As more and more women enter the workplace, more and more struggles become present, especially for those in the lower income classes. These women usually take on those jobs that tend to have a negative stigma associated with them. In Reality Check she pursues the option of working as a go-go dancer, a job in which women are sexually objectified. This shows us that sometimes women are willing to take on jobs that degrade them just to be able to pay their rents.
In Maid To Order the career path of maids is examined. These women don't usually pick to become maids; their education (or lack of) tends to be a key factor. This job was also degrading to women, for it forced them to work long hours on little pay while scrubbing and polishing all on their hands and knees. And these women tend to disproportionately be of color. In today's world, we see more homes hiring maids.
When reading Maid To Order I found myself disagreeing with some of the things said. She seemed to be making too many generalizations based off of her experiences. Like when she said "we scrubbed only to remove impurities that might be detectable to a customer by hand or by eye." (67) A cleaning lady comes to my house once a month. And I know that before she comes, my mom sets up all the supplies and gets out buckets of water and soap. So I feel like some maids do a good job of actually cleaning. And when she said that children will "grow up as domestically incompetent" I was in shock. Most of my friends, including myself, all know how to clean different surfaces.
I think that Erica brought up good points, especially about Ehrenriech's "Maid to Order." I thought that she went a bit too far when we she describing what were almost extreme conditions that the Maids were being forced to work under, with people ignoring them and children walking almost on top of them as they are working. I definitely agree with the fact that many of these women being disproportionately colored women being a major issue, but in my opinion working as a cleaning lady is a better option for many of these women than some of the dangerous working conditions they may be subject to if they worked in a factory for example. However, it is true that women today are still being forced to work in jobs that men would not consider tackling.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand I mostly agreed with the points that were brought up by Critenden, Hakim-Dce, and Rangel. Women do need to be aware of the fact that they are still being paid less than men and that the choice to have a family will increase those differences even more. I know that in one of my sociology classes, we discussed that one of the reasons that women are paid less than men, even maybe sometimes before they have children would be because they are not worth as much in the long run, if they are going to take time off to raise their families. And even more so after they have kids because they have lost that time to get more work experience and connections, while they were taking time to have and raise their children. Lastly, I did find it interesting how in "The Mommy Tax" Critenden brought up the point that it is not always females who experience this Mommy Tax, but males who take time off to either be with their wives or raise the kids while their wife works, experience the same sort of money loss that their wives would have if they had taken the time off of work.
I think it's interesting how most of the time, certain jobs are chosen for women. Ones with little to no education have trouble finding anything but jobs that include no intellectuality--housecleaning. The fact that these women are disproportionately colored, is in fact a huge issue, I agree Emily...And the fact that these women are choosing cleaning jobs as opposed to their other option in a factory, is definitely the better decision to be made. Women, especially women having had children are at a huge disadvantage in the workplace. Not only do they earn less than child-less women but also, are part of the very wide income gap amongst men too. What's interesting enough is that this so-called "Mommy tax" is actually more prevalent in upper class, highly educated women, as opposed to the poorly educated, middle class women who bear children. This is because the upper class women have more to lose out of their income; obviously meaning their jobs are higher paid than women of a lower educational background. So I guess choosing to have a family and putting a career off to the side is frowned upon in most workplaces.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emily's point made about "Maid to Order," that women are better off being maids than being unemployed or working other more demeaning jobs. While feminists may argue that being a maid goes against what feminist are fighting for, many of these women are still working outside of their own home and are able to bring home a paycheck to support their families. Additionally, if feminists see a position at home as oppressive and choose to work outside the home, then they have no option than to hire someone else to do the jobs neglected at home. Despite agreeing with the author's point about maid work is demeaning, I do agree that sometimes, kids who grow up with someone to pick up after them (aka maid) often grow up not knowing how do take care of themselves or a home.
ReplyDeleteI think these posts bring up the important issue that face women today, namely that they are subjected to lower paying jobs than men simply because of their sex. Women throughout our country are denied adequate education and as a result have no hope in building a bright future for themselves and their children. In addition, women who are educated are denied equal pay to men due primarily to gender differences. These authors highlight the tough situation for women in America today and emphasize that we ought to consider who and what factors contribute to the gender gap in the work place today.
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