Reading Response #2:
Being a woman in today’s society I have the prospect of being a mother and since I plan to have a successful career as well reading “Complex Inequality and “Working Mothers”” was almost like a glimpse into the battles I might face in the future. The article early on discusses individualism and a discussion on the feminist idea of “having it all” and the struggle between devoting ones self to their family and community while also balancing paid work. I think the idea of “having it all” is a tempting promise that cannot be kept. Once women become mothers they find that the balance of work life and motherhood is actually quiet difficult. At one point Oakley argues that a “women’s self esteem and well being will become …show more content…
The idea that women are in charge of running the family is a very sexist perspective and while she is right that in todays society running the family is still very much the women’s’ job while the men are the breadwinners, we also have to realize that our society is getting better at seeing the task of running a family as both the man and the women’s job. The better and farther along we come with the idea of the man and woman working together to run the household the easier it may be for the women to balance work life and family life. One part of the article that really stood out to me and that I agreed with was on page 14, it discusses the blame that is put on feminism and “working mothers” that somehow because a mother is working she is to blame for all social ills of her child including underage sex and juvenile crime, in an attempts to reduce mothers from participating in public life and return to the private roles of taking care of their families. Mothers today are blamed for everything their child does; this has mothers spending more time supervising their children and laying down more and more restrictions such as less TV, monitoring computer use. Older generations never needed to do this, monitoring their children was …show more content…
Likewise with how it slightly touched on class and age and other conditions that may change the way women face these problems or whether or not they face similar or different problems and the individual outcomes in terms of inequality or privilege. “Complex Inequality and “Working Mothers”” touched nicely on different issues that I myself may come into when I begin to raise my own family. Society has changed so drastically in the past one hundred years that the issues women today face with balancing work life and family life may be completely different in another hundred
Being a woman in today’s society I have the prospect of being a mother and since I plan to have a successful career as well reading “Complex Inequality and “Working Mothers”” was almost like a glimpse into the battles I might face in the future. The article early on discusses individualism and a discussion on the feminist idea of “having it all” and the struggle between devoting ones self to their family and community while also balancing paid work. I think the idea of “having it all” is a tempting promise that cannot be kept. Once women become mothers they find that the balance of work life and motherhood is actually quiet difficult. At one point Oakley argues that a “women’s self esteem and well being will become …show more content…
The idea that women are in charge of running the family is a very sexist perspective and while she is right that in todays society running the family is still very much the women’s’ job while the men are the breadwinners, we also have to realize that our society is getting better at seeing the task of running a family as both the man and the women’s job. The better and farther along we come with the idea of the man and woman working together to run the household the easier it may be for the women to balance work life and family life. One part of the article that really stood out to me and that I agreed with was on page 14, it discusses the blame that is put on feminism and “working mothers” that somehow because a mother is working she is to blame for all social ills of her child including underage sex and juvenile crime, in an attempts to reduce mothers from participating in public life and return to the private roles of taking care of their families. Mothers today are blamed for everything their child does; this has mothers spending more time supervising their children and laying down more and more restrictions such as less TV, monitoring computer use. Older generations never needed to do this, monitoring their children was …show more content…
Likewise with how it slightly touched on class and age and other conditions that may change the way women face these problems or whether or not they face similar or different problems and the individual outcomes in terms of inequality or privilege. “Complex Inequality and “Working Mothers”” touched nicely on different issues that I myself may come into when I begin to raise my own family. Society has changed so drastically in the past one hundred years that the issues women today face with balancing work life and family life may be completely different in another hundred