Working mothers

Instead tralatitious feminism has unceasingly focused on white lower-middle-class needs. Traditional values pedigree to recognize how womens contrasting identities such as travel, class, and sexuality shape our tidy sums and beliefs much than or less family and pregnancy. Many believe that sh ard social issues such as women rights exploit women together, hardly what many an(prenominal) do non give ear be the different Identities such as class, race, and sexuality within sex, that croup cause self-contradictory impressions. The quote above by Joan Williams Is a testament In understanding how these deferent identities within women can work a delving factor In their beliefs.Specifically womens beliefs and determinations In the family be Influenced by their Individual Identities. These Intersections of identities play an authorised percentage in womens beliefs on gestation. with the course interpretings I will memorialize how the nonions of motherhood agit ates through these different identities. Womens beginicipation in the labor, education, domestic duties as well as views on marital condition and tiddler straighten will show the division within womens nonions of motherhood. America underwent a change in 1945 that had never been seen before.Despite representation there was a conflict from WI in the ass. There was a shift from reduction to consumption, where America was seen as livelihood the good life sentence. By 1960 Americas Income had Increased, and by the end of the decade Americans were moving up In prosperity. What history falls to acknowledge are the women who feel disorientated and discontent. The asss and asss was likewise a era modify with anxiety and alienation. As Betty Friedman institutionalizes it there was a vague uneasiness that is the mark of this period. The sasss was an odd period of succession, where many social issues were winning place.Nevertheless women continued to participate the labor force, which suggested the growing antinomy for women after the war. In the 1 asss as Friedman suggest people were politically and heathenly conservative, particularly regarding gender and family issues, which made exploring new opportunities difficult for women due to restrictive gender averages. Through the lives of middle-class white women Friedman uses labor force participation to show their beliefs of motherhood. The role of a housewife to some may seem simple, as If they make believe nonhing to do but to channel cathexis of the children and domestic duties.But what many fall to see are that these women are well educated and view as traditional ideologies of the family in which women sacrifice ones fulfillment ender role expected values. Womens behaviors and beliefs were in congeneric to men, which created a deprivation of fulfillment amongst women. Friedman argues these housewives needed competition and should make contributions to society. Friedmans argues that middle-class white women needed to rule something fulfilling in society to feel a since of purpose. To get away of what society tells them to do, and start living for what they would want to do.Surprisingly womens actions did not reflect their beliefs. Though these women were educated enough to brook careers but, many be it best eatable to aim a housewife because it was the gender norm for women to stay at alkali and be the caregivers while men should become the breadwinners extracurricular the home. These beliefs countered womens fulfillment as a woman but filled their beliefs on motherhood. Friedman titles masculine ideologies of motherhood that creates feelings of emptiness as The Feminine Mystique. Its over causalitying, hegemonic impulsive in the work place and in the homes, where men carry the power enforce gender roles.These women adopt the Feminine Mystique, for the purposes of appeasing to societies expectations, but Friedman intelligibly shows how the traditional views of othe rs are not holding strong in these womens beliefs. Women were decorous board and tired of being a housewife. This shows the view of motherhood for these women would be to have a to a greater extent active part in the community, take care of the domestic duties and fulfill the husbands needs but their fear of release against mens ideologies of motherhood accompaniments them confined.The intersecting identities of class, education status and gender compete a role in how these women view their roles in the family. Becoming a stay at home mom may have not alship canal been by choice but by sacrifice. Gender roles have proven to be influential on womens beliefs on others. Despite Friedman force for women to become contributing factors in society, Bart Laundry in discolor Working Wives offers a counterpoint to the norms of white middle- class families. Black women are usually excluded from white framework of motherhood.He incorporates race unlike Friedman as a contributing identity that shapes black middle-class womens whimseys of motherhood. Participants were black middle-class twain parent families. The black women in these families took care of domestic duties, cared for the children and had an active part in the community, which allowed black women more freedom. Black women in most cases did not have the option of staying home. They pursued careers outside the home because they believed a square woman could do both. The notion of mother hood was achievement in both public and private spears.The black community held a different tired then their white counterparts. The black community appreciated womens intelligence and their independence. Womens in Friedmans book looked to their husbands for the decision making rather then formatting and expressing their get views. There is a big divide in how women in Friedmans rendition and Landers book viewed womanhood partially due to the racial preference and alike because of class. For white families you could be middle-class solely on the husbands income.Black families did not division the same experience, to Laundry challenges domesticity as she focuses on African American women. feeling at black families we can see a transition of the traditional family to a more radical modern family. The anthropoid ideologies of motherhood were to a fault different as unlike there white counterparts black husbands had the expectation for their wifes to work outside of the home, which allowed black women to become more active in the community. The egalitarian mindset of black families combined the public and irate spear.Working outside of the home gave black women more respect inside of the home. Race has compete a significant difference in expectations of working wives. Black women did more because there family needed both incomes to be middle class. They face more criticism in the work place and carry the burden of closing off from the phallic counterparts coming home from an oppressed workpla ce. On the other give-up the ghost white women stayed at home because they had stronger beliefs in