Blog 8: Belkin and Work

There were numerous of responses to Belkin's essay that either agreed with her and disagreed with her. I think the main argument against Belkin's essay is that the fact that some women just do not have the choice to so called "opt out" of their working careers. In Belkin's case she was married and had a husband who was well off I'm guessing and with her college degrees she was able to get well paying jobs that could probably secure her financially to not work. But that is not the case for a lot of women. Her essay was targeted to white, college degrees, high paying job women. There are numerous of women who are either single mothers or just struggling day by day to make ends meet and can not afford to stay at home with their children even though they may want to, it is just not an option. In Belkin's case she might have loved her job and wanted to stay, but like a lot of women working the jobs are not understanding of a mother with kids. Many mothers do not opt out, but are instead pushed out by workplace inflexibility, failures of public policy, and workplace bias. Some jobs do not understand how hard and difficult it is to work from 8-5 and then go back home and work and second shift raising your kids. In Belkin's article she had a woman who was a TV anchorman who said she would have hung in their but the job kept getting more and more demanding causing her to work 60 hour weeks instead of 50 hour weeks which is still considered a long day. I am not a parent, but when I was growing up both of my parents worked in corporate office which meant 8-5 everyday. My mother of course stayed at home with us at the beginning but had to go back to work once her maternity leave was over. This meant days at a baby sitters everyday until it was time for them to get off. There jobs were very demanding and we really only saw them at night time. My parents finally decided it was too much and my mother was the first to come home and work out of the house because she wanted to get more involved in me and my sister's life. After a couple of years my dad retired and came home also. They both worked out of the house as owners of the 2 real estate businesses. I have to say having both parents at home was kind of weird and took some getting used to. But at the end I am glad they decided to do what they did because we got quality time not with just one of our parents but with both.

RESPONSE TO READINGS:
Belkin's essay was very controversial since it was looked at only one point of view and that was from white, college degree, successful women. But I personally do not believe that these women are opting out, but are making a choice to stay at home and raise their children and not let someone else do it for them when they can. I can see how it would be a hard decision for some because they do want to overcome those sterotypes that women should just be homemakers when they can succed in the carrer ladder just like any man can. For those who do have a choice and can stay at home are fortunate because many women out there do not have that choice and wish they did. I do believe jobs should be more flexible to mothers and allow them to raise their children and work if that is their choice.

Chapter 9 in the F-word talks about the different acts and laws that women have been through to get equal rights. Second wave feminists believe that the third wave feminist are not doing enough in the electoral and legislative areas. Many believe that one reason rew women aren't actively engaged in electoral and legislative politics is they believe they are too busy juglling careers, children , and home (pg 186). Which I think is true now that the first and second generation fought to have equal rights and women votes to women working; the third generation is utilizing the tools given to them to succeed that many women back in the day did not believe would happen. Women have come a long ways but there is still more to accomplish.