Blog 24

I informally interviewed a local lawyer who specializing in litigation. The lawyer I interviewed was a female; which I originally thought would give me a lot of insight into gender expectations and stereotypes. Ironically, her answers and perspectives were very different than the readings.
The first question I asked her was about any stereotypes when it comes to female lawyers. She believed that there was no negative stereotypes for women lawyers. She mentioned that some clients think female lawyers are better than men. She felt it was not a bad assumption but I think it could be perceived as a negative stereotype. If clients expect females lawyers to be better than male lawyers then female lawyers must live up to higher expectations.
I asked her the basic question of do you think law is a male dominated field and she said no. She pointed out that more women are graduating from law school than men, which is something that I Found when conducting the second interview paper.
I asked her if there was gender equality in law, relating to pay and opportunities. She made a bold statement that there is gender equality in everything. A specific quote I would like to include for this blog that was very surprising to me under the context of this class was:
“If women make less money than men in certain industries, its because they make certain choices about their career such as taking time off for children, etc.”
It seems that in this class we learned all about gender equality towards female in the work place. I guess I assumed that a female lawyer would believe there was gender equality. I thought she would agree with the readings and give me a firsthand experience that had happened to her. But on the other hand she believed wage inequality came from women taking time off for kids, or in other words societal norms that women must fulfill. I believe I would not have been as surprised if this was coming from a male. Overall, her answers negated what we learned in class and her answers surprised me.

Blog 23

The 2008 presidential election took over the media for many reasons. For me personally, I followed the election very closely because it was my first chance to be able to vote. But the candidates were also monumental for race and gender norms. The Republican Party vice presidential nominee was a female, Sara Palin. I personally believe her nomination had to do with the fact Hilary Clinton was a preliminary Democratic Presidential Nominee. Also, the Democratic presidential nomination was half-Black. So not only were women and a minority involved in the election, the fashion sense of the women was a highlight in the media.
I realized how critical the media was on women through this campaign; usually the media does not comment much on what the male candidates wear. The only other political female I can think of whose fashion sense has been a focus of the media was Jackie Kennedy Onassis, although in the NPR listening they said Dolly Madison was the first style icon. Marjorie Margolies, a former politician, says “Women are viewed in a very different way, with regard to their dress, than men are.” This shows how much more women are scrutinized than men. It seems like a another social standard women must live up to.
The NPR story explains that the first ladies usual dress very conservatively, but Michelle Obama seems to be a little more bold. Her style is referred to as “refreshing” and “progressive” while some do not approve. They pointed out that she wears dresses more than normal pant suit. Fashion experts recommend to wear color, a nice neckline, and that pearls are always classy.
"Most people remember what you wear and your tone over what you say," says Margolies which I can relate to in my life, although I am not a politician. I always dress up for presentations in classes and I will make my group members do so as well. I think my mentality, and possibly what political groups think as well, is that if the audience is not really listening or understanding the message then at least the presentation is pleasant.

Blog 22

There was much speculation that Sonia Sotomayor would be a nominee for the Supreme Court since Barack Obama took presidency. Another major candidate in initial nomination was Ken Salazar. Since her official nomination in April 2009, Sotomayor was supported by the Democratic Party. On the other hand the Republican Party were highly critical of her. A popular quotation that Sotomayor was highly criticized for “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion that a white male who hasn’t lived that life” from previous speeches. For this quotation she was called a racist and her qualification for the Supreme was a popular media topic. Sotomayor retorted and said that she meant that someone with a socio-economic background other than a white, middle class male would be more beneficial. But she her integrity was being questioned, Senators questioned whether she had let past life experiences influence her decisions.
On the other hand, Sam Alito made a statement “When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who have been discriminated against, because of their ethnic background, or because of religion, or because of gender.” But he was not criticized for making a false statement. Alito is blatantly making a claim that he considers his past life experiences- ironically the same thing Sotomayor was being questioned for. The Color lines video makes a good point, what kind of racism could have Alito or anyone in his family experienced being white, upper class?
It is apparent that Sotomayor’s speech is more scrutinized than Alito; these could be due to race and gender. The American Bar Association was unanimous in supporting her nomination to the Supreme Court. In the end, All Democratic votes when for Sotomayor while only one Republican supported her. She is also the first Hispanic to be on the Supreme Court. She followed suit of Sandra Day O’Connor, first woman on the Supreme court, and was the third woman to do so. It is apparent any decisions she makes will be scrutinized that anyone else on the Supreme Court.

