Monday, June 27, 2011

Artisanally!

A Favorite from the New Yorker

I recently had the following query from someone who read (but perhaps did not fully grasp) my
Trilogy of Homebody Thoughts:
Homebody Anybody
Homebody Somebody
First Fiddle

Question: "Are you suggesting that, because I work full time outside the home (as does my children's father), that we don't "take care of our own children?"

Answer: Well, none of us can be two places at one time. If you are at home full time taking care of children, then you are obviously not at a workplace full time. If you are working outside the home full time, then someone else must be taking care of the children -- unless they take care of themselves or are left unattended. The fact is, if you are away from your children, then, no, you are not taking care of them. Someone else is. Perhaps you have provided for their care, but you are not working as their full - time caregiver for the simple reason that you are working somewhere else, doing something else.

As Neil Gilbert observes in
A Mother's Work:
How Feminism, the Market, and Policy Shape Family Life
:
"The analysts interpret the declining magnitude of behavioral adjustments as a sign that the extent to which men and women can rearrange their livs to accommodate both paid and unpaid work has hit a ceiling. Ultimately, there are only so many hours a day available for a reallocation by people who are employed full-time.

" . . . From the rational-choice perspective it comes as no surprise that as women invest more time and effort in developing human capital to boost their market value, they devote less time and effort to household productivity associated with the long-established sexual division of labor."
(73)

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