Chore Wars Essay

"Chore Wars", written by Ruth Davis Konigsberg shows that, despite the newfound data that males are putting in more housework and child care than they have in the past, there still exists an inequality between men and women and their involvement in both the workforce and the home. The Difference Analysis of inequality by Saul states that women are discriminated simply due to their sex and its traditional attributed responsibilities of motherhood and home-making. Moreover, the Dominance Analysis provided by Saul insinuates discrimination against women by the unequal distribution of power in society. Job structure in society shows that higher position jobs are more demanding, and require less childcare responsibility and more availability for work. Both of these analyses provide evidence that there exists a general inequality of fair opportunity in the home, and therefore also a formal inequality of fair opportunity in society. Beginning with biological capabilities, women are physically designed to conceive and give birth to children, whereas men are not. Because of these biological roles that are prescribed to women, many social roles have been formed in association with them. Women are believed to have the primary responsiblity of childcare since they are the beings that bear the children. In this case, women are assigned to roles of housewives and home-makers, spending a majority of their time in the home, excluded from work outside the home. As stated by the Dominance Analysis, job structure in society is based on power relations which are unequal between men and women due to their predetermined social roles. Higher position jobs require more hours, more over-time, high flexibility, and major commitment. Women are seen as uncapable of committing to high-demand jobs, as they their biological roles are far too demanding to coincide with the workforce. Because of this, high position jobs are occupied by men, who are not seen as biologically responsible for