Arlie Hochschild Gender Roles

There is not only a wage gap among heterosexual couples but also a leisure gap. When sociologist Arlie Hochschild studied married couples with children who both worked, she discovered that women worked an extra month of twenty-four hour days each year. That extra time is deemed a “second shift.” Hochschild interviewed fifty couples and observed twelve couples’ interaction in their homes to understand how the second shift impacted the couples.
Hochschild wondered if males contributed in the household responsibilities. Did the couples form strategies for handling their relationship and household obligations? Hochschild asked the couples who did specific household tasks such as laundry, vacuuming, cleaning, grocery shopping, care for pets, and

yard work. She also inquired about childcare and domestic life management such as paying bills, preparing birthday parties, and making the grocery list. Ultimately, she wanted to know if the leisure gap still existed and how it affected couples in the 1980s (Hochschild & Machung, 2012).
Hochschild identified three gender ideologies that affected how couples acted in their situation of the second shift.

The traditional gender ideology is that wives are the caregivers and the husbands the breadwinner; the two cannot be flipped. The transitional ideology is that the wife can work but she is still responsible for the housework and childcare; if it came down to it, she would quit her job, not her husband. The egalitarian ideology is that both partners work but the husband has to share in the domestic responsibilities with the wife. Hochschild expected that a person’s view of gender roles would go along with their participation in the home, but she found that to be inexact (Hochschild & Machung,

2012).
Hochschild found that only twenty percent of men shared in the household work. Working class and males were more traditional while middle class and women were more egalitarian. Even if outwardly people seemed to be egalitarian, they were traditional when it came down to it. As a result of the unbalanced gender ideologies, most marriages were either destroyed or adjusted in order to last. The marital quality was impacted by the second shift. After the birth of the first child, the couples interviewed were found to focus less on their marriage and their significant other. However, add to that women’s move to the workforce, and the marital quality decreases even more. The parental subsystem also underwent some transitions. Children suffered as a result of the second shift; those who did not have actively involved fathers were less secure and more anxious (Hochschild & Machung, 2012).
Hochschild stated that women’s entrance into the economy was a social revolution (Hochschild & Machung, 2012). Over two thirds of women now worked; dual career married couples made up two thirds of all marriages with children. As a result, women’s daily life became even more stressful and rushed. The strain of the second shift impacted men whether they helped their wives by sharing in the household work or not. If they did not, they felt the effects of the second shift through their wives. Hochschild discovered the concept of stalled revolution. There is still a continuation of unequally distributed domestic responsibilities even though women have taken over more financial responsibilities; men have not stepped up to help (Hochschild & Machung, 2012).
Several studies have been done to examine the impact of women’s entrance into the work force on relationship and family satisfaction and on the influence of gender ideologies on household division of labor and on the individual’s job. The findings of these studies reflect the ones found in Hochschild’s study. Couples who both work are called dual career or dual earner couples. Women make up a significant part of the labor force in America (Masterson & Hoobler, 2015). Dual career couples challenge the traditional gender roles of man as breadwinner and woman as homemaker and caregiver.
Traditionally, men are to work and provide for their family while women stay at home, do the household work, and take care of the children. The rise of the dual career couple defies those stereotypes because women are now contributing in the economic provision for the family while men are participating in the more traditionally maternal roles at home (Masterson & Hoobler, 2015). This means they are doing housework and taking care of the children. Fathers have to do the unpaid work at home because mothers have less time to do the work they previously did since they are also doing paid work (Bloch & Taylor, 2012). However if it truly comes down to it, women are counted upon to do the household work (Bloch & Taylor, 2012). That is because men are expected to be fully devoted to their career (Bloch & Taylor, 2012). Even if both partners work, the woman is expected to do the unpaid work with no help from the man (Cha, 2010). No matter what, she is still portrayed as the primary caregiver (Raley, Bianchi, &Wang, 2012). The pressure of being the primary caregiver and homemaker does not match up with the woman’s desire to work outside the home. Men just assume the women will stay at home because it is traditional and stereotypical. The lack of congruence in the expectations and desires lead to conflict between the spouses (Masterson & Hoobler, 2015).
The marital subsystem is under a lot of stress when children are added and time together as a couple is decreased. However spending time together and communicating about decisions about the family and about work help increase marital satisfaction (Masterson & Hoobler, 2015). As both partner’s work hours increase, time together decreases. Thus marital quality is low when work hours are high (Hosteler, Desrochers, Kopko, & Moen, 2012). Because work is stressful and conflicts at work can spillover into the home and family life, marital quality is impacted. If the partners can keep the negative spillover from occurring, they can eliminate unnecessary conflict in their marriage (Hosteler, Desrochers, Kopko, & Moen, 2012). Additionally, as mentioned above, the couple must have congruence in their communication about the mother working and the father participating in the home more. If the husband is in favor of his wife’s work and positively backs her, their family cohesion increases which includes the relationship with their children (Pedersen & Minnotte, 2013).
Family cohesion is a positive aspect that comprises of the emotional health and intimacy of family members (Pedersen & Minnotte, 2013). Parents must have a healthy closeness with their children. In fact, parents’ relationship with their children is important for family cohesion and parents need to seek a job that allows them to maintain a good and involved relationship with their children (Pedersen & Minnotte, 2013). This parent-child relationship can be negatively impacted by conflict in the marital system especially if the conflict is due to fathers not participating in childcare (Hosteler, Desrochers, Kopko, & Moen, 2012).
Since women are seen as the primary caregivers of the children, men usually did not spend enough time with their children due to their career. In fact, a majority of fathers report not spending enough time with their children. However, as mothers have joined the work force, fathers have had to step and now take care of the kids. This is more probable if the wives provide a large portion of the household salary (Raley, Bianchi, &Wang, 2012). Men do more caregiving then housework and do not feel overworked when they take care of the children (Bloch & Taylor, 2012). Mothers who are in the labor force report feeling a guiltiness of not spending enough time with their children and thus have tried to spend more time in child care (Raley, Bianchi, &Wang, 2012). Even if working outside the home, mothers still spend a larger amount of time taking care of the children than the fathers do. This is due to the stereotype of maternal caregiver and the way the workplace is structured due to the fact that it is based on gender (Cha, 2010).
In a society that thinks women belong at home, women struggle in finding a job that will not treat them as temporary workers or on the other hand a job that does not allow them to take off to take care of their children if needed. The workplace was and still is impacted by a traditional gender ideology even though many individuals are egalitarian in their gender ideology. Egalitarian means sharing the breadwinning and caregiving roles (Masterson & Hoobler, 2015). Gender ideology has an influence on the workplace but also on the household division of labor.
A woman working longer hours at work would not lead a man to quit his job but if a man is working long hours, a woman’s chance of quitting her job is significantly increased (Cha, 2010).

