Assignment 8

1. 1. According to Hochschild, the “second shit” is the work that has to be done around the house such as cook, clean, mow the lawn, laundry, taking care of Joey, being a wife, etc. the second shift includes child, spouse, home, and outside job.

2. 2. Evan and Nancy is a couple with a 4 year old son named Joey. Joey is very close to his mother and most of the times, he prefers to be with Nancy rather than with Evan. Even though Nancy is not a single mother, she acts as if she is. She is the one that takes care of Joey and is also the person who does everything around the house such as cook, clean, take care of Joey, etc. because Evan is never around and barely pays attention to his son, Joey prefers his mother and is hesitant to be with his father. Nancy has been a social worker for seven years and Evan is a warehouse furniture salesman. Even though Nancy one paying job, realistically she has two, being a full-time mother and wife. On another note, Nancy believes that Joey has a sleeping problem. Even though she puts his to sleep at 8:00pm, he won’t go to sleep until after 12:00am. Evan decides to seek ways to get closer with his son by buying him things every week and taking him to different places.

3. 3. The family myth created my Nancy and Evan was to divide household chores. Nancy does the upstairs which includes the living room, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms and the two baths. The downstairs which is Evans job includes the garage, a place for storage and hobbies, take care of the car, and Max, the family dog.

4. 4. According to Hochschild, the purpose of family “myths” is used to solve problems such as the one Evan and Nancy were having. It helped Nancy avoid the harsh truth that her husband was abusing her and did not appreciate her. Nancy and Evan came up with the upstairs-downstairs agreement which they thought would be a solution to their problem. This myth is called the “family myth”. The family myth was an attempt to agree that the problem they were having was just minor.

5. 5. After reading this selection, I found it to be very common within my family. My father is somewhat like Evan because he is the one that takes care of the car, taking things to the storage, and getting the grocery from the car. My father barely does any chores around the house but the only difference is that my mother does not complain about it. When I have a family, I am definitely not going to be like my mother in regards to dividing the house job. I will make sure that my husband or partner will help around the house as well as the outside chores.

Assignment: Divorce

1. Behavior: The Lasting Wounds of Divorce. by Anastasia Toufexis Retrieved from Time Magazine online.

2. The article i found, talked about the lasting effects of divorce on children. Researcher Judith Wallerstein conducted a study over a 15-year period with 60 families and 131 children who were 2 to 18 years old at the time of the divorce. Most of the families were white middle class. From the study, she found that 3 out of 5 children felt rejected by at least one parent. Half of the children experienced their parents arguing with each other even after the divorce. Two-thirds of the girls became anxious, unable to have a stable relationship, and fearful of betrayal in an intimate relationship as young adults. Also, many boys failed to develop independence, confidence, and purpose resulting them in and out of college and going from job to job.

3. According to other researchers, they do not believe that the damage of divorce is not as pervasive as Wallerstein says. These researchers such as Jo Anne Pedro-Carroll, indicated hat the study was too small and there was no group of intact therefore, the study was not accurate. In some aspects, the study may seem accurate because Wallerstein gave perfect examples of how devastating divorce can be for children. On the other hand, many family experts have been looking for ways to ease the pain and burden of divorce in young children.

4. The researchers could be improved by conducting a large research with more families. it will as be better if they include families of different socio-economic statuses and race.

Assignment 6

1. One example of ancient marriage that is still practiced today described by the author and is very different from the "one man, one woman idea" was that of Tibet. Their idea of marriage is very different and weird. Brothers shared one wife rather than each man having their own woman. This is very different from our "one man, one woman idea" because men are sharing one woman as well as having kids with her.

2. Both the poor and middle class women group are postponing marriage for various reasons. Women want to be more financially stabled before getting married and starting a family. Also, women are also going to school and attending school for long periods of time rather than think about settling down and having a family. Poor and middle class women are focused on progressing in life and becoming a professional. They want to be financially stabled before getting married and starting a family because they do not want to run the risk of losing support of their spouse.

Assignment 5

1. Society stereotypes gay men as being very feminine.Some of the stereotypes that of gay men that are portrayed on TV that Savage discusses is the typical gay men who owns a puddle and walks their puddle in the park. Another stereotype that Savage talks about is the typical gay men who own and wear a purse.

2. A TV show from the 1990’s and is still shown today that gives an example of how gay men and/or straight people are not stereotypically portrayed is the Will and Grace. In this TV show, there are two characters that are gay: Will Truman and Jack McFarland. Will Truman is not the stereotypical gay man society usually portrays. He is manly, doesn’t wear a purse or own a puddle and doesn’t have feminine characteristics that are noticeable. On the other hand, Jack McFarland is one of the stereotypical gay men. He has feminine characteristics that he exposes in the show. A straight character that is not stereotypically portrayed is Grace Adler. Society portrays straight people being scared on gay people because they don’t want to be hit on by them or be influenced by them. In the show, Grace and Will live together and are best friends!

