Families, Childcare, and Work

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Families, Childcare, and Work
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The Re-Organization of Work

• Sarah Ryan discusses the ways in which the
  reorganization of work is problematic for the
  worker and his/her family. She lists seven major
  aspects of work re-engineering today
• 1) Lowering of worker compensation- decline of
  real wages.
• 2) Automation of Production, Information and
  Service Work-
• 3)Internationalization of production, with
  manufacturing exported to low wage areas-
• 4) Corporate mergers and reorganization, with
  workforce downsizing.-
• 5) Newly created jobs are part-time and temporary
  as companies shift to no-commitment hiring.
• 6) Increased use of overtime and rotating shifts,
  particularly in manufacturing
• 7) Team-Concept and total quality management
  systems

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The Speed Up

• Hochschild refers to the Work-Family Speed Up
• Working parents.
• Specifically those in jobs that lack flexibilty
• Is Speed-Up a Problem?

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Responses to the Speed-Up

• Cool Modern Stance- it is normal, even
  fashionable.
• Traditional/Quasi-Traditional- take a mommy track
• Warm Modern- the speed up is a problem and
  housework should be shared equally. Solutions
  include things like flextime, telecommuting, 4 10
  hour a week days and so forth.

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Work as a Haven

• For women responsible for the second shift, work
  may be more appealing.
• Kin Work (Di Leonardo)
• Conception, maintenance, and ritual celebration
  of cross-household kin ties ie. Visits, letters,
  calls, presents, cards, holidays, extended
  relations

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Work as Self Identity

• Work as a source of self-esteem.
• Stress of lay-off and threat of lay-off (Rubin
  example)

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The Costs of the Changes in Work

• Quality Family Time
• Increased Stress Levels

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Proposed Solutions

• Ryans proposed solutions- a shorter work week
  with no cut in pay.
• -In U.S. we work about 200 more hours a year than
  most workers in Europe do.
• European unions have acquired 27-34 hour work
  weeks.

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The Mommy Wars- A Good Mother

• Modern mothers face two socially constructed
  images of what a good mother is.
• The Traditional Stay at Home Mother
• The Successful Supermom
• The successful career woman is reserved for
  childless women.

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The Conflict

• The supposed conflict between stay at home, and
  working mothers masks the real problems and
  issues faced by both.
• How does one Reconcile the Contradictory Images
  both Women Face?
• Intensive Mother or The Frumpy Housewife
• Supermom or The Time-Crunched Working Mother?

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Child-care Arrangements for Preschool Children,
1999
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Related Caregivers

• 20.8 of working parents of Pre-schooler use
  grandparents as caregivers.
• Grandparents (Bahr article)
• Attitudes toward grandparents as caregivers vary
  across cultures.

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The Dilemma of Women in the Middle

• Those who are caught between older and younger
  generations and those who combine parental care
  and paid employment.
• Balancing the demands of the frail elderly in a
  time of increasing costs is difficult.