This portrays a man’s career as greater or more valuable than a woman’s. Women who are a part of a dual career couple are more likely to quit their job, because they are more willing then men to cut back their involvement in the labor force in order to care for their children (Raley, Bianchi, &Wang, 2012). There is a greater pressure on women to be good mothers then there is to be good workers so out of work and family, they end up choosing family (Cha, 2010). The workplace also does not allow women to fully construe a professional identity. The workplace generally assumes women will ask for time off more to take care of children so it is difficult for mothers to climb the ladder in their career (Masterson & Hoobler, 2015). Additionally, the workplace should allow men to be good fathers who care for their children. If couples want to truly achieve an egalitarian gender ideology, fathers should ask for paternal leave in order to participate in childcare (Masterson & Hoobler,

2015).
Men do more childcare than they do housework (Bloch & Taylor, 2012). Household tasks such as cooking and cleaning are seen as “feminine.” Thus men are seen as less manly if they are taking time off work to do such tasks (Masterson & Hoober, 2015). If women are more traditional, they are used and expect to do all of the housework. Thus, a traditional woman would not feel overworked if she does all of the housework; it is her job and responsibility (Block & Taylor, 2012). However in a dual-career couple that is more egalitarian, a man being too busy with his career to do household work is not a sufficient excuse since his wife is also busy with her own career. In that case, she would be in more of a need for her husband to step in and help with the household tasks. Hochschild dubs this lack of assistance the stalled revolution.