Why Working Mothers are Bad for the Family Essay

All housework does not necessarily need to be left for women to do but if there could be the division of labor, then a lot of burdens will be lifted off their backs.

It seems that women workers have reached a plateau in society. In order for women to be respected (as men are) in the workplace there needs to be a redistribution of domestic and family work. It’s acceptable now for women to work; but this acceptance into the workforce has not drastically changed what they, women, are expected to perform at home. There is no way for women to move forward to equality in pay if they are not recognized as contributers to their job (i.e. women are still expected to perform outside of work in the family setting as well in a way that men are only expected to perform at work and not at home).

Since women’s acceptance in the labour market the typical Australian family being ‘male breadwinner’ have been replaced by ‘dual income’ families where one partner works full-time while the other works part-time (Chesters 2011). As a result, there was an adjustment in the division of domestic labour where it became more equal as couples divide their time between paid and unpaid work (Chesters 2013). According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS 2009) gender roles in housework became more flexible whilst women participate in paid employment. Men would spend more time doing ‘core female’ domestic activities such as cooking and laundry and less time on outdoor activities such as home maintenance and lawn mowing (ABS 2009). In addition, men take on a greater role with regard to childcare where they spend more of their care time on play activities, these activities are normally done the same time as other activities (ABS 2009). However, some research has found that the ‘more dependent husbands are on their wives for income the less housework’ they would do in order to protect their masculinity (Baxter, Hewitt & Western 2009). Although there is hardly any difference in time spend on household work between full-time and part-time employed men it is is evident unemployed men spend only between 4 and 5 hours more doing housework as

Society has told us for the last hundreds of years that the woman’s job around the house as shown in Figure 1 is to cook, clean, and take care of the family. One man, Tom Junod, who

First of all, Dorment makes many points in his essay responding to Slaughter essay. He starts by trying to show that men and women have equal opportunities. Also, there is not gender advantageous in 2013. He also claims that men and women have roughly the same number of workload hours weekly including the hours of work at home and outside the house. Dorment claims that men get involved and help with the house work more than men 30 years ago. He also says that sometimes men do not help with the house work because they spend more hours in their jobs than women do. In addition, he thinks that men do not as much as women do in the house work since there is the expectation that women would do the majority of the house work. Also, sometimes women do not like the way that men do the house work because it is different from the way the women do it which make them think it is the wrong way. Dorment makes another point which is that men nowadays have better relationships with their

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 tend to spend more time doing unpaid work than men such as being home taking care of kids, housework, preparing for food and also taking care of the elders. About 70 per cent of women with children have done double duties (going to paid work and then coming home doing some housework too). A lot of women tend

Whether it is the past or the present, there have always been gender roles in society. In most homes, it is the woman’s responsibility to take care of the house. This includes cleaning, meal preparations, raising and taking care of the children as well as the husband. Compared to the men who take care of the more physical activities, such as yard work. It was known throughout many years that it was a woman’s responsibility to stay in the house while the man would go out and look for work to provide money for his family. Although the intensity of gender roles has changed, it still exists.

Women’s role within the household has changed considerably over a period of time. In the later days in the United States women were to attend to the children and to the house and not do much more than that. Children are now being raised by stay at home dads instead of the stereotypical stay at home moms. According to Gardner, "Real-life families have changed considerably since 'Mr. Mom ' appeared, with more men sharing child-rearing and household chores." (Gardner 2010) This is occurring because women’s jobs are no longer labeled as being just for women. Men have gotten a lot of criticism for being stay at

“Wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry” (Kincaid). A little girl is being told that she needs to do the jobs around the house now and when she’s older so her house is in tip-top shape. “Gender stereotypes begin the second a baby’s gender if found out.” (Brewer). They are taught at a young age to do work around the house to help the mother, to tend to their husbands and to be a homemaker (PBS). “Women are supposed to cook and do housework. Women are responsible for raising children” (Brewer). That is what

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.

“A man may work from dusk to dawn, but a woman`s work is never done.” Throughout the piece “Cleaning: The Final Feminist Frontier” by Jessica Grose, she explains why she feels American women are raised to feel as if they`re meant to be housewives and housewives only. Many young American women just like Grose grow up feeling as if “a woman’s work is never done.” Grose`s piece was published in the New Republic in 2013, Jessica argues that although men have stepped up somewhat from the Eisenhower era and started taking more care of their children but they still do not do half as much cleaning as women do. Personal accounts, facts, statistics, logos, ethos, and pathos are all writing techniques that Grose uses throughout her article to further

First of all, I would like to extend my appreciation to you for addressing one of the major issue being faced by many American women and women across the world. Your argument’s validity is clear as the men in American society hardly participate in house cleaning and they prefer to take care of children or dishes such small tasks than splitting the housework. In contrasting with men and women’s participation in house cleaning, I think you have successfully used ethos, pathos and logos to both sides of men and women perspective across the world.

Conventionally, females played a very insignificant role in the paid work force of a society as many times they were expected to be home taking care of their family. Their roles at home can often include grocery shopping, meeting all the needs of her children and husband. As time moved on, our society became more accepted of sharing housework between the couples, but even so, the traditionally more feminine housework such as cooking, caring for sick children, and shopping for the entire family are mostly done by the females of the house. It is argued in a research journal Work and Occupations (Witkowski & Leicht, 1995) that in an average North American family, females take on roughly three-quarters of the housework. Even though we are in a democratic society, parenting roles in the household are assigned based on gender rather than in a democratic fashion (Winslow-Bowe, 2009). Because of the many responsibilities and obligations that are associated with the female gender, their career paths are eventually affected for the worse. According to Statistics Canada (2001), for every dollar a man earns, a single woman earns 93 cents and a married woman earns 69 cents. These statistics

This economic contribution, argues Baxter (2002:406) essentially translates to an increase in bargaining power within the household, which is actualised by decreased involvement in domestic duties. Curtis (1986:180, as cited in Brines, 1994:657) suggests that the power differential occurs because women are expecting an ‘unspecified benefaction’ to be decided, and provided by their partners at a future date. This use of housework as a ‘social exchange’ (Brines, 1994:657) is problematic, in that the amount of accumulated housework performed by a wife outweighs the monetary benefit provided to the household by the husband (Sullivan, 2000:442).