Weber State University



Economy, Work and FamilyTrue or False?TFalse1. In contrast to single-worker couples, dual-earner couples tend to divide household work almost evenly.TrueF2. More than 1 million American men are full-time homemakers with no outside employment.TFalse3. More women report a desire to stay home than to work outside the home.TFalse4. Couples who work different shifts have more satisfying and stable marriages.TFalse5. Middle Class families are going broke because they have spent too much money buying things they don’t need.TFalse6. When companies offer policies to reduce work-family conflict, most women and men make full use of them.TrueF7. The U.S. recession has taken a greater toll on male employment than on female employment.TrueF8. Most families are dual-earner families.TrueF9. Women tend to interrupt their work careers for family reasons far more often than do men.TFalse10. Compared to employed women and men in Europe and Japan, Americans work fewer hours per week.Adapted from: Strong, DeVault and Cohen (2011). The Marriage and Family Experience: Intimate relationships in a changing society. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. p. 379.Economy and FamilyTrue7. The U.S. recession has taken a greater toll on male employment than on female employment.What do we know from Rubin’s book – Families on the Fault Line – Reading 29?Is there are particular family that demonstrates this statement the best? Explain.How has working-class life impacted the families Rubin highlights here?Structure? Form? Function? Parent-Child relationship? Goals/ambition? Education? Work? etc.Identify a key “take-away” from each family story shared here?False4. Couples who work different shifts have more satisfying and stable marriages.What do we know from Presser’s article – The Economy that Never Sleeps – Reading #30?Who works non-standard schedules?What is the impact on marriages?How do families manage housework when working opposite or non-standard shifts?Is there any impact on the health of people working non-standard shifts?What policy options does Presser identify to help families manage both work and family responsibilities?False5. Middle Class families are going broke because they have spent too much money buying things they don’t need.What do we know from Warren and Tyagi’s article – Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke – Reading #31?Warren and Tyagi argue that explaining middle-class family debt as overconsumption is a myth. Why?Are middle class families today spending more on clothes than they did in the 1970s?What about food expenses today compared to in the past?What about home entertainment today compared to the past?Travel?Homes?Why are middle class families buying homes in the suburbs?Warren and Tyagi propose policy to counter the rising cost of homes and the move of middle class families to the suburbs (pp. 410-411). What do they propose? Why do they argue this is a viable option? What do you think of this idea?Work and FamilyFalse1. In contrast to single-worker couples, dual-earner couples tend to divide household work almost evenly.What do we know from Hochschild and Machung – The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home – Reading #26?Describe Nancy and Evan Holt’s story?What does their story teach us about dual-earner couples?False10. Compared to employed women and men in Europe and Japan, Americans work fewer hours per week.What do we know from Gerson and Jacobs’ article – The Work-Home Crunch – reading #27?Gerson and Jacobs argue that there is a growing gap between two groups of workers in our economy – 1) those who are time-squeezed; and 2) those who have fewer time pressures (many of whom have less work than they want or need).Describe this growing divide in individual work time.How does individual work time compare to family work time? In other words, are families overworked? If so, how and why?False 6. When companies offer policies to reduce work-family conflict, most women and men make full use of them.What do we know from Gerson and Jacobs’ article – The Work-Home Crunch – reading #27? (p. 364 – second full paragraph down, starts – “Flexibility and autonomy are only…”Gerson and Jacobs offer a number of different policy proposals that we could put into place to help families manage the “work-home crunch.” What are these policies? pp. 362-364True8. Most families are dual-earner families.From Gerson and Jacobs’ – The Work-Home Crunch – p. 359 – “…two earner families are more common today than male-breadwinner families 30 years ago.”How are mothers and fathers in dual-earner families managing their work time? p. 361True9. Women tend to interrupt their work careers for family reasons far more often than do men.What do we know from Stone’s article – The Rhetoric and Reality of “Opting Out” – reading #28?Stone interviews 54 women in high powered professions who eventually leave their jobs to parent full-time. Why do these women leave the paid labor force according to Stone?Is this a choice they make?What is Stone referring to when she talks about a “choice gap?”What does Stone propose is the key to keeping professional women on the job?False3. More women report a desire to stay home than to work outside the home.What do we know from Stone’s article – The Rhetoric and Reality of “Opting Out” – reading #28?True2. More than 1 million American men are full-time homemakers with no outside employment.Of the 22.4 million married-couple families with children under age 15, in 2003, in 4.6% of them (1.04 million) fathers were home (Census – “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2008).Reasons men gave for staying homeDisabilityUnemploymentRetirementSchoolonly 13.6% of the stay-at-home fathers said to “care for home and family”80% of the 6.7 million stay-at-home mothers said they were home to “care for home and family” ................
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