Two Views on Domesticity Essay Example for Free

Two Views on Domesticity EssayIn Joan Williams book Unbending Gender Why Family and deed Conflict and What to Do Ab out It, she defines domesticity as a gender system comprising roughly centrally of both the naval divisionicular organization of securities industry educate and family work that arose around 1780, and the gender norms that justify, sustain, and reproduce that organization. (1) Throughout the book, Williams seeks to delimitate the very meaning of domesticity and how it affects both workforce and women. The reason of the article Gender, Status, and Feeling, seeks to explain how men and women journey their horny minefields and why it affects their respective statuses in orderliness. While Williams and the germ of Gender, Status, and Feeling differ on the reasons why women be seen as being on a lower pedestal than men, they both agree that women do a good job of dealing the hand they are dealt, for the most part. It is obvious that Williams sympathy lies t oward the pistillate half of the population. In the introduction, Williams cites several statistics that shows the reader how women are victimized by the ideal worker norm. The author defines an ideal worker as mostone who works forty hours a week year round. (2) She goes on to explain how this norm excludes most m others of childbearing age.(2) One statistic cited states that dickens-thirds (Williams emphasis) of mothers are not ideal workers even in the minimal sense of working full time full year. (2) Another statistic cited states that 93 percent of mothers are excluded from jobs that require extensive overtime. (2) With sobering statistics like these, Williams tries to show that against towering odds, mothers of childbearing age arent able to compete in the market workplace with men. Williams unequivocally states that she wants to democratize access to domesticity. (174) She therefore goes on to state that a restructuring of market work will give to working tier women and women of color greater access to the maternal care that remains a widespread social ideal. (174) This is an busying idea because earlier in the book, Williams ripped by a womans book because the author do certain life and career choices that didnt seem palatable to Williams for many reason. Deborah Fallows, a successful linguist in her knowledge right, went down to part time hours, then de-escalate altogether, when her son was born(p).She wrote a book called A Mothers lap, which described the journey that she took from successful career woman to homebody mom. For some reason, Williams doesnt believe Fallows would happily give up her career for her son and husband, a high ply White House aide. Williams states Thus Fallows presents (authors emphasis) her decision to stay home as a choice she made to improve her own emotional state She quit both to avoid negative feelings and to experience lordly ones, as leaving gave her more time to partake of the pleasures of Tommy s company. (19) Williams sees Fallows choice to stay home as a prime example of how domesticity saturates even the upper levels of society. Williams goes so far as to attack Fallows aspect on child care. On page 32, Williams wonders why Fallows would be against day care in general when her own experience was positive It is hard to see why the low quality of child care for the silly explains Fallows decision to stay home. It seems as if Williams is having a really hard time trying to figure out why an upper class woman like Fallows would give up every function she was working for in hallow to stay home with her child.If staying at home with the kids is clear for poor and working class women, why isnt it okay for a woman like Fallows? On the surface, Williams seems to be fighting for women all across the economic spectrum. However, underneath lies a subtle streak of the same sort of classist attitudes that Williams pins on some feminists later on in her book. With Williams raging against the machine of domesticity, one would think that the author would lash out at the male half of the population. Surprisingly, she doesnt do this.Williams feels that men are also the victims of domesticitys ideas of the ideal worker as well as domesticitys view in other areas of society. For example, on page 3, Williams explains how women generally lose out when it comes to financial support later divorce Mothers marry, marginalize, and then divorce in a system that typically defines womens and childrens postdivorce entitlements in terms of their staple fibre aims, objet dart mens entitlements reflect the assumption (derived from domesticity) that they own their ideal-worker wage. In this case, Williams chooses not to point the finger at an easy target (men).Instead, she blames a system that allows men to keep the vast majority of their earnings while 40 percent of divorced mothers live in poverty. (3) Williams even blames domesticity for the lack of parenting prowess o n the part of some men. Again, Williams cites some statistics that shows how domesticity changed attitudes on parenting One study estimated that an average American father spends twelve legal proceeding a day in solo child care. Another reported that mothers spend about triad times as much time as fathers in face-to-face interaction with their