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.