During the 1900’s women’s main purpose was to get married and look after her husband and children, they were treated as second class citizens with few rights. Women were burdened with heavy duty unpaid domestic work within the home. Life for women then consisted of backbreaking housework, without electricity and household aids. Young girls were expected to help with household chores even when they were in full time employment, whilst young boys were exempt from such chores.[1]…
She had interest in parenting styles, racial issues, and social class. She conducted a research on parenting styles, it was called concerted cultivation vs. natural growth. She and her researchers studied over 80 families. Lareu instructed the families to pay attention to their kids. To spend time with them when they had free time. She called this strategy “the family dog.” Annette discovered that the working class parents pursed an approach called “accomplishment of natural growth.” Whereas middle class families used an approach called “concerted cultivation.” The working class family, had their children exposed mostly to the outdoors, more often you would find them playing with their friends from their neighborhood or siblings. And as for parents in the working class, they spent more time working and waiting for their transportation, they didn’t have time to spend with their children. Working class parents also tended to be more authoritarian. These kids didn’t question anyone with authority. For example, their teachers, principals, or anyone with a higher position. These children were described as quiet, mellow, and uninvolved. They called this parenting style “accomplishment of natural growth.” Furthermore, children in the middle class were completely different from the working class. Their families had more time to spend with them whereas working class didn’t. These families treated their children like “the family dog.” They were accompanied by their parents to their appointment, sport practices, and school activities. These parents made their kids go from one activity to the other. The children in the middle class families were more involved in after school activities and outside clubs. These parents adapted a strategy called “concerted cultivation.” As a result these children questioned authority more and were less quiet. Annette gives an example of this. She describes a little boy named Alex that comes from…
According to Pateman, men consider woman natural dependence, always in need of defending and male protection. In the welfare state, this notion of protection relates to economic stability through non-domestic employment, a form of citizenship. Employment gives employees a stake in the larger society, a feeling of a civic community. In the private sector, the male is the breadwinner and protector of the family’s societal status. In the contemporary era, women hold jobs and professions, but are still excluded from citizenship. Women face high segregation and pay inequity, which occurred because “capitalist economies are patriarchal…[and] are clustered at the lower end of the lower end of the occupational hierarchy.” Women have been excluded from the labor force, but now that they are forced to undertake unskilled and low paying professions or other professions that perpetuate their roles as nurtures or caretakes. Such roles reduce any chance of women enjoying citizens in the traditional path that men do. Pateman made compelling arguments. However, her criticisms of the welfare state seem to discredit the successes it has in alleviating some of the burdens of property. Further, welfare aids individuals without financial or political means to feel as participants in society. Patenam could have used more contemporary examples (1980s) to expand her argument. Whereas Patenam’s piece focused on the…
“Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, we are just two people. Not that much separates us (p. 530).” Descriptions of historical events of the early activities of the civil rights movement are sprinkled throughout the novel, as are relations between the maids and their white employers. The novel is filled with details from the early-1960s culture in the United States like Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous march on Washington…
Campbell divides her book into five primary chapters; each of which discuss a variety of issues and themes supplemented thoroughly with examples of accounts. Chapter one demonstrates the vital role which women, particularly as mothers, played within the home in order to ensure economic survival. Additionally, this chapter discusses the influence and importance of society’s view of just what a “good wife/mother” was including class differences. Survival through domestic work (e.g. nutrition, clothing, keeping house, budgeting) and informal labour (e.g. taking in laundry, sewing, prostitution, taking boarders) served as staples for women and mothers alike during this era. Campbell also discusses and provides insights on the matters of single motherhood, employed married women – who were largely subject to public ire for taking the jobs of men especially if their husband also had a job-- and women deserting their families. This chapter, much like the second focuses on the roles, duties and expectations placed upon women and men in regards to their families. Chapter two continues on such topic with its focus being on men. This particular chapter demonstrates the stresses placed upon the family as men -- the quinticental…
During the postwar period gender social status roles were being reshaped within both Australian and American societies, as women were beginning to become more involved within the workforce and gain economic independence. While these roles where beginning to change in Australia and America, prejudice gender inequalities continued to within domesticity roles through the use of family wages and the within education systems. Cohen also explores the inequalities of postwar women within American where women veterans were excluded from education systems including as women where portrayed as being less superior to men and perceived as only having an economic and social citizenship causing women to lose their wartime jobs and return back into the household,…
