Assignment 8
1. According to Hochshild, what is the “Second Shift?”
According to Arlie Hochschild, the “Second Shift” is defined as the second full time job in a day that involves housework, childcare and extra curricular family activities and duties.
2. Briefly describe the story of Evan and Nancy Holt.
Nancy Holt is a 30 year-old social worker, feminist, egalitarian and a clearly overworked mom of Joey. Evan Holt is a 30 year-old warehouse furniture salesman who views himself as the MAN of the house. Joey has a greater attachment to Nancy. Evan tries to engage in father-son activities however, Nancy can make it challenging by tagging along. Joey also has difficulty with bedtime. The task of putting Joey to bed every night has escaladed into an enormous chore resulting with Joey sleeping their bed. Aside from this, Nancy has negotiated many scenarios with Evan to split up the household responsibilities. She did not want to be treated like the way her father treated her mother – like a doormat. Evan, on the other hand, was mostly left to care for himself. His mother was not a picture perfect mom. Evan feels that Nancy should not be above him and she should be the one to care for him. The unfairness in sharing the home responsibilities left them fighting, in disagreement and there was a decline in sexual compatibility.
3. Hochschild argues that families create “myths” about their division of household labor. Describe the family myth created by Nancy and Evan Holt.
The family myth created by Nancy and Evan was called, “upstairs and downstairs”. By using this method, they have solved their division of labor issues and started to build up their families happiness. Upstairs was Nancy’s section – living room, dining room, kitchen, bedrooms and bathrooms. Evan was in charge of the downstairs – garage, car and the dog.
4. According to Hochschild, what is the purpose of family myths?
The purpose of family myths is to find a common ground to make both parties feel important within the home and to find a fair way to divide household labor.
5. Was this reading surprising to you and why? How do you imagine you will divide family work (including child care) in your own marriage or cohabitation
I was not surprised about the labor issues in Nancy and Evan’s story. I think there are a few of us in this class that are married or cohabiting and have a better understanding and can contribute more comments on. I imagine the division of labor will always have a gender issue on who does what in the relationship. Mothers tend to do more of the laundry, house-cleaning, cooking and child-care while the fathers stereotypically retract from these duties. Maybe there should be another clause in the marriage vows on division of housework.
In my marriage, my husband was completely involved in every aspect of my pregancies and child-care. He went to every doctor appointment, every false labor run and every trip to Babies-R-Us. He was a fantastic diaper changer and bottle feeder. Now that my kids are older, he never misses a school activity, sporting event or father-daughter anything. Now…..when it comes to the house work……he is not the best. He recently has become more helpful with cleaning up after dinner and keeping the kids busy while I study. After that, he does not clean like I clean. I may bit** and moan that there is too much work for me to do but at the same time, he will not do the tasks to my standards so I would re-do anything he “cleaned” anyways. In my house, he is the world’s greatest husband and dad – so the fact that he does not know how to work the washer and dryer is ok by me. I will take the good with the bad.
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