Blog 20

The National Association for Female Correctional Officiers is an advocacy group for female correctional officers. They want to improve the working conditions of women working in prisons in terms of sexual harassment and implementing new technology. On the About Us section of their website they are a 100% volunteer organization which may mean they are a non-profit. Either way their mission is to improve conditions of which women correctional officers work under. The official title of their Federal Legislative Proposal is the “the Rae and Sexual Assault of Female Correctional Officers Elimination Act of 2008” as stated on their website. They call for a zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse or harassment towards women who work in prisons. Other topics the bill addresses are anti-rape, increase available data on sexual incidences, and punish those prisoners who commit such sexual acts. The NAFC calls for the United States Department of Justice to prosecute all rape and sexual harassment charges. To do so, they want federal grants from state and local governments to help with this prosecution. Some of the new technologies this advocacy group wants to instate are more safety and defense equipment. Such items are resistant vests and electric control devices which would deter such sexual harassment.

Although the issues brought up by the National Association for Female Correctional Officers are important and should be considered by legislatures, Britton offers a more general approach to dealing with gendered prisons. She believes prisons need to be restructured because as of now they are gendered due to culture, agency, and structure. She believes prisons are negatively portrayed in the media, as well as prison workers. She believes the jobs assigned to those who work in prisons should not be based on gender because it leads to problems in prisons. Britton does not mention that women officers should be more armed then men. Overall, both the NAFCO and Britton believe our prison system needs much help.

Blog 19

The video starts out with Geena Davis talking about the female stereotypes portrays by cartoons. She starts with Walt Disney talking about Minnie and Daisy duck being the first female cartoons. Then she starting talking about Looney Toons and the Granny was the only females. She talks about the mom from the Jetsons being too skinny; she also bring sup how Miss Piggy had cleavage. She then talks about the Smurfs how Smurfette was only bring into the cartoon because she was going to destroy all the other Smurfs.

She then shifts into Daughters and Dads which is a non-profit that want to boost the self image for young girls. They funded a large study of G rated movies, 3 out 4 characters in G rated movies are males. In 1990-2005, females were highly stereotyped in movies and there was not increase in female characters. The issue is programming for our children have a large imbalance. There is a large disparity between male and females, so what is it teaching our youth?

Women are stereotyped in danzel in distress or helpless females waiting for males to save them. Name one Disney before Milan where the hero was a female? Even in Mulan she portrayed a man in order to be considered heroic. She was banned from the army and her family was shamed because she was female. Not until recently did females start having heroic parts instead of being princesses. Disney shows children that women are supposed to succomb to men and they cannot take care of themselves without males in their life. It is the ageless classic of Prince Charming coming to save the Princess, this is what we teach our children. From a young age, children are shown the stereotypes of males and females.

Blog 17

Job training for correctional officers is gender just like many job trainings. Women and men are required to pass the same tests to become a correctional officer, which means there should technically be no discrimination between genders. Most job trainings are very general and not really one on one in more large institutions. Men and women are physically, mentally, and emotionally different. When training to work in a prison men are usually larger and stronger than women, which I am surprised that women are not allowed to carry a weapon to defend themselves. Women and men also think different and may react different to situations. If an inmate is acting up or not listening male may tend to react violentally while women may try to calm the prisoner down. In training, they should teach the new worker how to react to these situations but also why they should react this way. Women are also much more emotional then men, which means women may not be able to handle all the stress of the job.

In male prison facilities most of the training focuses on violent reactions to prisons and physically controlling inmates. In women’s facilities the workers are not taught to deal with prisoners in a violent way. As I have mentioned before women should work in female prisons and males should work in male penitentiaries.

