Balance is Difficult
THE SECOND SHIFT: UC Berkley Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild identified the concept that most women working outside the home actually work two jobs every day--one on the job, and another at home. She discussed this idea in The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home, in 1989. The term identified the reality of American women, wives, mothers, and single women, who had multiple responsibilities for tasks that entailed eight to ten hours on the job and then another shift at home cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, and providing childcare.
1940s' America had specific, defined roles for men and women. Men's roles were as husbands, workers, and family bread-winners. Women's roles were as wives, mothers, and home-makers.
Social and gender expectations for women complicated their lives, especially if they wanted or needed to work outside the home after marriage. If a woman did work outside the home, her family still expected her to do all of the home-making and childcare work at home, in addition to the work she did on the job. This made the effort of balancing work life and home life difficult, complex, and exhausting.
There were few, if any, such expectations imposed on men--whether they were husbands and fathers or not.
Credit: Graph Courtesy of “Gender pay gap in U.S. hasn’t changed much in two decades” (March 1, 2023), By Carolina Aragão (accessed July 27, 2023), Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C.,
Ruth Luce stayed home to raise her children, entering the work force at age fifty in the 1970s. A paid job would ensure a better social security benefit for her in retirement. Her children were grown but as her father's health declined, "he felt she should stay home and take care of him. He was very nasty about it." It was really only women who were expected to stay home and care for relatives. This was an additional stressor for them that most men did not face.
In addition to working, women wanted to spend time with their families. Some professions, like teaching, allowed women be home for family and friends in the evenings and on the weekends. D.P. taught in public schools. And although she went to school early to prep her classroom, grading and lesson plans were often done at home. Still, with this job, she found time to be with her family.
Image Courtesy of D.P.
Barbara Gettmann found balancing the role of care taking responsibilities for a husband, house, and three children, with working full-time outside the home, a challenge. In the 1980s and 1990s, she worked in the fast-food industry, which provided her with flexible hours while her children attended school. Barbara’s husband worked second shift at General Motors, necessitating her to have full accountability of the house and children. Such double duty was par for the course for many women.
Maxine Borchers worked as a police officer in the 1980s. She was proud of the service she provided to her community. Although the job was dominated by men at the time, the officers respected each other.
Image Courtesy of Maxine Borchers
Some women did find balance or traded their childcare responsibilities with their husbands. According to project researcher Nikki Marino, guilt over family time and struggles over childcare led many women “to do what you had to do.” Both married and single female parents expressed this sentiment, which was typical. More unusual, Nikki noticed that some of her interviewees “went back to work and the[ir] husbands stayed home with little kids.” Although atypical of most experiences it did happen occasionally. Social expectations changed and allowed more workers to do what they loved rather than what society expected them to do because of their gender. Sometimes it was a matter of economics and the spouse earning the higher wages was the one to work outside the home.