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Family & Work- the Balance Within

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Family & Work- The Balance Within

Sociology 100

The article that I have chosen for my assignment is a scholarly journal about “Balancing Work and Family”. This article is a scholarly journal based upon existing research.

This article expanded on research about to balance work and family. It explained the roles of men and women within the household and the family. The man’s role in the family was the “bread-winner and King of the Castle”. This means he was head of the household. He was expected to provide for his family financially as well as make the big decisions. The women played a different role. The woman’s role was to “take care of home”. This role was just as important within the home. The women were expected to be more involved with the care of the children as well as the upkeep of the home. These roles may have added a great amount of stress on everyone in the family. This research was ideal for men and women years ago, but society has changed. Men and women play different roles within the family now.

Based on the article, in 2008 only a few married women stayed at home and didn’t work. This is a drastic change from hundreds of years ago. Women did not need to balance work and home because it was the man’s role to provide for his family. And as society changed, women do more outside the home. Years ago, a family could manage and maintain on a single income. In today’s society, it is hard. In order to manage and maintain it is easier with two or more incomes. This means that women had to join the work force to help provide for their family. This makes it easier and hard at the same time. It makes it easier financially. You now have an extra income to assist with bills and necessities. But it is also harder to balance employment and family. The family may need to find a way or someone to help assist; i.e. daycare or nanny. Also there are now “Stay at home Dads”.

Family is a responsibility of both parents. It is on the parents to find the balance between family and work. If you give more attention to one, the other may suffer. This means if you place all of your time and energy into working, the family may be impacted significantly. This may cause tension among the spouses, as well as the children. And if you place all of your attention on family, your work ethics may be impacted at work. Your dedication has to be split two ways- work and family. I am a firm believer in “Don’t bring your work home, and take your family to work”. This quote means a find a balance between the two. Leave work at work and home at home. Don’t cross the two or there may be repercussions. Take time to separate the two. Dedicate a certain amount of time to your job and a certain amount of time to home. This will help with any tension that will arise from mixing the two. It may be hard but it is doable.

References
McMahon, M. (2009). Balancing Work & Family. Balancing Work & Family -- Research Starters Sociology, 1-7.
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