Inequality Constructed Through Family

The image of Canadian families and their relationships constructed within their household’s marks a noticeable change. Both Meg Luxton and Sedef Arat-Koc represent the different positions that individuals are placed due to the balance of work and family. It is a reflection of how power is maintained within the household, and how decisions are being made. Meg Luxton’s reading Wives and Husbands, and Family Coping Strategies, raises the complexity of family life due to gender inequality. In, Family Coping Strategies women struggle with balancing work and domestic labour. In Sedef Arat- Kocs reading, The Politics of Family and Immigration in the Subordination of Domestic Workers in Canada, the situation in which domestic workers are placed leaves them with limited freedom, but their place within the household is significant. According to the readings my argument is that the way households and families in Canada are constructed represents a change in the way women and domestic workers are left treated. The first way this is maintained is through gender inequalities, and their causes. The second way is through the nature of nannies vulnerable position within households and what in turn causes this. Lastly, in order to understand how families are constructed through the way that these social inequalities are placed upon women and domestic workers, we have to think about what would need to change to undermine these social inequalities.

The represented change in constructing households and families manifests the reality of inequality. Meg Luxton’s reading, Wives and Husbands explores the gender relations that occur in nuclear families. It is clear how men maintain the privilege within the household due to the sexual division of labour. ...

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...vision of labour. The vulnerability of domestic workers in Sedef Arat-Koc’s reading represents their significance for attending to the isolation of care work, but at the same time leaving them facing a harsh working environment with negative factors and effects. Lastly, bringing into focus of what needs to change to challenge these social inequalities in order to view the perspective of where women and domestic workers are coming from.

Works Cited

Arat-Koc, Sedef. 2009. Pp. 428-452 470 in Family Patterns, Gender Relations. Third Edition, edited by B. Fox. Toronto: Oxford University Press.

Luxton, Meg. A 2009. Pp. 156-179 in Family Patterns, Gender Relations. Third Edition, edited by B. Fox. Toronto: Oxford University Press.

Luxton, Meg. B 2009. Pp. 454-470 in Family Patterns, Gender Relations. Third Edition, edited by B. Fox. Toronto: Oxford University Press.