Double Duty for Working Parents

As a child, I’ve seen my parents focused the majority of their time and energy at their work to provide for our family. In 2000, the U.S Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics had recorded that working couples with children under 18 years of age worked an average of 66 hours a week compared to couples without children, who worked an

Men and women also have different opinions and reactions to leaving the house for work, Dorment says. Men today want to be better fathers than men in previous generations, men still feel like they have to provide for the family, even if they have wives that bring in forty-five percent of the family income (Dorment 709). This is why men feel as though they can work long hours away from home. They feel as though they are sacrificing time with their kids to provide for the family (even though they may still miss their kids). Women, Dorment points out, have a different reaction to leaving their kids to go to work. They feel guilty and experience

In today’s economy, it is a hard fact that many women will have to enter the workforce. In her article for The Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t have it All”, Anne-Marie Slaughter examines the difficulties faced by women who either have children or would someday like to do so. Having given up on the task of holding a high powered government position while being the mother of a teenager, her kairotic moment, the author discusses the changes that would be necessary in order for women to find a real work-life balance. Although Slaughter 's target audience is primarily women who seek high powered positions, the article contains ample information that should appeal to both men who seek to balance the needs of a growing family with their work responsibilities, as well as workplace policy makers who could help usher in the necessary changes. Her goal in sharing her experiences is to argue that women can succeed at the very top level of their organizations, “But not today, not with the way America’s economy and society are currently structured” (Slaughter).

In Judith Stadtman Tuckers “The Least Worst Choice: Why Mothers Opt out of the Work Place” Judith Stadtman Tucker looks at why hard working, intelligent woman are choosing to leave their high end jobs to stay at home with their children. Judith Stadtman Tucker expresses her option that it is nearly impossible to work 40 hours a week, be available on your off hours as well as raise children. I fully agree with Judith Stadtman Tucker’s point of view that it is absurd to have to be at the mercy of your employer even in your off hours, nor less if you are attempting to create an emotional connection and successfully raise a child. It is no question that even in today’s modern society that it is assumed that woman are the best caregivers for young children. If you are put in a position where you have a child to raise, is it more appropriate to abandon your career or to emotionally abandon your child to a stranger or strangers and allow them to raise it? Judith Stadtman Tuckers argument against mothers having to choose between the joys of parenthood and the freedom of being able to work a career really speaks to me because it makes me consider what I want for my own future and what I would choose.

In the reading, “From the Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home”, Hochschild explains her experience conducting a case study with a series of different women to get their perceptions of their lives as mothers, but also working women. Moreover, she provides good information to start her study. She reports that in 1950, 30 percent of American women were in the labor force, 28 percent of married women with children worked out of home. Today, those numbers have dramatically increased. During her findings, she saw that women felt a responsibility to be able to balance work and life at home, focused more on children, and expressing how overworked or tired they felt. Whereas men in this study expressed that women did most of the work around the house and childcare. In addition, what stood out to me in this reading was that some men felt pleased that their wives received more income than them. For instance, in an interview a man expressed, “was more pleased than threatened by her

Past researches either supported or opposed the perceived incompatibility between motherhood and employment (Pacaut et al, 2012). This study revealed an increase in work interruption among women who began working before having children. It also showed a big decline in the gap that separates women with children and those without. The study concluded that changing attitudes towards mothers' work did not appear to ease the balance of work and motherhood. These attitudes include the availability of daycare

Suzanne Bianchi, John Robinson and Melissa Milkie’s Changing Rhythms of American Family Life were able to document that “mothers are spending as much time with the children as forty years ago, fathers were doing more at home and there is more gender equality” (Bianchi et al 2006, 169). In their data it showed the trend of workloads for both fathers and mothers to have increased “from 55 to 64 estimated weekly hours between 1965 and 2000 households with married parents” (Bianchi et al 2006, 171). This could attributed to that there was a big change that occurred that allowed more women and mothers to enter the workforce. Corresponding to the female participants in my sample that want to continue to work and further their career. Furthermore,

Today approximately 13. 7 million single parents in America with 82.2% of them being single mothers as told by Time Magazine, these mothers all somewhat attempt to make ends meet even though women earn 30% less money than men. This derives from the lingering opinion that women are less able to conduct work than men or the opinion that women should solely be kept at home as housewives, cooking and cleaning. However, single mothers ranging from Mary Ann Moore, who works 10 hour shifts to help support her four children, to Angel Gordan mother of six who has no job, these women find ways to make ends meet. Women carry in their bodies’ the future minds of America. They labor

According to Gilson, “Working moms pick up more child care and household duties than working dads—about 80 minutes more every day. Meanwhile, dads enjoy nearly 50 more

Women have to encounter many different hardships to survive in society. Our own society places obstacles in front of women to have a capitalist country that men control everything. The theme is presented in the assigned readings are the reality that many individuals are facing in making a home, and working all at the same time. However, in one assigned reading, The Mommy Tax states the decision making that mothers have to do to be mothers in the United States. Mothers have to try to find a balance in being a good mother and having a successful career. “American women, in particular, are stunningly unaware that their “choices” between a career and a family are much more limited than those of women in many European counties…”(Crittenden pg.349).

Hochschild also provides a number of surprising and relevant statistics about women in the labor market. For instance, 45% of people coming to work these days are women and, furthermore, “the majority of women workers are mothers (Hochschild, xix).” Hochschild goes on to futher note that “...55 percent with children one and under are in paid work, about half of them full time (Hochschild, xix).” But what is perhaps even more striking is that “Fifty-five percent of working women now earn about half or more of family income: 18 percent of those provide it all (Hochschild, xix).” And even though there are increasing numbers of women (including mothers) in the workplace,

The effect economic stratification has on mothers in the workplace has placed many mothers at financial disadvantages. Motherhood is one of the most important jobs in the world and it is one of the least valued. There are many disadvantages mothers face while working a part-time or full-time job. However, working outside the home has become a financial struggle for many. The struggle to balance work, home, and family does not equal the amount of pay many receive. Crittenden (2001), emphasized the fact that some mothers are forced to make the decision to give up their professional careers to raise their children (Page 4). Workplaces are not as flexible to women who are raising children. Raising children is a full-time job that consists of being available at any time. Many employers feel that mothers are not dependable as non-mothers which create discrimination among mothers.

In most modern industrialized countries, the proportion of working mothers with children under 18 greatly increased in the last few decades of the 20th century, to the point that one-half of all mothers with children under 5 are in the workforce.

Mothers are very passionate about their choice to work or stay at home with their children. This is a heated debate about what is best for children and who is the better mother. Just in the last generation more mothers are choosing to work, which is also sparking some conflict in families where grandparents felt it was important to stay at home with their children. This paper compares and contrasts both sides of working and being a stay at home mother. While there is no right or wrong answer to the work and family dilemma, it’s important to understand both sides.

A major advantage of being a working mother is the income that she brings into her home. The more money that is brought into the home, the more the family can do and have. Let’s look at a certain situation: a family of four with two working parents. With two incomes coming into the household, there is more financial room to spend money on what they may please. The family can have a nicer home, cars, and clothes. Let’s not forget vacations. With more income coming into the household the family may be able to afford to go on extravagant vacations, or maybe can vacation more often. Another perk with the income of a working mother is that her family will never have to worry about not having anyone to watch her children. Instead of paying a babysitter or dropping the kids off at mom and dads the family has the option of putting the children in daycare, or even hiring their own nanny to watch the kids while the parents work. However, more family income isn’t the only perk of being a working mom.