Essay On Breadwinner Moms

Stephanie Coontz started off her article about the 50th anniversary of the publication of Betty Friedan’s international best seller, “The Feminine Mystique”, which was written about the women’s movement of the 1960s. What Coontz is trying to explain is that gender equality is not stalled, but “It has hit a wall”. Her title is the opposite of what she is trying to write about in the article. At first she talked about women’s rights back when the book was written. Instead of blaming the beliefs of gender roles from individuals, she points the finger at the economy and the work-family policies as the major problems to gender equality. She explains the gender equality stalled during 1990s and the first few years of the 2000s. She brought into text the usual statics, “the percentage of Americans preferring the male breadwinner/female homemaker family model actually rose to 40 percent from 34 percent. Between 1997 and 2007, the number of full-time working mothers who said they would prefer to work part time increased to 60 percent from 48 percent. In 1997, a quarter of stay-at-home mothers said full-time work would be ideal. By 2007, only 16 percent of stay-at-home mothers wanted to work full time.”(Coontz) She also talked about how 70 percent of men and women want an egalitarian relationship and how the demand of work has intensified.

Women have been discriminated against throughout the history of the United States. Women were typically associated with being “mothers” and having to take care of the children along with other so called home “duties.” They were not allowed to vote until fairly recently. Astonishingly, women in the United States were not allowed to have their own bank account before 1974. There is no reasonable excuse for such restrictions, except to keep women under the control of men. Altogether, the United States’ has a history of discriminating against women. Women have historically been treated as second class citizens, especially in the workplace, which kept them from doing certain jobs that were meant for men. The reality is that women have proven more than capable of doing labor intensive work. World War II proved that women were more than capable of replacing men. Women’s rights in the United States have definitely been improved, but they continue to be discriminated against in the workplace.

From the times of early colonial periods to the bustling age of industrialism, women have been subject to unfair perceptions and treatment in the workforce. During the colonial era of American development, women were confined to the boundaries of their home and forced to care for the well-being of their families (Freedman 12). On the other

The reading, “Taking On the Second Shift” by Melissa A. Milkie, Sara B. Raley and Suzanne M. Bianchi focuses on the gender differences between men and women. The authors claim that the root cause of work discrimination is based on gender, which is affecting many Americans in our contemporary society. Money is what humans need for survival, without money there wouldn’t be an economy. There are stereotypes in our society which dictate how much money we make. As mentioned in class and seen in many studies, women make less money than men.

The consequences of this type of discrimination lead to unequal pay for the same kind of work. “The American Association of University Women is releasing a new study that shows when men and women attend the same kind of college, pick the same major and accept the same kind of job, on average, the woman will still earn 82 cents to every dollar that a man earns” (Coleman) . This embodiment originates from the very popular credence that men provide for women in a family environment and that the wives’ are the parent who care for the children at home, therefore making them more unfocused in their workplace, hence the belief

Large numbers of women have entered into the workforce as the commercial industry has taken over much of what used to be done within the household, such as the production of clothing, baking, food preparation, and the creation of candles and soaps. As women are entering into the workforce they are entering into a environment that discriminates strongly on the basis of gender, social class, race, and ethnicity (Treacy, 2015,). Jobs available to women consist of being a teacher, nurse, medical/business professional, office worker, clerk, factory worker, waitress, or a domestic worker. Despite the variety of jobs available to women, many typically still work within a factory. There is a distinct hierarchy even amongst women within the workforce, the farer your skin and the identity of being an American, the better opportunity for a better job (Treacy,

Even though it was hard for women to receive good paying jobs, in the book The American Promise is stated that “1/3 of all American Women held jobs by the end of the 1950s. However, full-time women workers earned only 60% of what the average male worker made.” (Roark 725) Generally people preferred traditional gender roles and the family life. Not many women challenged this preference society