Blog 16

Although the general requirements for becoming a corrections officer are the same, male and females have different experiences becoming a corrections officer. In 1982, .1% of young adults wanted to become corrections officers and 95% of these were male. Up until 1970, females were not even allowed to work as corrections officers (Britton 61). Most males come froma military background into the correctional officer positions while women come from clerical work. This is interesting because all correctional officers are required to do the same thing- control the inmates behavior, provide positive guidance, and common body work (dressing, eating, bathing). Although most women do not do the latter in men’s prisons. Some women come from the background of daycare workers and say they feel like they have experience being a corrections officer when they come from working in a day care. Men and women come from different career background but both still end up working as correctional officers.

Since White males can find jobs easier, correctional officer positions are often filed by women and minorities. Most wanted to be police officers but did not make the cut so they become correctional facility workers. Both men and women say pay and benefits are factors to working as correctional officers. Prisons are located in rural areas so there may not be a lot of jobs around. Whereas in a urban or city area there are a lot of potential work places. This job can be appealing to single mothers and divorcees, male or female, because there is job security. Men are motivated to work in prisons to protect their families and keep criminals off the street, this was quoted from a male prison worker in the book. Another reason women seem to be motivated to work in prisons because they are motherly in nature and can help inmates, which is something I inferred from the material.

Correctional work may not be for everyone but it does require a high school education. Men and women come from different backgrounds but still end up in this profession.

Blog 15

. Women and men have not always been equal in the history of the United States and their experiences in prisons are no different. Men usually committed the crimes so most prisons were just for males. In early women’s prisons they were more rehabilitation centers. Many saw women who committed crime must worse than male criminals because women were not supposed to be dominant. It was believed that women need more rehabilitation than men because they were more emotional and more susceptible. Women are more open to personal treatment and can be influenced easily by kindness (Britton 38). In some sense they saw females as easily influenced and though they could be changed through rehabilitation.

A prison or rehabilitation center called Bedford Hills had the female inmates “gardening, raising livestock, and institutional construction projects” and this was called the family system. The prison was set up like a cottage and were supposed to be as home like as possible. Women’s prisons were often less crowded and not overpopulated. They were also more laidback and relaxed in nature. It should be noted that back then most prison workers were male so there was sexual assault and abuse towards the female inmates.

Men’s prisons have stayed the same but the types of criminals in prison has not changed. Prisons now are filled with some severe criminals and mostly non-violent drug offenders. A huge reason of why prison are overpopulated are because of marijuana laws. Male prisons have always been strict and still are today.

Arizona has been different because our state is relatively new compared to the rest of the country. Arizona always had a lot of women inmates which makes us different from other states. Arizona is similar to other states because as the number of men going to prison is going down the number of females being imprisoned is going up. We are seeing more and more women commit crimes all over the country.

Blog 14

According the Britton, men and women have the same values when it comes to job characteristics. Things at the top of the list are “salary, autonomy, prestige, and location” which are understandable for anyone regardless of gender, race, class, and prior work history (Britton 8). With this being said then why do women make up 47% of the work place but only receive 73% of male wages?

This happens because organizations are gendered, no matter in the public or private sector. An example is in the book when males and females both work in the same prison but the women are given more clerical work while the men have more contact with the prisoners. Gendering through organizational structure means the work lives and private lives of the employees are separate. Activities such as “childbirth, child care, eating, and sleeping” should be left out of the workplace. How this becomes gendered is that women become more responsible for domestic tasks because they are usually responsible for childbirth and then childcare. Women sometimes do not accept job promotions because they are burdens with domestic tasks as well. Their upward mobility is limited because they must care for their family while males “enjoy much greater freedom from the distraction of the private sphere” (Britton 8). Meaning they can work overtime or take promotions because they do not have to worry about taking care of a family.

Culture is another factor of gendering in an organization because women are often stereotyped into certain roles. Women are supposed to be nurturing, motherly, and kind; they should have jobs such as “kindergarten and elementary school teachers (Britton 9). On the other hand men are supposed to be tough and manly and hold dangerous jobs. These social norms have become our culture and this is why women traditional fill jobs that are not physically demanding and are helpful to others. Hopefully, women can continue to break our cultural norms and fill more non traditional jobs.

