Analysis Of Arlie Hochschild's Second Shift

In, “Halving the Double Day” by Dorothy Sue Cobble, she realizes that women get the bitter end of having a poor socio-economic status. Women are more burdened than men with balancing activities. Cobble states, “But none feel the pressure more than those juggling full-time employment with what can seem like a second shift at home” (Cobble, 1). Cobble believes that women, especially in lower income households face more stress and have less time to do things they want in life because they are burdened with finding and working in jobs as well as balancing house hold duties. Unlike men, who’s primary role in the household is to go out and work, women now who are in lower income families have to take on both roles assisting in income and doing house work. Furthermore, Cobble emphasizes that only those who are rich can benefit from the vast benefits that outsiders see in living in America. Cobble states, “Similarly the highly touted family-friendly workplace-the coveted market nook with flexible work schedules, job sharing, child care assistance, and comprehensive health and welfare coverage-is not yet a reality for the majority of salaried workers, let alone hourly workers”

The articles Double Daddy by Penny Parker, Diary of a Mad Blender by Sue Shellenbarger, and The Child’s View of Working Parents by Cora Daniels all delve into the struggle of harmonizing work with other aspects of life. The delicate balance of work and parenting is often difficult to keep in control; most agree that devoting quality time to one’s children and not overworking is the key to stabilizing the equation (Parker 22-23).

In “The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home” author Arlie Hochschild examines the struggle faced by full-time working married couples to separate work and family. The families Hochschild focuses on are among different races and social classes, but are specifically two-parent heterosexual married couples, both maintain a full-time job, and have a child(ren) under the age of six (Hochschild 5). Hochschild interviewed and observed 50 couples on their daily lives for months. Within the book, readers are introduced to ten couples each couple seems to have a different problem than the others, but their struggle pertains to the same basis that is the ideas and feelings they have about gender and marriage (Hochschild 188). Hochschild separates these gender views into either traditional or egalitarian and separates strategies into women and men for how these couples can overcome their

Americans that work too many long shifts affect the lives of the people around them too. For instance, one statistic from a Family Matters Survey done by The National Partnership for Women & Families in 1998 found that, “70% of working fathers and working mothers report they don’t have enough time for their children”.Another statistic from this survey reported that over 80% of Americans found it diffcult to balance their work life and their personal life. In fact, it is estimated that around 11 million children age 5 and under spend time in a form child care facility every week(Child Care Aware of America). It is also estimated that children whose

Another cause for the wage gap is the fact that women leave the workforce or cut down their hours to take care of their family and household responsibilities. In The Second Shift, the Holt family is introduced. Nancy Holt a social worker with a masters degree reduces her full time job to part time in order to better accommodate all her household responsibilities which include raising her son, cooking, and cleaning. She even goes on to say, “I figure when I’m at office from eight to one, and when I come home and take care of Joey and make dinner at five,” regarding her new part-time schedule (Hochschild 49). The idea that women need to take pay cuts or lower paying part-time jobs strikes a deeper societal chord. It conveys that women have the

“The Second Shift” by Arlie Russell Hochschild sheds light on the fact that America is stuck in a perpetual loop, unable to change its societal gender expectations. Substantial progress has been made when it comes to women in the workplace, but that same progress is lacking when it comes to a woman’s work within the home. When looking at employed women the term “second shift” can be brought to the forefront. The expression “second shift” refers to the tasks done around the house after the initial work hours are through. Hochschild critiques how the American career system treats the “second shift”; she makes it clear that the working American society has yet to take the additional shift into consideration due to the already implemented

Well, my parents went to work every day to provide for my brother and I and we had everything we ever needed. We lived in a nice house, had a dog, and I never went without. I was able to dream about the future and the possibilities that were out there for me to seize. With that being said the first topic I would like to discuss with you is the issue of childrearing. If you look at the US over the last 50-100 years within the scope of childrearing you will find a common theme. The “normal” house consists of a father who leaves every day to go to work and provide for the family and a mother who stays home to take care of the children and the house. This has been a standard of living in the US for a very long time. A recent article published by the Pew Research Center states: “While most stay-at-home parents are mothers, fathers represent a growing share of all at-home parents – 16% in 2012, up from 10% in 1989. Roughly a quarter of these stay-at-home fathers (23%) report that they are home mainly because they cannot find a job. Nearly as many (21%) say the main reason they are home is to care for their home or family. This represents a fourfold increase from 1989, when only 5% of stay-at-home fathers said they were home primarily to care for family” (Livingston 2014). This is interesting in many ways. Less than thirty years ago the number of stay at home dads was drastically lower. One might say that the only reason that these dads are staying home is because they cannot find work outside the home. The statistics disprove this theory. While it is true that some have suffered from a shaky economy, many are home because they choose to be. 23 percent say that they are home due to the fact that they cannot find work. 21 percent are home by their own choosing. This is hard to understand for most people. Globally it is accepted that the place of the man should be

