BLOG 6

1.    According to Hochshild, what is the “Second Shift?”

 1. According to Hochshild the “second shift” is when a full time working mom comes home from her first shift at work and has to start her second shift of working in the home. The work in the home is taking care of housework, cooking, cleaning, taking care of the children, etc.. The second shirt for these women are not voluntary and the article describes the man in the house to come home and do nothing but relax while the mother has to take care of everything around the house. 

2. Briefly describe the story of Evan and Nancy Holt.

            2. The story of Evan and Nancy Holt is they are both full time workers with a young child. Nancy would come home from her shift at work and begin her second shift of taking care of the house and her child.  Nancy got really overwhelmed and decided to split the housework with her husband to make things easier for her. However, Evan does not like the new routine.

3. Hochschild argues that families create “myths” about their division of household labor. Describe the family myth created by Nancy and Evan Holt.

            3. The myth that Nancy and Evan created of the division of household labor, is that Nancy is in charge of the upstairs of the house while Evan is in charge of the downstairs.  This may seem fair but Nancy still seems to be doing most of the work.

4. According to Hochschild, what is the purpose of family myths?

            4. According to Hochschild the purpose of family myths is for families to believe the labor is split up evenly among the partners. It makes the second shift seem less demanding than it really is and gives the partners a sense of equal labor.

5. Was this reading surprising to you and why? How do you imagine you will divide family work (including child care) in your own marriage or cohabitation.

            5. I thought this reading was surprising to me. I feel that if I had to work a full shift I would not want to come home and have to do everything around the house while my husband got to relax and watch TV. I think if I am a full time working mom I would like my husband and I do decide about splitting up the labor. However I am very maternal and don’t mind so much cooking, cleaning, taking care of the children but I would definitely want my husband to offer to help and definitely take care of other things I’m not to fond of like yard work.  I would mainly be concerned with my husband’s involvement in our child-care. I think that would be the most important and the rest of it will hopefully fall into place. 

6. Using what you have earned throughout this class about increasing numbers of women working for pay, increased divorce, higher age at marriage, how might these demographic changes influence women's role in housework. In other words, based on other demographic changes -- how and why do you expect change in the division of household labor by gender. And why SOCIOLOGICALLY might it not change as much as you might expect? Give this some deep thought before writing.

            6. You would think that with more women working for pay that this we have a direct causation on split labor but for some reason our society does not look at it that way. Woman are getting married later, getting divorced more, and working more yet they still have to take care of the children and run a household.  Now that woman are working outside of the home there needs to be a change in how housework is distributed. As a society we should agree that both men and women are in charge of the housework and its up to the household to decide what that work is. 

BLOG 5

1) Identify one of the examples of ancient marriage described by the author and discuss how it differed from the "one man, one woman idea" of marriage.

1. The authors in the text described many types of ancient marriage. One of the examples of ancient marriage was in Tibet before the Chinese occupation some marriages involved two brothers sharing a wife. This is different from the “one man, one woman” idea of marriage because in this example of marriage the relationship is centered around love and the idea that there is one man for every woman.  The Tibet ancient marriage example this revolved around sharing as a family.

2) Among which two groups has postponing marriage become the most likely? Why?

2. The two groups that are postponing marriage are the poor and the middle class. These groups are now not planning on getting married in their early twenties and are beginning to wait until they are economically stable.  Poor women are postponing marriage for a fear of economic dependency these women don’t want to be financially dependent on a man and are waiting for their own financial stability to get married. However, this does not stop poor women from having children.  The middle class have been postponing marriages because there are more opportunities for higher education for both sexes.  A lot of people in the middle class are waiting to get married in order to make something of themselves.

3) So I CANNOT find a You Tube clip of Charlotte and Harry's wedding...so can you be imaginative and think of and list 4 - 5 wedding traditions that you have seen at a recent wedding or in a movie/tv show depicting a wedding?

3. 1. Throwing the bouquet

2. Tying cans to the car

3. Taking the garter off

4. Bride wearing something blue, borrowed and new

5. Jumping the broom

4) Choose one tradition and do a little research on-line - what is the history behind that tradition?

4. At every wedding I have seen on television or in a movie the bride always throws the bouquet she walked down the isle in to the non married women at the reception. If you are lucky enough to catch the bouquet then you are going to get married next!

5) Write about a paragraph about the origin of the tradition and whether or not you might include this in your own wedding - if you plan on having one.

5. This tradition began in 14^th century England. Guests at the wedding believed that getting a piece of the brides wedding dress would bring them good luck. Over time the brides wanted to keep their wedding dresses in tact so they begin giving away other things. The man would take off the woman’s garter and give it to the groomsmen. This is a very old tradition and I think it’s a lot of fun. I would definitely like to catch someone’s bouquet! I also definitely will be throwing a bouquet to all the bachelorettes.  

Blog 4

1)Briefly describe Dan and Terri's story and their family.  

1.  Dan and Terri are a gay couple who have a son together named D.J. They were both bullied in high school for being gay.  But found that once they left high school things got much better. They are trying to send a message to youth in LGBTQ that it really does get easier after high school.

2) What is their relationship with their families of origin (parents and siblings).

2. Dan grew up in a Catholic family where no one was gay.  Dan’s parents weren’t thrilled when he came out but eventually accepted it and welcomed Terri into their family.  Terri’s family also tried to stop the bullying at his school but nothing was done. Now both families accept them and embrace them totally.

3) What family have they created?

