In tenth grade, right before I was about to take a group quiz with three boys in my Algebra II class, I felt the need to ask the question “how much time do we have?” My teacher laughed and replied “You have the whole class period but Mackenna, we all know you’ll be done with the test and finishing up curing cancer before the boys complete question one.” All my life, I’ve been identified as an intelligent person and a strong, assertive leader. I never really thought about where those attributes of myself came from until considering structure and agency. After pondering the notion deeper, I realize that the bulk of my status as a smart woman came from the structures found in my family––particularly my mother’s matriarchal role. However, the …show more content…
In that regard, it could be argued she became the matriarch based on “the character of the leader” (Golding lecture), fulfilling the charismatic leader ideal type. However, it’s hard to say she didn’t garner some of my respect because she represented a traditional, “well-established form of power” (Golding lecture): parental. I was born knowing I needed to respect my parents because it was a social fact: parents respect their children. However, based on the patriarchal society in which we live, I should thus respect my father’s power because the structure I live in would teach me that. Yet, I grew up knowing my mother is the powerhouse in the family. Thus, my mother the matriarch, lies somewhere in the middle of the Venn diagram of Weber’s three ideal power types.
Even though I grew up in a family where my mother was not the traditional homemaker and my family never pressures me to want children, I still feel the pressure to become a mother and a homemaker. On a microcosmic level, in my family structure, my mom splits her time between work and being a homemaker. She works at an office in Phoenix two days a week and then works from home the other three. Originally, she decided to work in this fashion when my brothers and I were all in elementary school and we couldn’t afford after school care or a babysitter five days a way. Thus, the socioeconomic pressures and social fact that children
My eighth grade year of Middle school. I had many challenges, with making friends and subjects. But one challenge was mathematics.I knew my eighth grade year was most important when it came transferring into my high school years, yet I didn’t do anything to raise my grade in mathematics at that time. It wasn’t until two I had a very low grade in mathematics on my report card at that I realized I needed to do something about my low grade. So after that report in math, I really was determined to really bring that F up to at least a B or A. So I remember I started to go to after school tutoring to get help with my math subject. They placed me with a teacher named Ms.Alice. And she really helped me with my subject.
The modern day woman works outside of the home, but then returns and continues to take care of housework and the children. Sociologists refer to this part of the woman’s day as the, “Second shift.” Two studies conducted found that if a man is more economically dependent on his wife, he is less likely to do housework. However, no evidence suggests that becoming economically independent makes marriage any less desirable for a woman. The family is the initial agent of socialization in their child’s life, however, even though the mother of the family may have the job with longer hours and better pay, the parents will still reinforce traditional gender roles in their household (Thompson 301-302.) This behavior can cause a child to embrace the stereotype that the woman’s only role is to cook, clean, and take care of the children. Even if a woman is the primary
Women feel more obligated to stay at home or work part time if they have children. Even if they share household chores with their spouses, many women still prefer to work less in order to sustain the home. However, women who are single mothers do not have the luxury to stay at home, and working part time may be the only option they have. For single mothers working is imperative in order to keep the family afloat financially, but with all of the commitments they have, they cannot balance everything. Childcare is essential, because while single mothers are working they need a reliable place to send their young children; the same with single fathers as well. Most women in the work force have children to take care of, and families to provide for, which many take as a decrease of masculinity, and the increase of femininity. On the contrary, many studies show that although the labor force is divided, the household is not and do a lot to maintain the household as well. According to Hertz and Marshall (2001), “Men who participate in more companionate activities with their children (such as play, leisure activities, and TV watching) are no more likely to take on other household chores than less-involved fathers. It is only men who participate in nurturing, are more nearly partners in family work. Men are also more likely to
When highly paid professional women leave jobs to stay home and take care of their children they are considered ?good mothers?. Also, when they do decide to work outside the home they are judged as ?selfish? and ?bad mothers?. However, the expectation of poor women is the exact opposite. Poor women are often criticized for staying home to take care of their children and are expected to leave the home and work for wage in order to receive the ?good mother? approval from society.