Finally, organizations can be gendered through agency. Which refers to the interactions between workers. Men feel more dominant in male dominated careers while women tend to be in charge in traditionally female roles. If a female is successful and high in a corporation or typically male dominated field, they are considered a “bitch” and other males do no like her. Males will feel threatened by her and will celebrate her downfall. In corporations women who work as secretaries or do clerical work are praised because that this the type of work they should be doing.

Organizations are structured intentionally and unintentionally through structure, culture, and agency making it hard for women to break into typically male dominated careers and limiting their upward mobility.

Blog 13

I do not think I would have ever considered women working in prisons if I did not know someone who did. I used to work with an older woman whose daughter worked in a prison. He daughter was married and actually made a lot more money than her husband because of her job. She worked unarmed just as Dana Britton states in her book At Work in the Iron Cage, “correctional officers who work in inmate living areas are always unarmed (Britton 2). Her daughter worked in the prison for six years before she was held hostage but some inmates, after this experience she quit the prison. After reading chapters one and two in the Britton book, I wonder if she was targeted because she was a female. I am sure I am not the only one who thought this, could her male coworkers thought the same thing?

In the media female police officers or those who work in prisons are often stereotyped as masculine with a rough attitude, similar to males. It seems that media portrays women this was because they have to be strong to control the prisoners. Basically media places a woman in the role even though all their features are masculine, so one may ask why even place a women in this role? Similar to females who play roles of attorneys; they are single, non very feminine women. In reality, females make 69% less of what males make working as attorneys (Britton 5) Women who work in law generally work in family law, public defense, and government law while men work in corporate law. Corporate law makes significantly more than the other fields, allowing men to make more money because they usually occupy these careers. Media seems to show women in men’s careers need to be masculine in order to succeed.

An interesting point brought up in the book is about men and women committing crimes; women are look down upon more because it is out of their nature. Women are also look down upon more when there is relationships between prison and prison guard. Women are blamed for the scandal if it results in a pregnancy. Males can be feared more then women’s prisons than in male prisons because of sexual abuse. It is more likely for male guards to sexual abuse female prisoners than male prisoners. All in all, I believe female guards in female prisons and male guards in male prisons would be more effective.

Blog 12

Occupational segregation can refer to race, religion, sexual orientation, age, and gender among many things. Gender occupational segregation occurs regardless of laws set in place by EEOC, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Although men and women should be getting paid the same amount and have the same opportunities for advancement they do not. Women receive about 70% of men’s wages in the same occupation despite education, experience, and other background factors. Men and women have been unequal since the founding of country- women had to work for land owning privileges, voting rights, and had to make a place for themselves in the women place while men were away at war. It is a slow process of men and women becoming completely equal and as a country we are working towards it. A social factor that contributes to occupational segregation is the idea of women staying at home to raise children while the men are the breadwinners in the family. This idea is slowly becoming a thing of the past while more women are graduating from college than men and les women are getting married and having children at a young age. Women have some advantage by breaking into male occupations such as making more money. If women break into industries which men are usually in them can make more money than in traditional women jobs. An IT worker, construction manager, or car repairer will make more than a receptionist, house cleaner, or another job that women usually hold. Another advantage is many male dominated careers are just that-careers, not jobs. With a career they will have a long term job with possible advancements versus just a dead end job. Men lose in the workplace when women enter because it is a surprise if women excel in male dominated jobs. Upper management will be more impressed with women who are completing the same tasks as a male because women do not usually do it. It is interesting that women are slowly beginning to step into a normally male dominated career as social norms are changing. More women are getting careers versus staying at home to raise a family and are relying less on men to support them. As women become more independent and gender laws are more enforced then women can eventually be equal to men in the workplace.

