The second shift

By Arlie Russell Hochschild

Hochschild, studied modern women mothers, observed the increasing mothers participating in economic world. In 1975, 47% of all American mothers with children under age eighteen worked for pay, and by 2000, the rate had risen to 73%. This upward trend applied to mothers of children age six and under as well: in 1990 49% of married mothers with children six and under were in the labour force, while in 2001 the percentage had risen to 63%, and for single mothers, it was from 49% to 70%; In 1975, 34% of mothers of children age three and under were doing paid work, and in 2000, this had risen to 61%. Mothers with children age one and under were in the labour force also rose from 31% in 1975 to 58% in 2000.

She did a research on how did these women and their family coping the increased challenge, especially when they have to look after both small children and elderly parents. She found out, by adding together the time it takes to do a paid work and to do housework and childcare, that women worked roughly fifteen hours longer each week than men. Over a year, they worked an extra month of 24 hours days.

Just like there is a wage gap between men and women in the work place, there is also a "leisure gap" between them at home. Most women work one shift at work and second shift at home.

She noticed that every marriage bears the footprints of economic and cultural trends which originate far outside marriage. A rise in inflation which erodes the earning power of the male wage, an expanding service sector which opens up jobs for women, that is new cultural trend presenting today.

Couples often adapt certain gender strategies in copying such social phenomenon. The gender strategy refers to both to one plan of action and to his emotional preparations for pursuing it.

According to Hochschild, there are three types of gender strategies in our modern society:

1. Traditional woman, wants to identify with her roles at home as mother, wife , she wants her husband to base his identity on work and wants less power than he, the traditional men wants the same


2. Transitional, is the variety of types of blending the traditional and egalitarian, which a transitional woman wants to identify with her role at work as well as at home. Unlike egalitarian, she believes her husband should base his identity more on work than she does. A typical transitional wants to identify both with the caring for the home and with helping her husband earn money, but wants her husband to focus on earning a living; A typical transitional man is all for his wife to work, but expects her to take the main responsibility at home.


3. Egalitarian woman, wants to identify with the same spheres her husband does, and to have an equal amount of power in the marriage, some want the couple to be jointly oriented to the home, others to their careers, or both of them jointly hold some balance between the two

Obviously, there are more transitional men and women nowadays.

What we are facing are: the women are no longer like her mothers,while the men are no much different from his father, the social expectations to them are more or less the same. Thus there is cultural stalled revolution in modern marriage.

The burdens however, lays on women's shoulder more than to men's. Hochschild, in detailed, described the problems, but she can offer no solution to such.

I remember one of mothers who decided left the rat race said, "the problem of rat race is at the end of race, even when you win, you are still a rat."

How true it is, mothers, if you can, why put yourself into such a difficult position? If you cannot, you need to check out your lifestyle. Do you sums, see how you can balance your balance sheet. There are prices for every working mother.