children. (3) The author then gives a short record lesson on how exactly did domesticity changed the face of parenting for both men and women child genteelness was considered too important to be left to women, and child-rearing manuals addressed fathers. Men were actively involved, in part because market work and family work were not yet geographically separated, so that fathers generally worked closer to home than most do today In a society that viewed women as the weaker vessel, it made no sense to designate childrens health, well-being, and eternal souls to theexclusive sphere of women. (3) It seems as if Williams is yearning for a si mpler time when fathers could take off work for a few moments and read a story to his children. This isnt a perfect scenario. After all, women were seen as modest second class citizens who werent capable of molding the minds of her children. What Williams is actually wishing for is a time where the ideas of domesticity didnt interfere with the itinerary that fathers tended to their children. While Joan Williams is sounding a battle cry, the author of the article Gender, Status, and Feeling is blowing a whistle.In the article, the author attempts to explain not only how men and women handle their emotions, but how women use their emotions to navigate a society that still sees them as second class citizens. One thing that Williams and the author article would agree on is that the female half of the population is usually seen as an afterthought in our society. This point would be where the two authors viewpoints diverge. First, the author of the article argues that women use their em otions as a means to an end. In a society that doesnt cling to a lot of their contributions, some women father found other ways to survive lacking other resources, women make a resource out of feeling and offer it to men as a turn over in return for the more material resources they lack. For example, in 1980 only 6 percent of women but 50 percent of men earned over $15,000 a year. (GSF 163) From this passage, one can see that the author feels that women right away adapted to the hand they were dealt. The author doesnt even seem to think this is a bad thing. They see this utilisation of their emotional palette more as a means of survival. The author even theorizes as to why women are believed to have been born with what Williams calls an ethic of careAs for many others of lower status, it has been in the womans interest to be the better actor. As the psychologists would say, the techniques of deep acting have unusually high secondary gains. to date these skills have long been m islabeled natural, a part of womens being rather than something of her own making. (GSF 167) Williams would disagree with part of this authors statement. While the author of the article and Williams both believe that the place of women in society is base on societal public opinions, Williams states in her book that the ideas that domesticity has planted is the sole reason for this.For example, on page 182, William says that women need to be selfless only because they live in a system that marginalizes caregivers. In other words, women have no choice but to be selfless caregivers. In her book, Williams does everything she can to fight the societal belief that all women are born with an ethic of care. The author of Gender, Status, and Feeling, however, not only thinks that women are born with this innate need to nurture, but that it comes in handy when women become mothers more women at all class levels do unpaid labor of a highly interpersonal sort.They nurture, manage and befr iend children. More accommodative and cooperative, they address themselves better to the needs of those who are not yet able to adapt and foster much themselves. (GSF 170) The author of the article uses the example of male and female flight attendants to illustrate how society views men and women in a position of authority. The author reported that when a female flight attendant makes a orison of a passenger, the passengers would usually argue with them.When a male flight attendant was called over to help, the request was usually granted with no problem. Williams claims that most people arent able to help this phenomenon Thirty years of second-wave womens liberation movement have seen many accomplishments, but dislodging the ideology of domesticity is not one of them. Most people, feminists or not, believe some version of domesticitys descriptions of men and women. (193) Williams and the author of Gender, Status, and Feeling would disagree about a lot of things. Williams is a t ribal chief strong feminist whose goal is to change the core beliefs of society.The author of the article believes that women have used their emotional palettes to adapt to their marginalized role in society and doesnt say whether this survival tactic should be a thing of the past. One thing that is evident in both Williams book and the article is the belief that women throughout history have been resilient in working the hand they are dealt and will continue this tradition as long as society pushes their half to the outermost margins. Works Cited Williams, Joan. Unbending Gender Why Family and Work Conflict and What to Do About It. New York Oxford University Press, 2000 Gender, Status, and Feeling (article)