3. Terri and Dan are married and they have adopted a son together named D.J.

Believe it or not only a few short decades ago there were no representative data on same-sex couples or gay teens. Now the U.S. Census counts same-sex cohabiting and married couples, 36 states allow gay marriage, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has collected data on gay teens greater likelihood to experience violent acts against them as well as greater likelihood of committing suicide.

4) Describe a statistic regarding the likelihood of gay and transgender experiencing violent acts.

4. 14% to 31% of gay and lesbian students and 17% to 32% of bisexual students had been forced to have sexual intercourse at some point in their lives. This is a statistic of the likelihood of gay and transgender experiencing violence.

5) What is the likelihood that gay and transgender teens attempt suicide.

5. The likelihood that gay and transgender teens attempt suicide are twice as likely to attempt suicide compared to their heterosexual counterpart.  A study on 55 transgendered teens stated that 25% of them had thoughts to attempt suicide.

6) According to the website, what are two things a school can do to prevent violence and/or suicide against gay/transgender teens.

6. Schools can encourage respect for all students and prohibit bullying and harassment. Schools can also set up “safe spaces” which are places like counselors rooms or classrooms where students of LGBTQ can go to receive support from the school staff.

7) If you were a teacher of a school administrator or counselor, briefly describe a program or action(s) you might create to prevent violence against gay/transgender or straight teens. Perhaps consider how you might unite gay and straight teens to work toward positive change.

7. If I were a teacher I would take action to prevent violence against gay/transgender teens by making LBGTQ apart of the everyday school environment. I would have a club where the LGBTQ could go to seek additional support but I would try and also make the LGBTQ apart of everyone’s everyday life.  I think this would be important because it will start to be routinized in to the schedules of everyone in the school and it will make members of the LGBTQ less of an “outcast” because it will involve everyone in the school. A way I would implement the LGBTQ becoming apart of the daily life of the school would be to have everyone bring in a fact about bullying of an LGBTQ teen. I would make a board and the students could add a new fact every day. I would encourage all the students regardless of their sexual orientation to work together. I also hope that by time I am a teacher their will be no bullying of any one from the LGBTQ because it is finally starting to be so widely accepted.  

BLOG 3

1. According to the structural functionalism perspective, what was the definition of the "instrumental leader" and what was the definition of an "expressive leader." What family roles were connected to each of these leader definitions?
1. According to the structural functionalism perspective the definition of an instrumental leader is a person in the group who takes charge and leads the group. The expressive leader is the person within the group that keeps peoples spirits up.  In more traditional family roles the father is connected to the instrumental leader. He is the breadwinner and is “in charge” of the family. The mother is the expressive leader in a traditional family role she is keeps the families spirits up and is more of a caretaker.  

2. What is the main criticism of the functionalist perspective?
2. The main criticism of the functionalist perspective is how sexist it is.  Women started to go into the work force and stopped fitting the role of the traditional mother figure or the expressive leader in the family. 
3. In contrast to functionalist theorists, in your own words, what is the main theme of conflict theory?
3. The main theory of conflict theory is the inequality, conflict, and social change.  Conflict theory talks about how men dominate women using their economic powers. Similarly in the work force employers dominate over their employees. Similar to Karl Max idea of the bourgeois and the proletariat.
4. According to conflict theorists, where do family problems come from?
4. According to conflict theorist family problems come from men using their economic strength o dominate women. This is the root of family problems.
5. Gender/Feminist theory is based on what main idea? Describe one way that feminist theory has led to more diverse understanding of families.
5. Gender/feminist theory is based on the equality of men and women.  Feminist theory has taught us to look at men and women as prisms. Letting it be okay for the women to take on the breadwinner role as well as men. 
6. Social exchange theorists is based on ideas from economics. What is the main argument of social exchange perspective? Give two examples of "resources" people bring to a relationship?

6. The main argument of the social exchange perspective is based around economics. It focuses on what people can do in exchange for benefits.  An example of resources people bring to a relationship are how much things cost, the benefits they gain, and the benefits of taking another course of action.   

7a) From the lecture on methods: List two methods of how family researchers collect data and define/describe each.

7a. Two methods of how family researchers collect date are the survey study and the observational study.  The survey study targets families or households at random and sends them a list of questions.  Doing this gives the researcher broader data and makes biases less prevalent.  The observational study is when the researcher spends time with participants.  Participants are usually picked specifically to fit the study.

7b) What are two strengths of each and what are two limits of each type of data collection methods. 

7b. The survey study strengths are this study allows the researcher to access more people. It also limits the biases and is much quicker of a study because it is a set questionnaire. Limits of the survey study are its hard for researchers to tell if the participants are answering questions accurately. It is also hard because the data is limited because there is a set questions and limited follow up questions.  The observational study strengths are  this study gives the researcher a lot of information about the families and also allows them to generalize their results to other families that are similar.  The limit of the observational study is there are limited families that can be studied because of how much detail each study goes to.  Also, it is limited because specific families are targeted giving more of a biased study.

8) Choose one method and describe a study you might conduct.

8. I would choose the survey study. I would study how many kids each family has in a specific wealthy town and a specific poorer town.

8a) What is the topic of the survey? In other words, what do you want to know about a family issue?

8a. I want to know if families in a wealthy town have more kids then families in a poorer town.

8b) Who and how many respondents would be in your sample?

8b. I would survey 50 families in a wealthy town and 50 families in a poorer town.

8c) What are three questions you would ask in a survey or interview or what would be three observations you might record?

8c. I would ask

-How many kids does your family have?

-What is your average family income?

-How many kids were in your family when you were growing up?