http://www.forbes.com/2006/08/23/Marriage-Careers-Divorce_cx_mn_land.html
This article is about how if women who work and have a higher education in their marriage are more likely to get a divorce. Sociologically looking at this from the conflict perspective it seems that this would be an issue because for years women were expected to stay at home and raise a family, while men got to make all of the financial decisions. At one point one paycheck was expected to take care of a family of four and today currently there are more households where two incomes barely take care of a family. Now this is an issue that the patriarchal society has because women’s main focus isn’t just on the household so they are becoming more financially equal and educationally equal to their counterparts even though statistcs show that women have yet to be paid the same as men they are gradually making more money as women.
From Martika
Even though women still don’t get paid an equal salary for equivalent work, we/they have made gains in recent decades. We are, after all, a considerable percentage of the population and can’t be ignored. Women who earn enough to support themselves have more options than less prosperous women. They can choose not to get married, or not to have children, and to devote more energy to their careers. Women who have both families and careers (by necessity or choice) often do more of the household and childrearing chores than the husband. Although they contribute to the family income, men often don’t contribute equally at home, so the woman stills bears the majority of household responsibilities. The (few) women I’ve known who have ‘stay-at-home’ husbands are satisfied and generally pleased with his contribution to the household. Not many men are comfortable with this role reversal. As women gain a stronger position in upper level jobs, we may (hopefully) see the ‘stay-at-home’ Dad more as a norm and less of a novelty. This is a good example of structural functionalism and how societal norms change to fit the needs of the current population. “Traditionally, men have tended to do "market" or paid work outside the home, and women have tended to do "nonmarket" or household work, including raising children.” (M. Noer) ‘Traditions’ change with social norms – the speed of changed depends on the amount of resistance.
ReplyDeleteWhy would stay at home dads becoming more of a norm, a good thing? Is it a good thing that stay at home moms are a norm?
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