Second Shift
Wei Liu
4/12/11
Second Shift
For my Second Shift assignment the working parents that I interviewed were my own parents. Both of my parents do house work after coming home from work. They have duties that they are expected to do. When something is broken, it is my dad or me that fix it. Me and my dad always carry the heavy things and do the heavy work. Sometimes I do have to do it alone when my parents can’t do it. My mom always cleans and does most of the cooking in the house. When I was a little kid, my mom always made me food and reminded to do my homework. She would be the one to take care of me and wake me up to go to school. From looking at what my mother does on a daily basis I can tell that she does more work in the house than my father. I can see that most women have these kinds of obligations in their households. I also remember reading some information about the different roles in modern households a few years ago. As I read in 2002 the journal "Sex Roles: A Journal of Research" published a study on women and their roles in the family. Their study found that seven out of ten married parents believe child care should be shared equally, but two-thirds of the mothers said they most of the time cared for children. There is a gendered division of labor at home. Women are the ones who do most of the work. Sometimes I ask “how do women go to work and still do their house work?” The original response is that women today cannot simply give up their duties of mother and wife because they have gained ground outside the home. Household and child care everyday jobs still pertain to women even if she wakes early to start her 9am job and doesn't return home until 5pm. Yet, this answer is inherently problematic. The responsibilities discussed above should not mean an inequitable amount of time the woman spend on her children and family as compared to her husband. Household responsibilities should not result in less sleep than her husband and
4/12/11
Second Shift
For my Second Shift assignment the working parents that I interviewed were my own parents. Both of my parents do house work after coming home from work. They have duties that they are expected to do. When something is broken, it is my dad or me that fix it. Me and my dad always carry the heavy things and do the heavy work. Sometimes I do have to do it alone when my parents can’t do it. My mom always cleans and does most of the cooking in the house. When I was a little kid, my mom always made me food and reminded to do my homework. She would be the one to take care of me and wake me up to go to school. From looking at what my mother does on a daily basis I can tell that she does more work in the house than my father. I can see that most women have these kinds of obligations in their households. I also remember reading some information about the different roles in modern households a few years ago. As I read in 2002 the journal "Sex Roles: A Journal of Research" published a study on women and their roles in the family. Their study found that seven out of ten married parents believe child care should be shared equally, but two-thirds of the mothers said they most of the time cared for children. There is a gendered division of labor at home. Women are the ones who do most of the work. Sometimes I ask “how do women go to work and still do their house work?” The original response is that women today cannot simply give up their duties of mother and wife because they have gained ground outside the home. Household and child care everyday jobs still pertain to women even if she wakes early to start her 9am job and doesn't return home until 5pm. Yet, this answer is inherently problematic. The responsibilities discussed above should not mean an inequitable amount of time the woman spend on her children and family as compared to her husband. Household responsibilities should not result in less sleep than her husband and