SOCIOL 3AC Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Shock Absorber, Shift Work
Document Summary
The second shift a term used to describe the workload women have over and above what men have. Division of childcare/housework unequal even for wives and mothers who are employed. Fathers avg 6. 5 hours/week on childcare up from 2. 6 hours/week in 1965. Husbands/fathers spend more time on hobbies and personal interests than do wives/mothers. Women"s extra earnings do not necessarily confer extra privileges at home (situation may be more variable now) Hochschild"s research in the 1980s found that women who out-earned their husbands did all the housework in order to preserve their husband"s sense of masculinity. Super mom not real, but ideal. Frazzled, overworked, over extended mom (the do it all mom!) However, mom is fragile and she is overworked stress. Social problem confined to realm of personal character. Rather than attributing the stress to structural inequalities, or the way social institutions define gender roles, most of the stress was turned inwards.