The term 'working mother' is a redundancy. No woman need feel any guilt for opting to fill her days with whichever activities give her the greatest joy and fulfillment” (English, 2005).

Throughout the years, there have been many controversies about working mothers and the impact it has on children. A mother is supposed to provide psychological and emotional support to her child, as well as nurture her child. However, many mothers may encounter several barriers while trying to provide this support for her child. For example, not all mothers have a financial support system that will allow her to stay home and care for her child. Therefore, the main barrier that these mothers come across is having to work. While some people might argue that working mothers negatively impact children, there is research that demonstrates otherwise. In this paper, three pieces of literature will be analyzed. The first piece is a website article

Most families in the United States have both parents working to make ends meet. A lot of families can’t afford to live with just one family member working. Considering that when both parents work, they can increase the annual income the whole family makes. Most parents find that they need more money for their children's school supplies. “Families would fall on hard times if mother weren't in the workforce”(Galinsky).

Traditionally men worked and brought home the bacon while women stayed home and took care of the children and the home. This changed when the new liberated independent women became driven towards acquiring a career, caring for the children and balancing domestic work. Thus women started to complain about being exhausted from working, multi-tasking, and solely taking care of the house-hold, while their husbands worked and bring forth a paycheck and think that is efficient enough and his job is pretty much done. ‘’I definitely concur with The Second Shift because this essay most women can really relate to, including me. It filters the contribution of what the husband brings to the house-hold

Mothers play an important role in a child’s life. Whether it is being present when the baby takes their first step, or being in the crowd for the childs first recital. Two different types of mothers have evolved in society. One is a stay-at-home mother. These mothers take care of the children while the husband makes a living for the family. Working mothers go to work everyday to provide a living (like the husband), and are also expected to take care of the children once home. Stay-At-Home mothers have many advantages against working mothers.

For those who have a family, providing for them is vastly more than bringing home a paycheck twice a month. There must be a division of time between work and family. If a family has two working parents, there is less time for a child to spend with his or her parents. In fact, according to Boden (2005), “the last decades of the 20th century brought important changes in family structure and the demographics of employment in the United States. Largely, as consequences of these changes, families today are faced with a time squeeze” (para. 3). This has younger

Some mothers can make the decision to stay at home and acquire the traditional homemaker job. Other mothers can choose to work outside of the home. Both of these decisions can come with many great benefits as well as a negative impact. The role a mother has to achieve has significantly changed over the last century. Throughout history working mothers as well as stay at home mother has changed and increased. Attitudes towards these two types of mothers have also differed. Working mothers have definitely grown and created a huge cultural switch. The triumphs and success of the working mother has been growing. Many questions have been raised if the mother’s employment outside of the home affects the child at home like childcare and less time spent with the kids. Benefits of the working mother like being a healthy role model toward a child to be independent and successful and build lives outside of the home have also been mentioned. Working mothers also experience positive emotions of happiness and self-accomplishment. Stay at home mothers have not been left behind either they also have been shown to have grown since the recession in 2008. They have picked up and have come back. Advantages and benefits also follow the life of the child whose mother is at home like familiarity and comfort for children. Although staying at home can be very rewarding for the child it is not so much for the mother. Stay at home mothers has been shown to experience more feelings of sadness and

Working parents are forced to balance working long hours with spending time with their families. Claudia Wallis finds that “72% of mothers with children under 18 are in the workforce” and it is likely that the percentage for fathers is even higher (Wallis 6). With parents working, the question posed is who should watch the children? Some parents’ answer to this is a method called “tag-team parenting” (Gardner 3). This is a form of parenting in which one parent is always home, presumably watching the children, while another parent works. They switch off and the cycle continues. This puts unnecessary strains on family life. Marilyn Gardner reports that “parents working nights are more likely to separate or divorce than those on regular schedules” (Gardner 2). This is likely due to there not being enough family time with the parents working such odd hours. Families