Situation And Interpersonal Communication Analysis

Referring to the late 1920s and early 1930s, women were seen as the common housewife. This image was depicted across many media platforms. The customary role of women, was to be in charge of running the household. This included polishing, vacuuming, dusting, dishes, laundry and other tasks which needed to be maintained on a weekly or daily basis. It became a full day workload, keeping her constantly busy as if she were employed. It was required for the women of the household to be prepared for anything her husband or family desired. Housework was typically expected to only include maintenance, however, this was not the case. Cooking, cleaning, and overall upkeep was all to be completed by the wife, while the man of the house brought in the money.

Taking a look into the ways of her household solidified the fact that housewives were set apart from their counterparts because of their responsibilities. Their knack for multi-tasking and running a home efficiently was never held to very high standards. Now, with a look into these three women’s homes, it seems that everyone should take with them the notion that no matter the woman’s wealth or social status, her work in the home is pivotal to the success of her family.

Before, women were considered housewives who were in charge of taking care of children and cleaning the house while their husbands worked jobs to sustain their families. As years passed, many things have changed throughout society, including the responsibilities of both men and women. Today, women work and provide for their own family as much as men do. Throughout the years, many roles have changed, but one issue remains which is that most men do not consider house cleaning as a mandatory task. Gross believes that men lack the emotional and physical drive to do a “woman’s job”. Although today more men are contributing to their home chores, there are still many men who leave this to their wives or any woman in general. Men cook and watch for their children, but they do not bother with house cleaning. Most men feel like a clean house is not needed to have a healthy, safe environment for the family, which Gross does not agree with.

This reading greatly ties into our discussion on the politics of housework between parents. During the early years of being married, some couples do not feel the burden of caring for a family because they chose not to have children at that point in time. As Alix Shulman describes in her passage, she and her husband were very content during that time, often shopping, cooking, and spending long walks together on the weekends in Central Park. They wouldn’t need to worry about cleaning too often because their apartment was modest and not too large for a family of two. She notes that during that period of their life, their domestic was beautifully uncomplicated. Suddenly down the road, a couple years later, the couple found themselves distressed when they had their son and daughter. Life became more complicated and at times, “impossible” according to Alix. The reason was that both Alix and her husband automatically accepted the traditional sex roles set in place by society. Alix left her job and became a stay-at-home mom, while her husband was working all day in the office. Alix was used to interacting with people during the day and having a life outside the office as well as the home, but now she was confined to the company of her children, who were preschoolers at the time. Alix was upset because she felt as though her husband’s life changed little when the children were born while her life became 1000x more complicated. She was working more than a 9-5 day job, and she didn’t get compensated for the work either. Preparing six meals a day for different people, spending several hours cleaning a mess that would remain unclean within the next couple hours, due to her children playing, and laundry that was originally done a couple times a month, now is due on a daily basis. Alix never got a break. She once enjoyed reading, but now she can’t even have a private mental life without the constant

Aunts, uncles, grandparents, and other relatives moved into their own dwellings as the model for family became focused on a husband, wife, and their mutual children. Gender roles also changed. Women, who had enjoyed wartime jobs and a relative amount of independence while the men were away at war, were now encouraged to find their identity in caring for their families and homes. “The belief in family as the center of one’s life dictated that women accept their domestic role as the true expression of their womanhood (Larson 3).” Being a wife, and a mother, was all that a 1950s woman should desire. Women spent their days doting on their husbands and children, and doing housework. Despite the innovation of labor-saving appliances such as the washing machine or dishwasher, women spent more time doing chores than women of previous decades ever had. This was partially due to the increasingly demanding standards for cooking and cleaning, but also due to the recent lack of household help in 1950s homes. In the past, especially the Victorian era, many women had maids or nannies to lighten the burden of homemaking, but during the 50s housewives found themselves in charge of caring for both the family and the home (Larson

In America’s society today, the norm of marriage consists of the fundamental idea that husband and wife both work and are independent. The idea that there is an emotional connection between the couples is the reason for the marriage. Andrew J. Cherlin, author of the article “American Marriage in Transition” explores how the transition in marriage occurred and why it affects everyone, and even destroys that one role that wives used to play everyday of their lives. Because of the popular and powerful transition to the modernized, individualized marriage, the role of the housewife has become obsolete.

New houses that were built in the 1950s were perfect for young families because they had families rooms in order to help create this family bond. More and more families were started that the United States created the baby boom. Men were usually always happy because at the end of the work day, they had a warm meal to come home to. According to Housekeeping Monthly, the main goal for a wife was, “Try to make sure your home is a place of peace, order and tranquillity where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.” This ensures that the wife of the family was doing everything she can to maintain a state of peace throughout her home so things can be more enjoyable.

Touch up your makeup, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.” (“This 1955 ‘Good House Wife’s Guide’ Explains How Wives Should Treat Their Husbands.”) A housewife was always to look her best for her husband when he arrived home from work. Also a housewife was suppose to listen to her husband when he arrived home from work and talked she was not to talk and bore him about silly things.

"When, husbands take on household responsibility, they typically choose tasks that do not threaten their masculine self-images ( Weingarten ,1978; Yogev, 1981)" (Biernet & Wortman, 1991). Women have to be a jack-of-all trades, they have to go to work, clean house, drive the children to school, get them ready for bed, and get up to do it all over

Some people have routines at home that they feel must continue. For example, they may vacuum and dust daily, while others may do such duties only occasionally as the need appears to arise. Gender perception and culture can influence daily living tasks. For example, some might find it more acceptable for women to deliver personal care and tend to household tasks because this is how they were brought up. Some people may feel that certain roles should be male or female (for example, the belief may be that women shop and cook dinner while the male is the financial provider).

The road to receiving feedback well is a continuous highway whose only mile-markers are the progress beyond being beholden to the three triggers identified in Stone?s and Heen?s article, Difficult Conversations 2.0. Truth triggers are an emotional response where the recipient chooses to ?focus on what 's wrong with the feedback? (Stone and Heen, 2014, p. 72). This decision to reject feedback simply because part of it is incorrect?or perceived to be incorrect?prohibits a person from evaluating the fit of the feedback and acting on the applicable, useful parts. Overcoming an evocation of a truth trigger requires the receiver to ?dig under the label? (Stone and Heen, 2014, p. 72) and seek more concrete and definitive examples to better understand the feedback. Per Stone and Heen (2014), a relationship trigger comes about when the recipient focuses on who is delivering the feedback rather than what is being said. The relationship trigger tends to arise when the receiver believes the giver either does not have the proper level of insight to give the feedback or they distrust the motives and authority of the deliverer (Stone and Heen, 2014, p. 73).

Women are not the shadows of their husbands. Their roles are much more than the acknowledgment of their spouse. They’re much more than the home keeper and the baby breeders. They play an important role not only in marriage, but also in life. Men are not just their job titles. They’re main priority isn’t just to provide for the home. Home should be equally divided between men and women. Time has change greatly where the roles has either switch or has become equally between the husband and the wife.

Skim and Share Three: Identity and Difficult Conversation I learned quite a bit about myself while reading this excerpt. I’ve noticed myself becoming extremely angry or emotional in past conversations but I never understood why. This excerpt by Douglas, Patton, and Heen, discusses how our identity plays a role in the emotions we experience when having difficult conversations. Most notably, this excerpt discussed the “three things to accept about yourself,” which, to me, was especially enlightening.

Christensen, K. (2011, Spring). Difficult conversations: How to address what matters most. Rotman Magazine, 22–27.

Transition: I want to you take these two points and understand them through my story and my perception.