Blog #11

I read an article from the AFLCIO website, which is the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the article was titled “Helping Women Workers Helps Us All” by James Parks. According to the article, working women make up 40% of the work force. This article talks about other factors women face on the job- sexual harassment, unequal wages, and maternity leave benefits. A problem women face, which men do not, is harassment from coworkers. Most sexual harassment charges are male to female, not females acting on males. This brings up a story I read one time about a woman who was afraid to tell on her male counterpart for harassing her because she thought she may lose her job over it. If she did go to human resources and the male was fired she was afraid that her fellow coworkers would look down upon her, this one problem men do have in work force. Women’s wages are still only 77 cents to every dollar that a man makes, which is not equal by any means. It does not seem fair that a woman and a man in the same position could optionally get paid different amounts. Although education, experience, and years on the jobs should be taken into a consideration men are usually paid more than women. Finally, not all jobs offer maternity leave for mothers. It is hard for a mother have a child and then immediately go back to work. Our text book mentions that the time from when a child is born till when they are entered into childcare by someone other than the parents is getting younger and younger. The fact many work places do not offere any sort of paternity leave to males shows that is it a social stigma that women take care of child therefore only maternity leave is offered. This article was written September 16, 2009 and covered many topics covered at the AFL-CIO Convention, its interestingly enough brings up points not made by readings or videos in this section.

Blog #9

In the Official Story of “Who are America’s Poor Children” the authors explain many statistics related to the families that are considered poor. The article starts off with a good point- that the number of children living gin poverty has increased by over 11 percent between 2000 and 2005, despite the positive changes in the economy (Fass and Cauthen). It raises an important question, why are more children living in poverty if the economy improved between 2002 and 2005? One can look at the conditions of poor working women and how the federal poverty level does not accurately represent how much a family needs to live off of. Poor working women have a hard time getting off food stamps because of conditions in the work place. Most of the time these women are working minimum wage jobs and do not have any other options. They do not move vertically at the their job because of they can only work limited hours due to their children. Also, if a child gets sick or childcare falls through they will have to miss work. The term ‘glass ceiling” is usually applied to work in the corporate realm; when we women cannot go past a certain level of management because the upper management jobs are only for men. Its seems like there is also a glass floor, women cannot get out of their minimum wage jobs and obtain a good paying, full time position. It seems like the poor women are stuck in the basement of jobs and the glass floor is keeping them in the low paying job. The article also mentions how many of low income families are minorities. The major races mentioned were Asian, Mexican, and Black- this also applies to the children. Overall, the conditions that are keeping women in low income jobs are part of the reason children are in poverty.

Blog #8

The term “urban poverty” was coined by William Julius Wilson in New Work Disappears; The World of New Urban Poor where he analyzed demographic data from inner city neighbors in the Chicago area. He states that decline of labor in urban areas and migration of well workers to other areas leaves a concentration of unskilled, unemployed people. He then mentions that since so many poor people are concentrated in one area the schools, churches, and other social programs are weakened (Chaudry 128). What happens in these situations is that single women are stuck in these areas because they have no means of moving away. They are too poor to move to another neighborhood or to leave their current job, if they even have one. An important point about these concentrated areas of poverty is they become extremely unsafe and dangerous. Wilson mentions that drug dealing and other activity is prominent in these areas; which makes it unsafe to raise children in these areas. In one of the videos, the mother was aware that she could not let her children play outside because it was too dangerous. The middle class people who once lived in the area move away because the neighbor is getting bad, which means their vacancies invite more people to move in. Businesses are going to close down and new ones are not going to open in areas of little to no money which means no jobs for poor women. If these women lived in an area of mixed classes they could let their children play outside, rely on neighbors for childcare, and possibly have job opportunities. The neighborhood would be more inviting for new businesses and middle class people to move in. In urban poverty centers the concentration of poor gets higher and higher where as in mixed class areas, it stays the same.

This idea of “urban poverty” reminds me of a similar concept I learned about in Criminal Justice 350: Law and Social Control. This theory was called the “broken window” theory; it is said that if a window in an abandoned building was broken and left unfixed then the other windows in the building would be broken too. The other windows would be vandalized because one broken window means that no one cares about the building. Once all the windows are broken, maybe other vandalism starts to occur, groups of juveniles gather on corners, more people are drinking on the streets, and maybe more homeless come to the neighborhood. More homeless and increased crime on the streets make the neighborhood unsafe and affluent families move out so only the poor are left. In essence “urban poverty” and the “broken window” theory from James Wilson have the same agenda, small steps until the entire neighborhood is a concentration of poor, unskilled, and unemployed people. Overall, there seems to be a general consensus that living in urban areas that are going downhill is a dangerous place to raise a family.

