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Women at Work Essay

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Assignment: Article summary

The article "Family Coping Strategies: Balancing Paid Employment and Domestic Labour" by Meg Luxton sheds a different view on the responsibilities laid out in family life. In today's society it's almost a necessity to have both parents working, to support a family. This fact, along with the improvement of females having independence, is the cause of the ever growing number of working women. These, along with many other statistics are showing the rapid improvement and change that woman and families are showing. Year after year we can see the dynamics of the family shifting. It is not the same anymore, that women are the housewives doing all the housework and childcare. However women still have to work to get …show more content…

Having a job gives women a sense of control of their lives and an overall high self-esteem because they are recognized by their husbands as well as children for their work. Not only does it give women something to do, it also ensures stability in one's family income.
Here are a few statistics that demonstrate the challenge of balancing paid employment and domestic labor within the family setting in Canada. This challenge arises because of the inequalities between what men and women earn in the work force and also because of the uneven distribution of chores in unpaid domestic labor. If we compare salaries in 1997, men had the higher income of the couple in 77% of Canadian families. (Globe and Mail 21 Feb. 2000). This situation has however improved since the early 60's when 70% of women in male-female couples were dependent on their spouse as the sole income provider. (Oderkirk, Silver and Prud'homme 1994.) Also when couples divorced men's incomes raised on average 10% whereas women's income usually decreased by 23% in 1997(Toronto Star 10 April 1997). Women feel pressured to work from home or part-time because they are often expected to do most of the domestic labour and this is their way to balance the two. In 1993 they represented nearly 70% of Canadian

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