ideologies. Catering to the household and their husbands were put over their own needs.Women in both readings lacked fulfillment. Men shared inadequate responsibilities in doing housework, which is an issue that has been solved. The power dynamic of who is responsible for the domestic duties, stems from male ideologies. Men in both readings are the primary breadwinners therefore lack the obligating in helping with domestic duties. Friedman and Laundry take on 2 different perspectives on motherhood. While Friedman is pushing women to become active contributors in their communities Laundry is showing how black women have been working for year to house their families.Here we can see how identities such as class and race can create a division amongst gender and also shape beliefs on motherhood. Women who participate in labor both inside and outside of the home have contradicting beliefs on motherhood. In Mary Blair-Loss book Competing Devotions she looks at how women in both spears view labor and family schemas. Work devoted women in the reading were well education and help high power position callings. They worked near time which became time demanding and had to sacrifice their extracurricular time for work. They felt their Job was important and more like dynamic work.Women cute to become more economically independent from men UT at the same time their high-end Jobs meant working long hours, which left them tired and facing discrimination from male dominance in the work place. Women felt that they were providing a better life for themselves and their children. Their beliefs of motherhood was not to fulfill domestic duties like cleaning and preparedness every day but to provide the economic needs for their children so they would always have what they needed. The family devoted women sought marriage and child breeding as their primary devotion.Some women worke d part time but still took care of the domestic duties. Families believed their roles to be biologically destined, where men should work full time outside the home. Family devoted mother criticized work devoted mother for not sp stopping point more time with their family and work devoted women criticized stay at home mothers by saying they are lacking fulfillment and depended on men. Like the women in Friedmans reading these women held a more traditional view of womanhood. Like all mothers both schemas came with their sacrifices, which they people for support and shunned the opposite schema.The notions of motherhood aligned with the schema these women adoptive. It is interesting to see the role education compete in choosing which schema to adopt. Womens views on motherhood relied not besides schemas but also their beliefs on marriage. Kathleen Eden and Andrew Cheering search to find the problems as to why low income white and black single mothers are not getting married. The stud y finds five reasons to why women are reluctant to enter or reenter into a marriage. The same five reasons are also how they mold womanhood.Women sought having children before marriage fulfilling, but did not count on being single. Women saw affordability, respectability, control, send and domestic violence as important measures when looking into marriage. These women felt if they were to be in another relationship it would be with a man that would uplift her status. These women wanted a man that they could trust and count on to support them and a child. Class, race and previous experiences shaped these low-income single women notion of motherhood. Due to their low social economic status they wanted a man that could take care of their family.Because they claimed there was a scarcity of black decent men, they looked for affordability and respectability and because of their previous experience they wanted someone they could trust. These women had their own economic stability but an ted to gain upward(a) mobility and believed having a decent trustworthy man will fulfill their notion of motherhood. Lastly through Mignon Moors chapter Lesbian Motherhood and Discourses of Respectability we can see the ways in which homosexual women form motherhood through womens sexual autonomy, and an speech pattern in strength and resilience.The reading discusses a lesbian woman named Jackie who has adopted her sisters child. Jackie overcame a massive contend with social services in finalizing her adoptive rights to Andrew. Her refusal to hide her sexuality supports the notion of black womanhood that communicates a mind of sexual autonomy. Jackasss beliefs of what it meant to be a good mother derived from her childhood past. What she never had as a child she gave to Andrew and she made it her personal accountability to see that he was safe, and stayed out of trouble.For women like Jackie challenges such as race, family structure and poverty influenced how she defined mothe rhood. Lesbian mothers have accepted a social responsibility based on family obligations, and have looked into their upbringing and personal experience for delimitate lesbian One woman named Athena had difficulty with telling her child from a previous heterosexual relationship that she was a lesbian. Athena did not feel comfortable identifying herself as a lesbian because she not only felt stigmatize from the community and family but she felt it was best to keep her sexuality unexposed to protect her child.By Athena not coming into terms with her lesbian identity it ruined her relationship and her chances to gain fulfillment in life. With the ending of her relationship with her partner we can see her understanding of motherhood. She defines motherhood as self-sacrificing for the good of the child. The move toward sexual autonomy is a struggle for women who are reluctant about their identity. Drawing a division surrounded by the two identities becomes difficult for women who are he terosexual lens and absorb cultural understandings of good motherhood in ways that make it difficult for them to view their lesbian sexuality in a positive light (130).There is a constant battle when one is forced to choose between who they are and what is best for their child. Unfortunately the one parallel between all women are the sacrifices they endure for their families. We can she a range of mothers living in traditional families to more radical contemporary families, and all define motherhood differently. Women re forced to navigate motherhood through tough circumstances, which can become difficult.As seen in the reading womens roles are stretched so thin it becomes inevitable to find a suitable balance for themselves within the family needs. We can see that motherhood can vary through the different identities such as class, race and sexuality. No womens identities and experiences are the same, which make motherhood hard to generalize and allows motherhood to also divide gend er. It becomes a forced decision rather then a choice that women struggle with in their daily life. Motherhood has become an inside battle between selfish and selfless.