Carol is a ‘working class’ single mother, she works hard to ‘keep us (Carol and her son, Victor) afloat’ after her ex husband ‘shot through’ a few years ago. He left debts that Carol had to pay off, leaving her working everyday ‘in someone else’s grotty shower’ not only to support herself and Victor but also to pay off the debts and send Victor to school. The mistress of the house is condescending. This is ironic because she has book written by ‘the likes of Germaine Greer’ and other feminists. It would be assumed that she is a feminist from looking at her bookshelf, however the way she treats Carol with ‘patronizing notes on floral paper’ it becomes unthinkable. The mistress accuses Carol of stealing ‘five-hundred-dollar earrings’ which Victor and Carol know is not true, because she ‘would only open a draw to put a clean knife or fork away’. Carol is suffering in this household because she must uphold her reputation and not kick up a fuss, so she shows that she is better than the mistress by leaving her final paycheck and the key to the house on a the bench. Carol is trapped by Victor, because she has such high hopes for him and his career in Law that she works everyday ‘on her knees’ to earn money so he can learn what she didn’t have the chance to. It is known that Carol…
In order to assess whether social policy constructs personal lives this essay will focus on exploring the 'mutual constitution ' of personal lives and social policy with a focus on the social divisions of gender, age and class. Personal narratives and themes of ‘work’ and ‘care’ can be used to assist in evidence and inform discussion. However, theoretical perspectives, such as, Feminism and Marxism, along with Post-structural can also provide a lens through which to explore this relationship between the ‘personal’ and social policy. The aim will be to focus the various concepts and theoretical perspectives mentioned above, to the theme of new mothers and consider how the personal lives of new mothers can mutually consist within social policies at three different levels; state level, service level and individual level. To use these levels will enable a clearer lens on determining the evidence that social policy constructs personal lives. Before this can be discussed fully it may be useful to briefly define these three core concepts; personal, social policy and mutual constitution.…
As many years pass by women have been taken out of the category “second class citizens”. This term refers to an era when females were discriminated against as they were unable to vote and unable to work. In the early 1900’s almost always the men would be the only ones going out to work in order to support their families. It was uncommon for women to be in the work force or academically eligible to have a career. Women were less likely to attend university or college; therefore they were at home doing the “womanly” duties. Mothers in the households were often stay at home moms, took care of the children, cleaned and performed the daily household chores.…
Collins observes, " the Black woman as welfare mother remains essential to White hegemony because the White culture blames the woman for her impoverished condition and again deflects attention away from White, racist, patriarchal structures. African American mothers were also subjected to "suitable homes"' rules in which states could deny benefits to mothers who were declared to be living immorality as stated by a judge "that having babies out of wedlock reflected weakness in the women's character" and such children were living in neglectful homes. The welfare queen image has continually been used to instill disgust for the welfare state.…
Women who worked in the marketplace suffered from a number of injustices including socialization harmful to their development in the public arena. Trained to respond first to their "family…
In the time after World War II many people believed in a very idealistic idea of what the world should be. They believe that even potential parents should be skills in parenting and trained to be a good parent. (Pg. 412) All of these potential needs parents may need one day sound like a great idea, if you wanted to be a wife and mother and happy homemaker. Many women of this time had enjoyed "an education identical with that of her brother" and " expect to be allowed to select any kind of work for which she has inclination and training...and expects to marry." (Pg. 412) This was the real beginning of the modern working women. These forward thinking women enjoyed freedom their own mothers and grandmothers had only previously dreamed of. These modern women could decide where to live, when and who to marry and whether to stay married as well as…
These columns offer readers of both that and current generations an understanding of underscoring issues underlying the rising independent woman in the early 1900s. Unfortunately, one may argue that several biases are prevalent in these letters and responses. One is that they may be historically slanted or inaccurate. Neither of these respondents provides their readers with any factual statistics; they list their opinions, which may be slightly altered to appease their questioners. Being that Matsumoto is a second-generation Japanese American and that Van Wyck could be in a similar situation of immigration, perhaps their cultural upbringings could cause confusion and hinder readers of varying upbringings. There is also the issue of classism. How do readers know if the listed issues (becoming a working lady, becoming a gold-digger, paying your own way, having premarital sex, being independent of your parents, marrying outside your race,) impact women of all financial aspects or if some of these concerns don’t even grace that particular class?…
In the first direction, the reader witnesses the era when women only existed to make the male happy. The main character Edna finds that she has nothing to do other than stay in the house bored, since even her children are raised and cared for by servants. Day after day, all Edna is permitted to do is care for her husband and be there whenever he needs help or entertainment. Woman at that time could not vote, could not go out without a male escort, were not allowed to smoke in public, and were not allowed in the work place. These ideals set by the male driven society caused Edna to face her second trend of free will, conflicting with her other direction of oppression.…
Although, in today’s society it’s not as common, women are and were treated as though they were nothing but child bearers and housekeepers. Judy says, “I want a wife who takes care of the children when they are sick, a wife who arranges to be around when the children need special care, because, of course, I cannot miss classes at school.” When I first read this it angered me because I believe that once you have a child it is both the mother’s and…