Blog #7

In chapter three of Chaudry’s Putting Families First, they explain the plethora of child care sources that Julia had to put her daughter, Jacqueline, in before she was four years old. Over the first four years of Jacqueline’s life, she had six different child care “spells”. There were many factors that contributed to Julia’s situation- absence of a father, pursuing education, unreliable welfare programs, low paying internships, loss of grants if working, and miscommunication between different programs. Many women are at the low-income poverty level because they are single parents; they are raising multiple children on their own because the father is not around or imprisoned. In attempt to get a fulltime job and further their educational accomplishments, many mothers return to school. Although a higher academic status is ideal when looking for a job, a mother must consider childcare while she is at school and how she will pay tuition. The Work Experience Program that provided welfare for Julia was often late in childcare payments or did not write the checks for the correct amount. If there is not a reliable source of payment for childcare then the childcare is not stable; the WEP lost of all her paper work therefore completely stopped making payments. Although internships and even jobs can help pay for household costs, many times grants or other funding can be cut if there is another source of income. Also, when women are working a minimum wage job it is hard to make advances in pay because the only other jobs they are offered are also minimum wage. Most minimum wage jobs do not offer benefits or health insurance, but if someone is working they are not eligible for grants or government help. In the video, one man sometimes had to skip on his prescription drugs because he did not have enough money. It almost seems that minimum wage jobs are not even worth having because it disqualifies an individual from government aid and it is not enough to support a household. In the end Chaudry concluded that “when Jacqueline was in her most stable care arrangements that Julia was able to move from progressively better internship experiences into a full-time job and off of welfare” (Page 94). Since minimum wage jobs do not yield stable childcare, it is hard to single mothers to obtain fulltime jobs.

Blog 6

Listening to the documentaries and reading chapter two of the Chaudry book shows the vast range of child care options that low-income mother must resort to, it is shocking. Women ideally want a safe, consistent means of childcare but many are not receiving that due to the high expense of reliable childcare in conjunction with the lack of federal funding. One mother received a scholarship to a daycare center that reduced her payments from $360 to $206 a week but once she received a pay raise it was taken away, even though it was only about an extra $100 a week. Another mother missed the deadline for claiming an employment status change and went from what she usually paid a month to paying that per week. Even though anyone who makes less 85% less than the state poverty level should receive childcare aid, many do not because lack of funding. Because of these constraints and challenges, low income women must turn to alternate forms of childcare. They rely on family members, one family had to rely on a brother in law who was waiting for an organ transplant, a substitute teacher, and a 77 year old woman (Childcare Struggles). Some women prefer at home care for their children while some want reliable care during times of employment. Either way they want a nurturing environment for their child and want a some sort of structured time plan. Instead they are letting about anyone watch their children. One lady in the book said she left her child at someone’s home and was bullied by the women’s grandchild. Another mother was disappointed that the child did little more than watch television all day. In one case, the lack of funding has lead to a ratio of care worker to child as high as 1:256 (ARC Childcare). A shocking quote from the same report states “dog kennels get inspected more in California than childcare centers” because of the licensing laws and lack of funding. In 14 states it is legal to practice childcare without a license, which many women have to resort to because it is all they can afford. It is apparent that low-income women must rely on unsafe and reliable health care due to the lack of funding and aid they receive from the government, but we must consider the reparations of inadequate health care.

