Working Women :: essays research papers

Work and the Family The interaction of adults and children is one to be treasured. When a person becomes a parent they change. He/she instantly becomes more mature and are forced to take on numerous responsibilities. However, every parent will agree it is the best feeling one can have. It is truly a privilege to bring a child into this world, and there is nothing more special than to begin a family. During this course I choose to help facilitate two chapters: Work and Family and To Parent or not to Parent. This is what I have learned... This course had three required texts including The New Peoplemaking by Virginia Satir, Marriages and Families by Mary Ann Lamana and Agnes Reidmann, and Annual Editions by a variety of authors. These three articles really helped me to shed light on some of the hidden topics in family life. What exactly is a family? As defined in the Lamana text it is any sexually expressive or parent-child or other kin relationship in which people live together with a commitment in an in timate interpersonal relationship. Family members see their identity as importantly attatched to the group, which has an identity of its own. Families today take on several forms: single-parent, remarried, dual career, communal, homosexual, traditional, and so forth. More and more families are struggling to make the connection of work and family fit together. There are many issues that working families face such as when if ever will the parents go back to work, child care issues, finances, stress, marital strain, division of labor, and and many more topics. As tradition has it men are the breadwinners of the family but during recent years that role seems to be changing. More and more women have white collar jobs, and are bringing home more money. Tradition leads us to believe that men bring home all the money and women stay home with the kids. However, now in the 2000's dual career marriages are more popular , and women are coming home to the "second shift", referring to t he unpaid house work waiting for parents at the end of the work day. Women spend on average 20 hours per week doing housework. Another change is that men are doing an increase the amount of housework that they are participating in. Husbands and wives are beginning to share the responsibilities, not just leave it to the husband or the wife.