Divison of Unpaid Labor

The Second Shift: Joey’s Problem

The Holts’ have a Joey problem. No, not a baby kangaroo. Joey is their son. Joey is not going to bed at a healthy hour and he is not very attached to his father. Both parents hesitate to acknowledge this as a huge problem because they figure that little boys are normally more attached to their mothers. This Joey problem may be the result of how Mr. and Mrs. Holt divide unpaid household labor.
The author divides the parents’ labor into two shifts. The first shift is the paid work they perform to maintain their lifestyle. The second shift is the unpaid labor they perform to take care of the house and their son. Surprise, surprise: the mother unit performs more housework and family care than the father. The mother taking care of household duties and father doing little to no household/family duties is rooted in the gender ideologies imprinted on them from childhood.
Nancy Holt would like Evan Holt to take more responsibilities to have equal sharing of duties in the household. Evan convinced her to work half as much to pick up the slack at home. This can be viewed as Nancy giving in to decrease tension in the marriage. The Holts now divide the work by upstairs and downstairs, which sounds equal, but results in Evan only really taking care of the dog and garage, while Nancy doing most parenting and household duties. This was all to keep up the appearance of a “family myth” while not being equal or helpful to create a family atmosphere. The struggle between husband and wife continued to manifest itself in the hardship of putting Joey to bed.
Nancy went out her way to schedule her life and leisure so as not to compare her life and work to her husband’s. This was to decrease tension between them to maintain a face value of family life. She now compares her life to other woman instead to avoid resentment. Equality in her marriage and family life is so important to Nancy that she twisted her own perceptions in order to be at peace with her life situation, even though it has little overall. It is unequal, but she not miserable about it.
This example of family life can viewed out in the real world so I agree with the author. It’s unfortunate. We as a society value equality, however, when we really look into it, there is a lot less equality in our lives than we are led to believe by greeting cards and TV, etc. The chapter shows what one would go through to settle into their situations even if they are less than ideal. Not that that’s a bad thing. I feel the author paints it in a more negative light than it should be. It more seems like a regular function of our humanity to think our way through a situation that is troubling until we are okay with it. It would be nice to see the father as a more active participant in the life of the child. That seems like a necessary duty that the father owes to the child to maintain a healthier lifestyle and upbringing for him or her, of course there are exceptions to this rule.

The Division of Domestic Labor in Lesbigay Families

Lesbian and gay couples do not include members of both sexes in the domestic union, so they do not necessarily fall into the common gender roles. However, like heterosexual couples, one partner usually takes care of more household chores than the other. In the media, a myth has been created portraying the homosexual couples as a more progressive, egalitarian union not weighed by the sexism that may arise from heterosexuality. Unique situations, such as extreme wealth or poverty, are more determinant in equality of division of household labor than gender.
In lesbigay families, it is not uncommon to find that the partners work in sectors that would normally be considered female-oriented careers, such as teaching or nursing. However, many do strive for successful careers in law or business that may fall into the male-dominated sector. The one who puts more hours towards his/her career takes care of the house less. The division of labor is not equal. This leads to all sorts of tensions in the families. Homosexuals are trying to prove to the world that they can be just as good or better than the heterosexual couples, however they are faced with basically the same difficulties.
I’m not an expert on lesbigay culture. From what the article tells me, their situation is not different from the heterosexual couples. Division of house labor is unequal no matter what the gender is. Career choices seem to pay a larger role than gender. Or maybe gay couples, despite being the same sex, have on female-oriented partner and one male-oriented partner, gender-wise, and play out those gender roles according to what society has laid out for those gender roles. I wish the author had interviewed and discussed lesbigay that were raising children. Just a romantic couple does not seem to constitute a family to me.

Doing Housework

Housework is not the same as paid work. You don’t get paid! Unless you’re a maid and that’s your career! But we’re talking here about heterosexual, married couples with outside careers and inside the house family and homestead related tasks that are unpaid. However, despite the division, we apply terminology for outside work to household work, which limits the perception of it.
Work in the household is more complex than it appears and much of it invisible to the person due to the language we use and of course cultural perceptions. Feeding, for example, is not really perceived as work despite it actually being a lengthy process. The mother spends time, thought, and effort in order to prepare a meal that will nutritionally satisfy her family and also appeal to their own personal tastes. The mealtime also is important in establishing a family dynamic. This invisible work leads to harmony and the family which spreads out into the community.
I agree with the author. Meal preparation is tricky, time-consuming, hard, and underappreciated. Mothers, usually, put a lot effort into it and don’t realize that it’s work. Which may be a good, because if they viewed it as work they may get frustrated over the lack of appreciation an create tension in the family. This invisible work may not seem as work to the parents because they see it more as coming from love instead of duty.

Autonomy, Dependence, or Display?

The author feels that the prevailing views on the relationship between earnings and housework are defective. Women’s earning capacity is more central to their housework than their husbands. Does is it bring more stress or does it help ease the load? Women with higher earnings than husbands will spend more time on housework and men with lower earnings than wife will spend even less time on housework, possibly reinforce the gender stereotypes and maintain their femininity or masculinity respectively. Women’s earnings matter more than husband’s in relation to housework according to these findings.
The author uses research and very dry statistics in order to show that women’s earnings matter more than husband’s in relation to housework according to these findings. It makes sense. Women are in most cases in control of the housework. Their money would more likely than not be applied to that, while husband may take of bills and buy HDTVs, etc. Though I’m not entirely convinced. There are probably exceptions to this rule, where the gender roles are reversed, etc.