Monday, March 7, 2011

Challenges of Working, Politicizing Motherhood

I thought the article Politicizing Motherhood was interesting going off the previous reading on Asian Immigrant Women and Global Restructuring. This article identified how hard it was for women to work and keep up with roles classified to be female-roles such as housework and looking after children.

This made it seem like working was a double-edged sword for these women. While it was a good thing that these jobs provided these women with their own source of income and taught them new skills, not only were these women playing dual roles in the family, it was not always guaranteed that they would be respected by their families. In some cases, family tensions were aggravated and “some women had to endure additional stress from strained relationships with their husbands and other family members” (289). Adding to this, the lack of affordable childcare centers made it difficult for women to focus on their jobs because both the home and work places were seen to be present danger to their children.

Already these women are working so hard, I feel like it should be unsaid that simply providing more childcare centers would reduce their worries significantly. These women work so hard to provide for their families, as well as to fight for a stand, it is only fair for them to be heard.

1 comment:

  1. It is sad that women don't get as much credit as they should be, although they're working so hard in general. I feel like people tend to dismiss what women do, or not give them enough credit for what they have done, simply because of the strong gender role that women are rather "powerless". Also, like you said, it's not true when it is said that providing childcare centers will reduce the women's worries significantly, because women have more worries than just simply raising their children. However, that is the common assumption, probably because people associate women with the role of raising children and that is "all".

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