Blog 5

Reading the first chapter of “Putting Children First” by Ajay Chaudry really added a complete new aspect to this class; I never really thought about the children of low income families. Ironically, a week before we were supposed to read this book my friend came in my room asked why I had a book about children and I really did not know what to say. It evident there are many concerns related to children of single mothers and their need for child care. While the government passes policies to encourage single women to get jobs they never really considered what the child or children would be doing while the mother was at work. Not all women have kids in school yet, those who have kids in school may not be able to work those hours, and some women have multiple kids. And while these women are getting jobs and making more money than before their benefits to government aid programs are decreasing. The first family studied was Annette and Aaron, she got a job where she made an addition $100 a week but her expenses went up $153 dollars so technically she losing $53 dollars even thought she is working fulltime. One she had a job that paid more, her child care and rent increased; which does not seem logically, she got a full time job but yet is still in poverty?
This is Chaudry’s argument in its fullest form, public responsibility is lowered because it is good they got a job, from “welfare to work” (Chaudry 16). But on the same token, the public responsibility stops there because we do not take into account the policies that decreased government aid when they get full time jobs. Also when mothers increase their work hours, it means there is also a need for more childcare. While it is a positive fact working mothers can get job, we must further support them by offering discounted childcare or more federal aid. Chaudry mentions the budget for such programs have increased but so has the number of women in need of these programs. Single mothers raising children are considered the “working poor” which one of the videos mentions, basically anyone is working but still cannot make ends met.
It seems single, working mothers are at the tip of a double edge sword- they can scrap by on welfare or they can get a full time job and then pay more in the their cost of living.

Blog #4

I believe there are many different opinions of what defines a good family life, subject to whom is being asked and how they grew up. For some a good family life may be a steady income, open communication, and general good moral in the home. To others it may be more materialistic- such as a nice house, cars, and other commodities. It may be all about openness, being able to talk, and spend time with one another. It depends on how they grew up; someone who grew up with only one parent may believe that is a good family life while some may define it only as two parents. To me, I believe it is about balance of a few things: communication, time spent together, and problem solving. It is important to me to communicate with my family members about my daily life and problems. I try to spend as much time as I can with my little sister and with both my parents; my parents are divorced so this is sometimes a challenge. Also, problem solving is key, because no family is perfect and there will times when we disagree. A major source of conflict is holidays for my family. Since my parents did not finalize their divorce till after I was 18, I have always been able to choose which holiday I spend with my Mother and Father. Sometimes it is so hectic where I have to go to both on Thanksgiving and Christmas; when I had a boyfriend sometimes I would just go to his family events. But being able to talk it out with my parents and make their feelings are hurt is important to me, so problem solving comes in handy during the holiday season. To me, I have a good family life now although my parents are divorced.

As I mentioned before balance is essential in a good family life, especially when it comes to career and family. In most situations at least one parents must work, or both, to support the family. Growing up my father was often away on business but it was essential for his job. I was lucky enough to have my mother work at home so I did have a fulltime parent. In the “Juggling Work and Family” movie they showed a couple with two children; the mother works during the day and the father works at night. At this point, they are only able to work these hours so their children can always have a parent around. Another example the video showed was a working mother who leaves her children alone from 3:00 to 6:00pm but when she gets home from work she is still exhausted. Also, the hospital worker picks up as many overtimes shifts as he can to earn money. It may seem like these families are only focusing on work, but in order to support their family they must work these shifts. There are all making the best out of their situations, despite the complications.

Some factors which contribute to these complications are that kids get out school between 2:00 and 3:00pm while most office jobs go until 5:00 or 6:00pm. Also, there is a lack of understanding and flexibility from management. The study conducted look at traditional flextime, daily flextime, and telecommuting. Daily flextime showed the best results while telecommuting caused the most problems within the office. Both flexibility options showed a positive effect on work productivity. This study could shed some light on how managers can be most understanding to those supporting a family. Someone who was allowed more flexible hour could work while their child was at a school and then telecommute from home if they needed to complete more work.

Another factor contributing to this is the gender roles, after World War Two many women entered the workforce and their presence in jobs just continued to grow. Inflation caused more women to go to work because their husbands salary could not cover all household costs. This also caused a shift from males being the sole breadwinners to possible staying home with the children. If their wife had a successful job they could stay home with the child, in essence a role swap. Going back to a previous blog, most jobs that are being cut belong to men in the construction and finance areas so the women have to work while their husbands are unemployed.

Since all the responsibility cannot be left up to management, people may need to reach out to their coworkers, neighbors, and possibly other family members. In another blog video, a company used a team approach instead of having a manager. So the team was able to decide if someone could leave work early. The use of neighbors could help out if you need someone to check on your pet or make sure your child gets home from school. Finally, the collaboration of all family members can really help out in balancing work and family. The career woman who had her child make dinner twice a week is using her other family members to achieve balance. Not only are they helping out heir mother, but also learning skills they can use when they have their own family. Overall, there are many approaches to achieve a good family life and balance between career and family. Understanding from management, exploration of flexibility techniques, improving telecommuting, and using neighbors can help achieve a good family life.

