Gender And Economics Chapter 2

Front 1

From the material in the first few pages, comment on what the textbook would say about the statement: “Men are men and women are women. We’re born to be different.”

Back 1

In sense of a way men and women are different. The y would go into the biological term and compare the two. But, they don’t know why women seem to be inferior to men

Front 2

What do you think of the statements and research that says that women are looking for mates who are good providers while men look for relatively young women who would bear children and be good homemakers?

Back 2

Women want someone that can take care of them and their children. Someone that’s going to provide and protect. If a man does not have those certain qualities that a woman is looking for then it would be pointless.
Men, they do want someone that is young to bear their children and to take care of them and the household. Someone that has those “beauty” qualities about them.

Front 3

hunting and gathering societies

Back 3

Men
Hunted large animals and defended the tribe
Because women could not participate in activities while nursing or pregnant, the greater strength of men also gave them a considerable advantage for such activities as hunting large animals and fighting.
Since men provided safety for the tribe and furnished most of the meat, always regarded as the prestige food, gave them the advantage
Women
Gathered a variety of vegetable foods, occasionally hunted small animals and had the main responsibility for food preparation and care of children,
When women were pregnant or nursing, they could participate in activities that would have taken them far from home.

Front 4

horticultural societies

Back 4

men
continued to conduct warfare and also prepared the ground by slashing and burning
women
Tended the plots, prepared the food, and card for the infants and other need of assistance.

Front 5

pastoral societies

Back 5

men
Tended to monopolize the herding of large animals, an activity that often took them far from home. Herding provided the bulk of what was needed for subsistence.
Women
Their contributions were largely confined to tending the primitive equivalent of hearth an d home, and females never reached more than a subservient status

Front 6

agricultural societies

Back 6

women
helped in the fields, looked after small animals and gardens, and worked in the now permanent homes taking care of large families
men
owned and worked the land, and disparity in power and influence became great

Front 7

the merchant class

Back 7

women
In absence of a male heir in ruling family, a woman might even become head of state.
They were more likely to be partners, but not equal ones
They participated in family enterprises, generally took charge when the men traveled on business and often took over after the husband died.

Front 8

during the early stages of industrialization

Back 8

The production of household was shifted into fro the home to the factory and the office.
This shift reduced the burden of housekeeping and since women continued to center their activities on the home, the perceived importance of their productive role declined, as did their relative status.

Front 9

Describe female roles in America in the preindustrial period

Back 9

Cooking, cleaning, care of the young, the old and the infirm, spinning, weaving, sewing, knitting, soap and candle making, and simple carpentry were carried on in the home. Much food and other raw material were grown on farms.

Wealthy women were primarily managers, not workers, within the household. Their responsibilities were no doubt, less arduous and possibly more rewarding, but no less absorbing.

Front 10

Near the top of pg 21: “At the end of the 19th century, the labor force participation rate of men was 84% , but only 18% of all women were in the paid labor force and only 5% of married women were in the paid labor force.”
How are these rates different for black women at that time?

Back 10

Participation rates were higher for married black women than for all women. About 23 percent of black wives were employed; most worked either as domestics or in agriculture in the rural south.

Front 11

What was the experience of immigrant married women?

Back 11

If a choice needed to be made between the children leaving school to supplement family income or the mother seeking employment, the latter choice was made among groups traditionally reluctant to have women work outside the home.

Front 12

What type of race and class of women did this family structure mostly apply to?

Back 12

The blacks and the immigrants

Front 13

Did the use of washing machines and being able to purchase soap and bleach at the store (instead of making this yourself) help to increase the wife’s leisure time?

Back 13

Yes, she started to take pride in making it “whiter than white.”

Front 14

With fertility rates declining, how did that impact the amount of maternal care?

Back 14

Far less opportunity for children to participate in production I urban households and growing immigration. Hired workers were more readily available.

The years of schooling for children increased in both towns and rural areas, so that children remained dependent for a longer period of time.

Front 15

What is the “cult of true womanhood”?

Back 15

Developed with industrialization in the nineteenth century equated piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness with femininity which all women were expected to aspire

Front 16

What economic rationale did men have for trying to keep women out of the labor force as much as possible?

Back 16

One reason for the low rates for married women were the previously mentioned marriage bars prohibiting he employment of married women, which were instituted I the late 1800s and lasted in to the mid-1900s.

Marriage bars were particularly prevalent in teaching and clerical work, two occupations that were to become among the most common for married women in years later.

Front 17

What is meant by “the shrinking household and household sphere were among the basic developments that made it [women working] possible.” What are the shrinking household and household spheres?

Back 17

1-3 women were having children

Once we started to having modern appliances they were less time with the house hold chores

Front 18

What is the marriage bar?

Back 18

Prohibiting the employment of married women, which were instituted in the late 1800s and lasted into the mid-1990s.

Front 19

What changed clerical work from being male-dominated to female-dominated?

Back 19

The late turn of the century 85 percent of all clerical workers were men. It was not until after 1900 that women’s employment in this sector began to increase markedly, absorbing substantial proportion of employed women.

Front 20

Around 1815, how much did women earn in agricultural and domestic activities compared to what men earned? What about in manufacturing?

Back 20

Agriculture
29%
Domestic
29%
Manufacturing
30-37%