assignment 8

1. According to Hochschild, what is the “Second Shift?”
According to Hochschild, the “Second Shift” is the household work that must done after two people have worked a full-time job during the day. Examples of this include shopping, cleaning, cooking, household chores, etc. The “Second Shift” is said to be the second job.

2. Briefly describe the story of Evan and Nancy Holt.
Nancy and Evan do not seem to meet eye-to-eye when it comes to the household work, especially after working a full-time job. Evan would have rather come home from work, watch T.V. and grab a beer. Nancy, on the other hand, was responsible for cleaning and cooking and taking care of Joey. When Nancy proposed the second shift, Evan wanted nothing to do with it because he felt his part in the family was to provide the income and the financial state. When Nancy realized that this second shift could split the two, she decided to forget about it because it wasn’t worth losing their marriage. Instead, they came up with a “myth” where they divided the household work into the upstairs and downstairs. Evan took the downstairs, which was the garage and the car and also the dog and Nancy was responsible for the upstairs, which consisted of the kitchen, 2 bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. This seemed to work for them so this is the arrangement that they decided to use.

3. Hochschild argues that families create “myths” about their division of household labor. Describe the family myth created by Nancy and Evan Holt.
The “myth” is a type of solution that doesn’t really solve the problem at hand. Nancy and Evan created the myth of the upstairs-downstairs, which helped split the household work for the two. It was clearly a way to get Evan to help out around the house but Nancy still had more work to tend to being that the upstairs had more components and rooms than the downstairs.

4. According to Hochschild, what is the purpose of family myths?
The purpose of the family myth was basically to create something that would help Nancy and Evan with their housework. It was supposed to be something they could believe in and altogether, make their marriage better.

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?
This reading was a little bit surprising to me. In today’s society, many two-parent households have both working mothers and fathers, even if the mother is only part-time. It is definitely a hard obstacle in the beginning but I think as time goes on, it may become easier once there are roles designated and a routine is formulated. When I think about the future and my children, I would absolutely love to be a stay-at-home mother, although I know that would not be possible; however, since I am studying to be a teacher, except for the occasional late days, I will most likely be home late afternoon or early evening. The family work would definitely be divided based upon our schedules. One night I may cook; another my husband might. We would take turns doing laundry and cleaning. Although this would be a fairy tale and is extremely optimistic, the chances of this actually happening are, most likely, fairly low.