MAKING A HOME MAKING A LIVING Chapter 7 Overview Relationships Home and Family Marriage and Domestic Partnership The Ideal Nuclear Family Marriage is thought to be an essential part of a woman s life The nuclear family is touted as the centerpiece of American life The idea of committed partnership seems to hold across sexual orientation Define nuclear family a heterosexual couple married for life with children the father is the provider while the wife mother spends her days running the home AKA the traditional family Demands for gay marriage in the interest of equal treatment for LGBTQ couples is an interesting counterweight to feminist critiques of marriage as inherently patriarchal This mythic family makes up a minority of U S families today Its masks and delegitimizes the diversity of family forms and gives no hint to violence of conflicts Defining Women s Work ALL WOMEN IN THE WORLD WORK There are four kinds of women s work in the U S 1 Paid work in the formal sector 2 Reproductive work housework and raising children 3 Work in the informal sector 4 Transformational work Volunteering Gendered division of labor in the home has been a similar distinction between women s and men s waged work In waged work there are gendered double standards Ex Women supervisors are seen as aggressive whereas men are seen as direct Balancing Home and Work The Second Shift The term that sociologists have given to the fact that most women employed outside the home still carry major responsibility for housework and raising children This is particularly acute for single parents There has been a changed to the gendered division of work with more women spending more time on waged work and different attitudes on what men should contribute to the household Caring for Children For many families childcare is a major expense Parents struggle to afford childcare and childcare workers are underpaid Many women need flexible work schedules so that they can look after children or aging parents Many women choose jobs that are low pay or have no benefits The mommy track in professional work forces women to combine family life with working long hours Women s Economic Security Education The more education a woman has the more likely she is to be employed and the higher her earnings Women have made steady gains in educational attainment across racial ethnic groups Today more women than men enroll in undergraduate and graduate programs A lack of educational qualification is a key obstacle in for many women Women s Economic Security cont Working and Poor Pensions Disability Payments and Welfare Some advocates have argued for a living wage that reflects regional variances and the cost of living Women s pensions are significantly lower than those paid to men because women generally earn less than men Others use a Self sufficiency standard that provides a measure of income needed to live at a basic level without public or private assistance 68 of women over 65 rely on Social Security for 50 of their income or more The majority of those in the working age population who experience long term poverty have a disability In public debate poor people are usually assumed to be on welfare masking the reality for many working poor people Welfare payments are based on the concept of public assistance Myths about welfare recipients stigmatizes though who rely on it It is important to note that many people in the U S receive some kind of govt support Feminist Approaches to Marriage Family and Work Feminist scholars policy makers and activists have argued for shared parental responsibility for child care payment of child support and redrawing the terms of divorce so that both post divorce households would have the same standard of living Feminist advocates have encouraged women to return to school to improve their educational qualifications opposed sexual harassment on the job exposed the dangers of occupational injury and the health hazards of toxic work environments as well as argued for women in senior positions in all fields Feminist researchers have pointed to the feminization of poverty most poor people are women and their children Pro Family Policies for the U S Provide financial support for full time child care Create more jobs Raise wages to a living wage level Mandate equal pay for comparable work Provide financial support to cover housing and health costs Expand the safety net through unemployment insurance temporary disability insurance or welfare payments Provide affordable and accessible education and training for all Promote community based economic development Introduce fairer tax structure that benefits people in the lower tax brackets Toward a Redefinition of Home and Work Elevating the ideal of the nuclear two parent family is a major contradiction in contemporary U S society Regardless of form a family should be able to take care for family members emotionally ad materially promote egalitarian relationships share parenting do away with a gendered division of labor teach children nonsexist antiracist and anticlassist attitudes and pass on cultural heritage If current trends continue many young people in the U S especially young people of color will never be in regular full time employment in their lives Low educational attainment low wages having children and divorce all work against women s economic security