My memories are blurry. They are fragments of disjointed moments, without a linear narrative. I remember reading. It was in Mrs. Davidson first grade class. My reading proficiency skills were very poor, the English language still thick and unnatural on my tongue. While some of the other students took a Gifted class, I had to take a remedial course—English Learners (EL)— just so that I could hold onto the edge. I remember reading. I had a hard copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar in my little hands, reciting only the first page of the book from memory. The classroom was dark; the stream of sunlight filtering through the windows served as our only illumination. The rest of the words on the book looked like a mess of jumbled letters. I couldn’t make out anything other than the words “the” and “and.” I remember enthusiastically pointing out my “fluency” to my teacher, seemingly applauding my menial abilities: “The catpater at droo!” (The caterpillar ate through). In the first-grade, my free time was spread sporadically between watching The Little Mermaid, catching ugly black crickets and pretending that I was Sailor Moon, guardian of the galaxy. In the first grade, I was not at all concerned with words, literacy and books. In the first grade, I did not know the power that words hold. I did not know that books would change my life.
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,
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 vast majority of Americans (79%) rejected the notion that women should return to their traditional role in society. Yet when they were asked what is best for young children, very few adults (16%) said that having a mother who works full time is the “ideal situation.” Some 42% said that having a mother who works part time is ideal and 33% said what’s best for young children is to have a mother who doesn’t work at all. Even among full-time working moms, only about
Every school year fifth graders face a big change from the lives they are used to. Middle School. It is our job as upperclassmen to assist these new sixth graders. These students need our advice, and help, to make sure they live out their middle school years correctly. The finest piece of advice I can give any student starting middle school is to plan out all your middle school years.
On the other hand higher class women, who decide to stay at home to take care of their children are sometimes criticized for their decisions. In today’s time, deciding to stay at home to take of the family and the household is not regarded as being “respectable” but rather has a negative connotation. This type of criticism often times come from women, who believe that with the evolution of
Many women have careers before they began their family. But once the first child arrives, it is time to decide whether to be a stay-at-home mom or to go back to work. There are many factors that go into this decision and it is different for every family. Making a decision to stay at home with the children or join the workforce can be a difficult process. I have been fortunate to experience being a stay-at-home mom for three years. I’ve come o realize the benefits of becoming a stay-at-home mom versus a working mom is having more time with the children, less stress, and it saves financially.
It was August 9th, a Thursday; the first day of school. The beginning of what every set of parents said, ‘that the beginning of 8th grade would change our lives forever.’ One of the reasons is for the next four years I’ll be seeing my parents, my two best friends’ parents, and the parents of our crushes too! The second reason is because in our town 8th grade is when you meet your soulmate, your one true
Before 2nd grade, I rarely ever had problems being in front of large groups of people. Every year in elementary school, we had a concert where we sing in a program. Second grade was different; it was the year that my fear of public speaking was created. It was the creation of one of my biggest demons. Our second grade program was an absolute disaster because we had to do the program twice. The first time, it was a stormy night and a tornado was spotted in the area. The second time, a boy in my class got sick in the middle of it and threw up all over another little girl in my class. Seeing that made me instantly sick to my stomach. I was always afraid to throw up in front of people since that experience.
I graduated from Fairview High School, where I experienced many things, and one of the things that stood out to me the most was the failure I experienced my sophomore year as a student there. I had never done so poorly in school until that year, and doing so changed my entire character. My first semester as a sophomore at Fairview I received a 1.667 GPA, and a 1.286 GPA the second semester. When my final grades were given to me I didn’t even know what those numbers meant, and definitely didn’t have a clue on what they meant to my future. You may find it hard, or funny to believe that someone in his second year of high school doesn’t know what a GPA is, but I am a first generation student, and back then I had no idea how much that GPA was going
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.