Blog 3

The care work that I experienced in my family was mainly out sourced. By this I mean that I have always had a nanny, or at least until I turned 16 and could drive myself around. Neither of my parents really did traditionally men’s jobs or women’s jobs in the home. We had landscapers that cut the lawn and did the yard work. My mom made sure the house was neat but we had someone that came to clean our house once a week. When it came to family time, I think that both of my parents shared the care work equally. They would both play with us or help us with our homework.

When I was young, my great-grandmother fell down and broke her leg and came to stay with us for awhile. While she was there, my mom would take care of her and help her during the day while my dad was at work and when he got home, they would both help her and spend time with her. Me and my brothers also helped with taking care of her by getting things she needed or helping her walk around the house.

I thought that the efforts and policies being made in the UK to address the issue of juggling work and home life were insightful and seem to work. It makes sense for a company to have policies and practices to make it easier and less stressful on an employee that is also a carer. It would help stop the revolving door effect that occurs when someone is needed at home and their employer is open to being flexible. Since I work in a extremely flexible office, I completely see how helping your employees when they need it produces positive effects. When you are understanding and empathetic about someone’s situation and allow for flexibility, it allows for improved productivity and a more loyal employee.

The home is not just “woman’s work,” a carer can be someone that needs to care for a sick parent or grandparent or even spouse. In order to apply the policies that companies in the UK have done, is to recognize that children aren’t the only people that need care, and that women are not the only ones that are able to do it.

Blog 2

Sex segregation is when certain jobs are usually held by either majority male workers or majority female workers. I am not too familiar with how sex segregation exists in employment at ASU, but I have noticed that in the health clinic, the majority of people working there are female. I have also noticed that a lot of the people seen doing janitorial work in the MU are female. These two examples coincide with the examples used in Paula England and Lori McCreary’s article.

Growing up, my dad was the one that worked and my mom was a stay at home mom. Even though my mom was not working, we, me and my two younger brothers, always had a nanny that picked us up from school, took us to our extracurricular activities, and was usually the one to make sure we got our homework done. Although we had nannies, I think that both of my parents were extremely involved in our home lives. My mom is not a “normal” housewife in terms of a patriarchal sense. Both her and my dad have always shared the “supreme authority” equally. I think because they were so equally involved in all aspects of our lives, I identify with being a strong independent person that can perform any job that I want. I don’t think that I think of jobs in a way that certain ones are for one gender and not the other.

My dad works extremely hard and has always instilled a good work ethic in us and has always encouraged us to pursue any career that we wanted. I have worked in my dad’s office since I was 15 and am now the office manager. My dad is a physician and all of the employees in his office are female. While he is technically the “boss,” I am in charge of the business side of the office and our employees. So, in a sense he is the “supreme authority,” but him and I also share that authority, just perhaps in different areas of the business.

According the radio report, sex segregation and the wage gap continue to exist even when more women are employed than men for several reasons. First, women are making less money than men; they make $0.77 for every $1.00 men make. Second, the majority of jobs that women hold do not have benefits attached to them. The majority of jobs men hold provide benefits to their employees. I found it interesting that only one out of three women have life insurance when there are more women that are the “bread winners” than men now. The radio report also brings up a good point that this recession could be positive for women politically. It is raising the awareness of the unevenness in wages and benefits for men and women.

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