Reaction Paper on "Work Family and Gender"

Reaction Paper 4 pages (1307 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Second Shift

Arlie Hochschild and Anne Machung's book, The Second Shift, focuses on the ways in which women and men in two-career marriages juggle both work pressures and their families' needs. It focuses greatly on this topic, which is often viewed as mundane in the grand scheme of issues facing the American family. The authors place a great deal of emphasis on the struggles to deal with the demands of work and the demands of the home in a manner that questions the concepts of work, family and gender in a way that has been highly debated and cited since the book's initial publication in the late 1980s. In presenting a new description of the life so many individuals live but barely have time to understand, Hochschild and Machung validate the struggles of the working woman as they attempt to resolve the "stalled revolution" of shared responsibility between themselves and the men in their lives in terms of duties at home and in the workplace.

Analysis and Reaction

In Chapter 1, "A Speed-up in the Family," the authors note that among employed people with families, women often work a "double day" or "second shift." This second shift, which equals an extra month per year, is spent doing housework and providing child care for their families, which is something the male-counterparts in these women's relationships do not do. The taking on of this second shift was done when women began to take on a stronger presence in the workforce. As times of economic hardship fell, bringing on a depletion in earnings from the generally "male bread-winners," women made the move into the paid labor force to compensate for budget shortfalls within the home. However, regardless of this move, childcare and housework was not doled out to another individual, but remained the responsibility of the now-working woman, who was forced to compensate for lost time with the taking on of the aforementioned second shift in her new lifestyle of balancing work and family.

This concept is added to in Chapter 2 with the mention of the demands placed upon women in their new roles. The authors note that men and women adapt to different gender strategies to make sense of conflicting role demands, and the sense of need for women to feel as though they must adapt to the role of "supermom" by strategizing to become a working mom who does it all. This is in stark contrast to the traditionalist who believes that the man has his base at work and wants his wife's base in the home (Hochschild and Machung, 2003, p.15). Chapter 3 expands on this conflict with its notation of the demands of work and family that are placed upon women, and are often viewed as women's personal issues on an individualistic level. Rather than viewing the working woman and her taking on of the second shift as a social problem that is shared by women and men across the globe, the stigma of this issue as a problem stemming from the individual woman struggling to balance it all has unfortunately become the norm.

While this stigma is a harsh one that affects not only the stress levels of the women represented in this group but their self-worth as well, the fact remains that it is the opinion of many individuals who believe that women should be able to balance it all, despite the fact that many of these individuals form their opinions without having to walk in the shoes of the women they nonchalantly judge. Such an opinion is seen in Chapter 4's look at Nancy and Evan Holt, a couple with struggling ideologies. While Nancy fights to assert that the two share the duties of the household, Evan's excessive leisure time and transitional ideology allow the reader to understand that the distribution of tasks may not be as equal as the Holts would like to believe.

The gender struggles… READ MORE

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