With the rise of the modern age economic survival has become difficult for families based on a single income. This economic need along with modern attitudes toward gender equality has resulted in women being represented in the workforce in greater numbers. However, until the 1960’s women faced severe discrimination when trying to enter and maintain a position in the workforce. Often qualified women would be passed over for men with less experience and education. Employers were fearful that women were too emotional and were not equipped to handle the stress of the work environment. Also driving the decision to not hire or promote women was the concern over the additional health care expenses and leave time pregnant

Before the 1960s, American women were contained within a rut that hindered them from living equally among American men. According to Dixon (1977), women had been without a voice to articulate the injustice and brutality of women’s place and without instrumentality to fight against their exploitation and oppression for nearly forty years. However, “[from] the late 1960s into the 1980s there was a vibrant women’s movement in the United States” (Epstein, 2001). This movement, fueled by feminism, promised drastic improvement in the lives of American women and also promised to “[…] equalize the status of all women” (Dixon, 1977). Due to the uplifting wave of the 1970s women’s movement, females in America anxiously awaited the freedom to live as

Researchers have proposed a variety of explanations for systematic gender inequality in the workplace. Cultural benefits, the actions of male employees, the actions of the female employees, and the actions of the employer can contribute to intentional or unintentional gender discrimination (Ngo, Foley, Wong, & Loi, 2003). It has also been mentioned that women make less money because their work environment is generally safer than the stereotypical male work environment; childcare, cashiers, and secretary positions as opposed to firefighters, truck drivers and construction workers (Parcheta, Kaifi, & Khanfar, 2013). Perhaps the most dominant reasoning for women receiving less pay is the carrying over of biological roles into the workplace. Female employees often take time off to have a family, take care of a family, and are the primary caregiver of said family.

From the beginning of time the male and female have been expected to perform certain roles in society. Males have been expected to work and provide for their family while the female raises the children, cooks, cleans and keeps the house in order. Today many women have broken that tradition and are starting their careers and becoming more independent. Even though females today are braking away from that stereotype, they are being discriminated in the work place because there are still individuals out there that believe that women should play a certain role and that they are not strong enough to work in a cooperation or

There are common beliefs about working women, including that they are expected to have kids and quit their jobs when they do, they are judged more harshly when voicing their opinions, they are expected to have good ‘soft skills’, they are still seen as secondary to their husbands even if they’re the primary breadwinner, they are perceived as naturally weaker than their male coworkers, and they are judged more on their looks than men. Even though most these stereotypes have mostly disappeared over the past few years, they still exist in some places. Today, women in America are becoming more and more powerful in many areas, especially when it comes to the workforce.

The generation now has made it easier to equalize men and women but there is still a substantial amount of places where gender inequality is still happening in the workplace and where females still face discrimination. Women are often discriminated in the workplace and are usually not promoted as quickly as men are and they also receive less pay. History shows that women have not always been defined as property and thought of as second class citizens. But in the 21st century many have seen a drastic change in the so called “traditional” family ways where women are suppose to stay home and take care of the household chores, food, and children and men are suppose to work to support their family and provide financial stability. Many assume that in the workplace women are more vulnerable and less competent than men because women 's instincts are to put their family before work or anything else. Whereas men are the ones who will usually stay the late hours to work. People on both sides of the political spectrum and everywhere in between seem to be fearful of what is to come and more fearful of others than they are often willing to admit.

Social and institutional contexts for sex discrimination in American life have included the workplace, occupations, wages, income, housing, banking, health care, toys, school, education, employment, consumer marketplace, military, media, religious organizations, and home. Despite a century of social change stimulated by the feminist movement, gender inequality persists.

The sweet smell of candied sweet potatoes and honey ham fill the house. You are just finishing up dinner when your husband walks in the door, “Honey, I'm home!" You greet him with a warm smile, a clean home, and an after-work drink of scotch. You call the children from playing with neighbors in the backyard and they begin to get cleaned up for dinner. You then all proceed to sit around the dinner table enjoying each other’s company and you exchange stories of your day ; Jimmy got an A on his math test ; Mary has met a boy and will be going on a date tomorrow night to the Hop; there is going to be a church bazaar this Saturday. Warm apple pie finishes the evening and the kids are sent up to bed while the two of you watch the evening news.