Blog 3 Care and Work

Growing up I was an only child till I was in junior high, so until then I never really had experience with carework. My mother though worked from home so she did the majority of my caretaking. My dad worked for a large corporation and was travelling most of the time. I did not grow up knowing my father very well because he was placed in the role of “breadwinner” while my mother stayed at home to take care of me. My father spent most of the time out of the country or in the office. After my sister was born I did some carework myself. My mother taught me how to change diapers, feed, and burp her. As she got older, I would babysit her while my mom needed to run errands or if my parents went out. My mother’s parents are both healthy so we have never had them living in our home. Also, my father’s parents live in Spain so we have never had to do carework for them.

In the first part of the “Juggling Work and Care” they said the British economy needs about two million more workers and women were filling that void. The Sue Green Team seems to have a good approach to balancing work and care. They work in small teams versus having a manager who oversees everyone. So if someone needed to leave work early they could decide as team instead of asking a manager they can ask the team leader. The second part of the video also lays out what a caregiving employee would need: understanding from manager, access to information and advice, flexibility, flexible working, and flexible leave arrangements. Of all these things, I feel the flexible working and leave arrangements are the most important, as well as understanding from management. It is also important to keep in mind women may not always be the caregivers, men may need flexibility or time off as well.

Unit A, Blog 2

The term “sex segregation” refers to separation between men and women not only in the job force, but also in everyday life. In the workplace men seems to have more opportunities to succeed and make more money than women in the same position. I personally do not see any sex segregation within ASU; last semester I researched equality between teachers and tenured professors and did not find a large ratio between men and women. Also, the Analyzing Gender article mentions job mobility, which is the opportunity to advance within a career. Although men and women both could have dead end jobs, it seems that woman have more than men. It is interesting that most jobs lost due to the recent economy were men’s jobs. This does necessarily means women are given an advantage, it really means they just have more responsibility. The radio show mentions that women still only make 77 cents per every dollar a man makes, so they still have to take second jobs to support their family.

I grew up in a traditional family, my father worked while my mom stayed at home. As I got older my mother helped with her father’s business, but was still a stay at home mother. My parents got divorced when I was older and if my mom had not had a family business she would have had to get a job outside of the home. My mother never graduated from college so her perspective jobs would have been a short list. It is sad that it is socially acceptable to have the father in the family be the breadwinner because if they get divorced the woman could be in a serious problem especially if she has kids. As a child we grow up watching movies about princesses and damsels in distress, not strong powerful woman who can help themselves. Disney movies such as Aladin, Sleeping Beauty, and the Little Mermaid we about princesses who needed to be saved; instilling in our young minds that we need men in our lives to help us. We, as women, are socialized to rely on men while they are obligated to be this strong, patriarchal figure.

I am a fourth year Justice Studies major with a minor in Communications. I work in the School of Sustainability and I plan to go to law school for Environmental Law or Natural Resource Law. I plan to take the LSAT in September and most likely go to law school in the Fall of 2010. I have also been looking into programs to teach English in Spain for a year after college, but I have not decided yet. This summer I interned at an environmental consulting firm in Los Angeles. It was a non-profit called Tech Go Green, we provided businesses audits and made recommendation in order to be a more sustainable building, save money, and also be more environmentally friendly. Before my internship was over they were also in the process of applying for grants and working on educational workshops. I am also involved in my sorority where I have held many leadership positions. I was the Recruitment Assistant for one year and have served on the Judicial Board for three consecutive years. It is basically a trial for those members who have broken some rule, so it is a mini-trial. Ideally, I want to work in an environmental law firm but I also want to do work with foreign countries. South America is of high interest to me because of all their legal issues; indigenous people rights, oil, and corrupt governments. I believe my main goal is to someday work for the United Nations or Amnesty International. I am also very in independent media sources, I enjoy reading stories not in mainstream media. I believe their views and stories are not biased and influenced by corporate rule. Overall, I am interested in the legal aspects of the environment.