Women at Work Essay

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

In our society, we carry an ideological assumption that a “normal” family consists of the man working to provide for the family and the women takes on the role of stay-at-home mom (Dow 1992).

During the 1920’s, the ideal family would be the dad would be the breadwinner and provide for the family, and the mother would be the housewife who would cook, clean, and watch the kids. There seems to be a similar pattern in today’s society. Men are less frequent to take a paternity leave than women, which results in a gender imbalance in employment (Pesonen). This defaults to sex stereotypes in the balance work and family demands between men and

Foremost, the familial image has undertaken significant changes in regards to the ‘breadwinner’ and ‘homemaker’ roles within the family. In the latter of the 20th century, women’s participation in the labour force had been very little to non-existent, primarily because time allocations had been perceived as gender specific, that is, men were seen as the ‘breadwinner’, while women were viewed as the ‘homemaker’ (Seltzer, Bachrach, Bianchi, Bledsoe, Casper, Chase-Lansdale, Diprete, Hotz, Morgan, Sanders, & Thomas, 2005, pp.20). The ‘breadwinner’ role was to secure financial stability, while the

It was a common understanding prior to this time period, that a family was only successful if each member fulfilled their independent and significant role. Men were expected to work outside of the home, their support for their family came from their labor and toil. Women were expected to work inside of the home, and their support for their family came from doing things such as housework, raising children, and fulfilling their wifely duties. Women’s work was often considered less valuable than a man’s, but it would not be until now, that women and men’s work and their skills both become trivial. The traditional customs that have been followed and practiced for so long have abruptly come to a halt since capitalism has been incorporated into American

The 1960s were a time of social and political identification for American women. Despite the victory of voting rights, women still experienced discrimination in daily life. With the current millenium drawing to a close, women today still express concern of unequal treatment. It is important to glance backwards in history and remember the struggles that our mothers and grandmothers experienced. Thanks to the women of the past, women of the present are able to participate in politics and receive equal pay for equal jobs. The struggle continues, but we conquer more discrimination every year.

The "glass ceiling" has held women back from certain positions and opportunities in the workplace. Women are stereotyped as part-time, lower-grade workers with limited opportunities for training and advancement because of this "glass ceiling". How have women managed their careers when confronted by this glass ceiling? It has been difficult; American women have struggled for their role in society since 1848. Women’s roles have changed significantly throughout the past centuries because of their willingness and persistence. Women have contributed to the change pace of their role in the workplace by showing motivation and perseverance.

Gender plays a huge role in workplace 'success' and can be a big challenge especially if the employee is a woman in a male dominated workplace or career. No matter how 'hard-nosed,' 'ruthless,' 'workaholic' a woman may be, or how much personal success she achieves, there will always tend to be some type of obstacle to keep her from getting completely to the top of the corporate ladder. She must also still fight stereotypes that undermines her confidence or limits her potential. Since the early 20th century, women and minorities have sought equal opportunities in education and in the labor force with little success. These obstacles or barriers are all known as the glass ceiling.

The job market began to shift as the service economy began to grow; this expansion, in turn pulled labor from the family into the market. This shift left two options: (1) the domestic work has to be completed by various market settings (e.g., maid services and babysitters) or (2) the domestic work will need to be compensated by the families with a dual-couple working household. Hochschild notes that of all the women in the labor force 46 percent of them earn less than $10,000 a year. This completely eliminates option one for those in single-income households and even still, this luxury will depend on how much both partner makes. On the other hand, this leaves option two which adds on even more work to do once a person is home from work. Hence, option two is the source of conflict between work and family.

Parsons and Bales’ study of family investigates how the specialized gender roles contributed to the rise of the male-breadwinning family of the 1950s in addition to nuclear families. Unlike the pre industrial style, where there are no divisions of labor between family members, nuclear families are held together by specialized gender roles. Husbands are the instrumental leaders, while wives are expressive leaders of the family. Husbands perform the instrumental role as family financial providers and eventually the man’s job gives his family its social status in the larger society. On the other hand, wives focus on the internal affairs of the family such as domestic work and caretaking work. Wives mainly take care of their children or housework.

The gender division of occupational titles reinforces the traditional gender norms that currently subsist, especially on how women are positioned in today’s society as domestic housewives. The perception of women as domestic housewives of partaking in majority of the household responsibilities compared to men result in their lack of participation in the labour market. The reinforcement of the established gender norms due to occupational segregation encourages women to succeed less thus embedding an idea that they cannot earn an income of their own. This issue can significantly affect single parent women in particular, as they are required to cope with the double burden of limited employment conditions and household duties. Eliminating the gender

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

Initially, the first women entering the workplace did so out of desire. In a post feminist, post-civil right era and spurred on by higher levels of education. Women saw jobs and careers as rights that had previously been denied to them. Women were tired of just being "Big Johns Wife" or "Little Johnny's mommy". They wanted to be known the way men have always identified themselves by their jobs, their careers, and the level of success to which they had risen. Status, not salary, was the prime mover of the first wave of women to assault the previously all male worlds of medicine, and the corporate citadel

As apparent from the data collected, fathers have become substantially involved with their children, even engaging in supposedly and historically feminine and private tasks such as cleaning and feeding. There could be multiple reasons resulting in this outcome for example, Floyd & Morman (2006) shows that fathers that display interest in home and are reserved with the quality of childcare are often married to high-earning wives, making a brilliant point by emphasizing that couples decisions, stay and home fathers and breadwinners mothers experiences, sense of self and interaction are interconnected to construction of the gender roles (Floyd & Morman 2006, p.120). However, it is also present through the comparison of fathers on weekdays and weekends that the private sphere of women fulfilling the domestic labour, whilst fathers are expected to undertake paid work in order to secure their masculinity still remains. The breadwinner myth therefore continues to be attached to men’s relationship to masculinity, as surveys demonstrates that ninety percept of mothers expected the fathers to become the primary earners, even if they are also earning. Full time employment results in 47 hours of dedication per week committed to making money, and studies show that this is likely to increase after children are born (Cunningham-Parmeter, 2013). Furthermore, the pattern of family roles is in opposition to the pattern of wage work, as reinforced in the 2008 Bureau labour statistics, which

The business world today is competitive. It's full of fierce, educated, and motivated people. For some people it's tough to rise to the top and for some people it comes much easier. It's not always about hard work! One might ask for a map to the yellow brick road, but few people are ever provided with it. Most people are stuck in an ocean making calculated guesses as to how they can reach land. Which route is the best? How much school is enough? How many certificates of accreditation is enough? How much work experience is enough? All of us ask these questions attempting to navigate our ships in a competitive world were only a few individuals ever get to their targeted career position. How many of those in leadership positions are women?