Assignment 6

1. According to Hochshild, what is the “Second Shift?”
1. The second shift is in fact a second shift that most women will take part in for about an extra month of 24 hour days per year.

2. Briefly describe the story of Evan and Nancy Holt.
2. Evan holds a traditional gender ideology while Nancy is egalitarian.  They have a 4 year old son Joey who has a strong attachment to Nancy and Nancy has a strong attachment to Joey while Evan is more emotionally distant from Joey.  Nancy wants her life to be a happy balance between work and family and expects Evan's help around the house.  Evan supports Nancy having a job but he does not want that to lead to him doing more work around the house.

3. Hochschild argues that families create “myths” about their division of household labor. Describe the family myth created by Nancy and Evan Holt.
3. Nancy and Evan created the upstairs/downstairs myth where Nancy did the household work upstairs and Evan did the work downstairs.  This created the illusion that they were splitting the work equally but really Nancy was doing a majority of the work.

4. According to Hochschild, what is the purpose of family myths?
4. Family myths help manage tensions between husbands and wives; they allow the couple to maintain an illusion of traditional gender roles while doing what is necessary for their family's survival.

5. Was this reading surprising to you and why? How do you imagine you will divide family work (including child care) in your own marriage or cohabitation
5. I did not find the reading surprising.  I think it is normal for some to still hold the belief that a woman should do a majority of the housework but I also think it is becoming a more accepted for men and women to do equal parts.  In my own marriage I imagine that there will be certain chores I will do and certain chores my husband will do but if needed we would help each other out.  With both of us having jobs I think it is fair that we both take part in the household chores.  As far as child care while we are at work most likely a family member would take care of the children and we would both be very involved, loving parents when we are with our children.

6. Using what you have earned throughout this class about increasing numbers of women working for pay, increased divorce, higher age at marriage, how might these demographic changes influence women's role in housework. In other words, based on other demographic changes -- how and why do you expect change in the division of household labor by gender. And why SOCIOLOGICALLY might it not change as much as you might expect? Give this some deep thought before writing.
6.  With more women working I think that they will expect their husbands to help them out around the house.  If they are out at work all day, just like their husbands, I think they will want the help.  It's not like they are home all day and have all the time to clean the house, they're out making money and with less time in the home it would be more efficient for the men to help out.  With higher divorce rates there may be more conflict in the marriage which could lead to someone not holding up their end of the deal. Women marrying later may have a strong sense of self and be more independent than a woman marrying at a younger age.  They know what they want and what they want their partner to do and will likely establish what will get done by who.  I think as women become more independent and able to take care of themselves they will expect to be equals in all aspects of their marriage.  I think this may not change because some men and women will still hold those traditional beliefs and will not change.  

Assignment 5

According to the reading by Julian Sanchez pp: 313-320 in your Risman text:

1) Identify one of the examples of ancient marriage described by the author and discuss how it differed from the "one man, one woman idea" of marriage
1. In Tibet about a quarter of marriages consisted of brothers sharing one wife, this differed from the one man, one woman idea of marriage because it consisted of multiple men and one woman and was not always a love marriage.

2) Among which two groups has postponing marriage become the most likely? Why?
2. Postponing marriage has become more likely for poor and middle class couples because they want to be somewhat settled economically first.


List all the wedding traditions in the clip.
exchanging of wedding bands
kissing the bride
bridesmaids and groomsmen
best man speech at the reception

Choose one tradition and do a little research on-line - what is the history behind that tradition.
Write about a paragraph about the origin of the tradition and whether you will include this in your own wedding - if you plan on having one.
Having bridesmaids and groomsmen dates back to ancient Rome.  There were typically ten maids and ten men standing up at the altar with the bride and groom to protect them from evil spirits.  The bridesmaids dressed exactly the same as the bride and the groomsmen exactly the same as the groom in hope to confuse the evil spirits.  I will definitely be having bridesmaids and groomsmen in my wedding.  I think it is important to share this special day with everyone I love and to have my closest friends and family up at the altar with me.