Work and Family

This week’s readings made me think of an article that was recently published in Slate magazine entitles “Going Dutch, Women in the Netherlands work less, have lesser titles and a big gender pay gap, and they love it” (found here: http://www.slate.com/id/2274736/). Only around 10% of Dutch women work full time; the majority work 25 hours or less, and are cited as spending their time taking care of families and “having fun”. The writer of the article discusses her opinion of work as an American women and speculates that perhaps we in North America have it all wrong. As Correll, Benard and Paik (2007) show, there is stigma surrounding motherhood that inhibits a mother’s advancement within the workplace, so is the attempt to shatter the glass ceiling just depriving us of unhappiness? This strikes me as a system that Hochschild would approve of, in that it raises the value of care from parents, rather than it being a “pass-on job” (196).

However, what this and many other articles leave out, or do not address enough, is that a woman’s need to work is largely affected by her socioeconomic status. As the article about Dutch women brings up, 25% could not financially support themselves, even with government help. This creates a culture of dependency on male partners, which as we have seen can have dangerous consequences for those in abusive relationships (although I do not know the statistics of this in the Netherlands). In addition, many women want to work more, but the government dictates that they are not allowed to take on more hours thereby creating difficulties for some women to make ends meet. However, this difference in class does not disappear when we look at women in America or Canada, so perhaps the Dutch really are onto something. Regardless of whether or not this seems like a good idea, it is important to challenge our notions of class and work.

1) Are there other approaches to reforming women’s place in the work world that are somewhere in between “trying to be a man” and accepting that work is a man’s world?

2) Is love really a zero sum game of affection? Hochschild brings up that some nannies love the child they watch more then their own children, but is this a transference of love, or perhaps a side effect of the expectation and roles played in the differing relationships one might have with a child they watch, and their own children?

3) Would Hochschild’s “solution” of valuing care really improve the situation of women who take on these jobs in foreign countries? Does it address the root of the problem she presents: the higher pay?