Textbook Reading Guide Chapters 6 7 8 9 Chapter 6 Trends in women s employment and labor force participation and reasons o Women s labor force participation has been increasing it has been increasing at a faster rate than men s and has been increasing for every race Women now make up 47 of the workforce Women of childbearing age have especially high rates of labor force participation and there is also a rapid rise in percentage of married women with children As of now dual earner families outnumber breadwinner families o Three things have changed women s work patterns changes in the economy decline in real earnings and personal fulfillment Changes in the economy The transition of the economy from a manufacturing to a service economy creates a labor market with more jobs that traditionally hire women Women have since taken 80 of the new jobs created in this economy Decline in real earnings Personal fulfillment The male family wage is not a reality this means men no longer earn enough to support a wife and children Unless both partners have jobs many families are unable to economically survive by paying rent mortgage bills insurance premiums etc Women working outside the home since the 60 s and 70 s has started to break the social and ideological barriers to women working Work gives women pride worth identity and they want to be rewarded for it Others realize it is in their best long term interest to be employed Trends in the employment and labor force participation of men and reasons o The increase in paid employment for women coincides with a decline in employment for men which means their labor force participation has been decreasing since 1960 Declines are steeper for African American men while Hispanic men are more likely to be employed than White or African American men White men leave the workforce for retirement while minorities leave because of the discouraged worker effect o Three macro level reasons for the decline structural unemployment redistribution of jobs and the low income generating capacity of jobs Due to the economy shifting to a more service oriented manufacturing jobs are less needed Since men are most traditionally hired in manufacturing settings they are losing their jobs Men were losing more jobs during the Great Recession than women Men now going into sales In short macro level conditions don t let men be the sole breadwinner anymore Trends in teen employment o Teen labor force participation has declined since the late 1970 s steeper decline since 2000 This trend applies to both summer employment and year round employment Those still working are working fewer hours than in the past Many are doing freelance work instead of formal employment this makes it difficult to track Top five industries employing teens are eating and drinking places grocery stores miscellaneous entertainment and services construction and department stores Education relates to teen s decreased labor force participation Likelihood of teen employment is related to social class and race those in higher income families are more likely to been employed It depends if teen employment is beneficial Research finds that long hours in hazardous environments is bad but supervised environments is good Positive work experiences promote responsibility and self respect for employed teens o The work family interference is the ways in which the connections between jobs and family life may be a source of tension for workers and family members This means that they are not separate worlds they are very much intertwined o Spillover is the transfer of moods feelings and behaviors between work and family settings This is one way that the work family relationship is expressed Spillover is a gendered thing because men s work stress is more likely to affect their family life and women s family stress is more likely to affect their work life Spillover can be positive or negative o Positive spillover no examples provided in the book o Negative spillover Work to family spillover is more negative and more common than Work family interference Spillover Work family role system family to work spillover o Demands of the family intrude more on women s work than on men s work o The work family role system is the traidional uneven division of labor in which men s work role takes priority over the family role and women even those who are employed are to give priority to the family role This means that when a child is sick in school the mother is expected to deal with them allowing the fathers to continue working Work hours total demand vs 40 hour week for individuals o Both men and women work longer hours than they did 20 years ago The standard 40 hour a week job doesn t seem like too much but it is when dual earner families have two 40 hour a week jobs causing the total demand to be overwhelming Research on parental time with their children 1975 2000 o Parents are now spending more of their non working hours with their children than 25 years ago This is because leisure time is becoming more family oriented Hochchild s research Second shift and hours o Hochschild finds that men and women are choosing to work longer hours because they escape family pressures and take refuge in the efficiency predictability and camaraderie of the workplace Hochschild also finds that for them work was more like family and family was more like work o Second shift is the term that refers to a women s responsibilities for housework child care and home management that women must do in addition to their labor in the workforce Interaction work emotion work consumption work kin work o Interaction work is work that women do to sustain communication with their mates o Emotion work is the work of trying to find the right feeling to make and keep everything fine An example of this is a mother who tries to promote a positive father child relationship by offering suggestions for activities or by mediating disputes between fathers and children o Consumption work is the work which involves selecting goods and making purchases and links the needs of the families with products in the market o Kin work includes maintaining contact and connections among kin as well as providing care and assistance to family members in other households This involves taking responsibility for the upkeep and ritual celebration of kin ties includes visits letters phone calls presents cards holiday gatherings etc Includes taking care of elderly parents Kin work is sometimes called