1) Chapter 13 is about balancing the time in your life between work and family. There is a small section at the beginning of the chapter about the significance of work. Then theres a part that describes the different kinds of work in the United States in contemporary times. The next section discusses the various ways the economy can affect families and their lives. Women in the workforce has been a big topic discussed in the past century, so of course there was a part about that. Then they went back to talking about the economy, focusing specifically on how it affects marriages. The section after that talked about families who had two income sources. Next, there was a discussion about inequality in the workforce, which also included a small part about sexual harassment. The last section was about families and the different policies about them in the work force.
2) One thing that I thought was interesting was that the book dedicated a small subsection to stay-at-home dads. I thought this was interesting because it really showed how there is an accepted stereotype for women to be stay-at-home moms, because this wasn't given special attention. However, people still seem to see at as strange and worth talking about when a man chooses to be a stay-at-home dad.
3) One question I had was whether people think that the two-person single career concept was one that should be encouraged or not. Do people think that it would be a good thing for spouses to work together? Or would it just become stressful and cause conflict?
Natalie LaBarbera
In my opinion, as much as I'd love to work with my spouse, I think it's best for any relationship to have a large amount of space. Work (to me) is considered one of those places where a relationship can't be mixed up with the daily activities. I feel spouses' work would be affected by their personal relationship.
ReplyDeleteSteve Boser
I think it depends on the couple. The parents of one of my best friends work together and own their own personal finance firm (ironically this was an example in the book) and they seem to love working together. It works well for them. But I can see how spouses working together would cause a lot of conflict in their relationship and would not end as gracefully as in the fortunate situation of my friend's parents.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be better for a couple to have separate workplaces. I think each person needs to operate in his/her own sphere, and then come together to share their thoughts on the day, rather than experiences the stresses of work together. I think too much togetherness, especially in a strained environment, could be hazardous to a marriage.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that two spouses should work together (on the whole). Everyone needs their own separate time apart (i.e. from friends, family, kids), and too much time around certain people such as spouses can create problems. An activity that doesn't take much time (i.e. going to the gym, playing in a sport league) isn't too strangling on relationships, but an activity such as working together can definitely pose some issues for spouses.
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