictly alone. This was always the case for my mom when my brother and I were young.

Blog # 3- Carework

Carework is something that I have experienced my whole life. I have watched my mom doing it my whole life and now that I am older I have began taking part in carework myself. Growing up my mom stayed home with my brother and I from the time I was 3 to about 5 when I went to school. Then after that point both my parents worked. During my entire life my mom has always done the carework. She took care of all the cooking, cleaning, laundry and child raising. My dad took care of the traditional male stuff such as yard work, keeping our vehicles running properly and making sure we had the best sports equipment available. Through my childhood until I was 15 he was our main source of income. Generally my mom would work a full day and then she would have to come home and do dinner and make sure our homework was all done. I always helped my mom with the carework, but when I was fifteen I realized exactly how difficult things were for my mom. My parents were going through a divorce and my mom moved so she could make more money, then my grandmother got sick and I moved in to take care of her. I would go to school and have to come home and cook, clean, get medication, and just help my grandparents until she recovered. Once I moved with my mom, she worked 12 and 15 hour days to support us, so I began doing the cooking, cleaning, and laundry for the two of us. This carework was on top of my school work during high school. Now that I am in college my mom moved out here to help my brother and I get by, and she is still the one doing the majority of the carework.
I think our society needs to better accommodate the thought of it being okay for men to do housework as well. If there was an equal contribution for the carework in families I think many relationships would have more satisfaction and it would help with stress levels. I think it is a great idea that the UK has sites that provide support for the main careworkers where they can reflect on their experiences and also reflect on policies that should be changed. I think if we implemented something like this in the US it would help with the job segregation, because many women choose jobs that are more flexible to allow for carework. In my opinion the UK seems more willing to assist families and are more open to men helping with the carework. Even though it is primarily a women’s task in the past, the UK seems to be moving in the direction to allow for an equal share of carework, which is very important. If both women and men have an equal understanding of the work load, I believe that there will be more appreciation of those who do the carework.

Blog #2

Gender inequality is how unit A begins. The readings along with the video’s made a clear point that there is still inequality between the genders. I think it is easy to not realize that inequality is still out there unless the information is presented all at once in front of you. In our reading England and McCreary define sex segregation as, “the segregation of jobs by sex” (p. 286). This reading goes into detail about the gender differentiation in pay, the skills involved in those who hold individual positions and the rewards on those positions. The reading explains different factors as to why specific genders take specific positions. I personally think that sex segregation does exist at ASU in employment. Through grade school and high school I mostly had women for teachers. This I know what not area specific because I moved around to different schools, but once I got to the university level that changed. University professors generally get better pay than high school or grade school teachers. Majority of my professors have been men (with the exception of this semester). Also, out of the few women professors I’ve had, only one has been a 10-year professor, the rest of the women were fairly new to the university or they were graduate students. Out of the men professors I’ve had, many were 10-year professors and less were graduate students.
I think part of the sex segregation is highly influenced by us being a patriarchal society and the gender wage gap. The video on patriarchy gives two clear definitions of patriarchy. They state patriarchy, “is a form of social organization in which the father is the supreme authority in the family, clan, or tribe,” or the second definition is, “a society, community, or country based on this social organization.” Our upbringing is highly influenced by our patriarchal society which highly teaches gender roles. As children we are dressed in feminine or masculine colors; we are taught that girls play with dolls, make up, and play quietly, while boys play with trucks, cars, and are more likely to be rough and loud. We are also taught women should be doing domestic work while men should be mr. fix-it and working outside or being the bread winner.
I think the first time women entered into the work force was during the wars when men went to fight and women had to take on those positions. Also, now in today’s time, with the economy being so bad many men and women are losing their positions. However, when women are the bread winners their pay is hardly ever equal to their male counterpart. One example that hits home for me is with my own mother. The position she worked a couple years ago she experienced the wage gap. Her male counterpart made quite a bit more money than her when they had equal training and experience. Now since, he has been let go and she has had to step up and take on some of his responsibilities however she is still not making the amount that he was when he left. The gender wage gap still exists when men are being laid off because women start out at lower wages an even when a raise is granted they are still behind male counterparts.