3. I think gay men should be allowed to adopt children. What makes society think that they won’t be able to do a good job or even a better job in raising a child than heterosexual couples? I believe that children who grow up in gay families versus children who grow up in straight families will be very different. Children who grow up in gay families will be more aware of the current homosexuality issues and will be more sensitive to these issues. They will also have a different type of appreciation and love for gay families raising children.

4. I didn’t find this reading! L

Assignment #4

1.) I beleive that cjildren do not "naturally" act like boys and girls, but something that is taught to them as they get older. A newborn doesn't know whether they are a boy or girl. Parents as well as society and education teach students what is right and wrong for their gender. Children do not know by instinct with what kind of toys they should be playing with or even what color they should like. For example, what kind of toys should children be playing with. Boys are taught that they should not be playing with dolls because that is for girls and get punished if they do. Girls are taught that they should not be playing with cars because young ladys are supposed to play with dolls and dressup and get punished if otherwise.
As mentioned before, it's not that children don't like playing with these kind of toys, they are taught that they have to play with those toys. I beleive we create gender roles where children are rewarded for gender appropriate behavior and are punished when they display inappropriate gender roles. Evevn though there are certain things children shouldn't do, some things are acceptable. For example, if a teacher sees that a boy wants to play dressup, automatically the teacher thinks that there is something wrong with the boy. But, if a girl acts aggessively, it is accepted by society because they believe that anyone can show or be aggressive. On another note, boys are taught, keyword here is taught, to like these colors because that's what is acceptable in society.

Assignment # 3

#1 According to the functionalist theory, the definition of “instrumental” leader is basically a person that takes charge in a group environment. The “instrumental” leader becomes the organizer and the manager that advises what the other group members should do. The “expressive” leader is the person that if placed in a group environment would be very supportive, have positive remarks and jokes. The group’s “expressive” leader helps keep the spirit of the group alive because of their expressive abilities.

#2 During the 1960’s and 1970’s women began to find employment and were no longer staying at home. Because this was women were now working, the family that had homemaker is now losing their power. The change caused the theorist to be critical and explain how the change of homemaker to employee is going to change the family for the worst. Theorists explain how this occurred from the 1960’s feminist movement.

#3 The main theme of the conflict theory is different to the functionalist theory. Unlike the functionalist theory, the conflict theory concentrates on group change, authority or unfairness to other individual. Conflict theory explains how one person becomes the leader, because of the power they use. Their main focus is to compete to try to advance or get ahead, and they lose the ability to work as a team. The theorist explains that dominance and control are parts of the conflict theory, which are not necessarily part of functionalist theory.

#4 Social exchange theory is based on ideas from the economics theory that believes humans are normal and make decisions based on the exchange of goods and services as well as think about the costs and benefits of everything. What the exchange theory has to say about husbands is that they have a stronger bargaining power than their wives because wives place such a big value on goods or services, they have few alternatives in gaining these goods or services.

#5 The feminist theory is based on the main idea of gender which refers to the social and cultural characteristics that differentiate women and men in a society.

#6 Thinking about the various methods or ways that we collect data to study the family, I would like to study families on a macro level. The method I would use to collect data is Field Research and about 25 people would be in my study because I want to have time to observe and understand the processes of their behavior. Three questions I would ask my study group is:

1. How has education limited you to help your family in a time of need?

2. Is there a religion in the household that is affecting the family?

3. Does everybody in the family have health care?

Part 2 Assignment 2

There is a big difference between women 40 years ago and women now. Women waiting to get married and having children therefore, establishing a family later in life. Also, most women today want to are focusing more on their careers rather than just have a job. Because women want to have careers, they will spend much of their time in school getting their degrees. Furthermore, more and more women are living their life like the women in Sex and The City, buying clothes of the latest fashion, as well as very expensive make-up and shoes. Women also are traveling much more and spending their paychecks on pleasure rather than on kids.
As I mentioned before, many more women are delaying marriage and having kids. They are focusing on their independence as well as having fun. Many of the women's first priority today is to get an education and a degree. They don't want to be dependent on any man. It is normal to find women in their late 20s not being marriage or having a child. Many more women are now traveling to all different parts of the world and have developed new ways how to live a happy life being single. With this being said, there are more women who are delaying to get married. They are enjoying a New Era of women urbanization and Independence. As mentioned before, today, many more women are working more because they want to be independent. They are enjoying the fact that they don't need to sit around and wait for their husbands to come from work and be their servant. Of course in the past, many women would not have jobs and will be married off at an early age to serve the men and reproduce. But, the New Girl Order and has changed all the for women nationwide.
As for what I want to do, I definitely want to work and get my career started and then marry. I want to enjoy what is out there and have the opportunity to travel and enjoy my life without having to work about having a husband and kids at home. I want to make sure that my hard work and dedication throughout school has definitly paid off for me to live the sweet life.