Helpful Score: 1
When The Second Shift was first published in 1989, it was hailed as "a scream in the dark" and "a brilliant, urgently needed analysis ... of the working woman who has it all". Now, in the twenty-first century, The Second Shift remains as important and relevant as when it was first published. As the majority of women entered the workforce, sociologist and Berkeley professor Arlic Hochschild was one of the first to talk about what really happened in dual-career households. Many people were amazed to find that women were still responsible for the majority of child care and housework even though they also worked outside the home. Now, in this updated edition with a new introduction by the author, we discover how much things have, and have not, changed for women today.
Helpful Score: 1
This book is nearly 20 years old and it's disheartening to see how little things have changed. A must-read for any working parent.
Helpful Score: 1
Originally published in 1989, this book is more relevant today than it was 20 years ago. The author, sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild from the University of California, compiled data about the working and household chore habits of modern two-career couples. In 17 chapters the author gives historical and individual context to what she calls the stalled revolution of women leaving the role of full-time housewives to become salaried workers outside the home, and compares it to the process of men leaving the family farm to look for salaried work in the factories during the height of the industrial age 200 years ago.
Opposite men who still had a wife back home to cushion the sudden change into industrialization, most women who have traded the apron for the briefcase (for professional women) or the uniform (for women working in the service industries) have not had the advantage of having someone back home to cushion their aggressive entrance into the marketplace. Somehow they have had to make ends meet, sacrificing their marriage, their children or their job. Usually the marriage goes and the sudden rise in the divorce rate since women entered the marketplace in droves is evidence of it.
The author discusses the inner workings of family life of eight particular working married couples with children, and how they cope with what has come to be known as the second shift, in which women are now expected to contribute to the financial life of the family by working outside the home. At the same time they are still expected to keep doing most or all of the household chores and taking primary responsibility of the day-to-day care of the children, which results in an extra month of work per year for women compared to men. On the other hand, men have not paralleled womens entry in the marketplace with an entry into the world of domestic responsibilities, which has led to a different kind of tension and conflict in modern marriage. Most married women with children who work outside the home will be able to find at least one woman here with whom to identify.
Opposite men who still had a wife back home to cushion the sudden change into industrialization, most women who have traded the apron for the briefcase (for professional women) or the uniform (for women working in the service industries) have not had the advantage of having someone back home to cushion their aggressive entrance into the marketplace. Somehow they have had to make ends meet, sacrificing their marriage, their children or their job. Usually the marriage goes and the sudden rise in the divorce rate since women entered the marketplace in droves is evidence of it.
The author discusses the inner workings of family life of eight particular working married couples with children, and how they cope with what has come to be known as the second shift, in which women are now expected to contribute to the financial life of the family by working outside the home. At the same time they are still expected to keep doing most or all of the household chores and taking primary responsibility of the day-to-day care of the children, which results in an extra month of work per year for women compared to men. On the other hand, men have not paralleled womens entry in the marketplace with an entry into the world of domestic responsibilities, which has led to a different kind of tension and conflict in modern marriage. Most married women with children who work outside the home will be able to find at least one woman here with whom to identify.
