Read the “Key Concepts” for Module 4. Read the linked materials focusing on American women’s work outside the home during World War II [referring to the so-called “Rosie the Riveters”]; Review the Institute for Women’s Policy Research Briefing Paper “Providing Unpaid Household and Care Work in the United States: Uncovering Inequality,” by Cynthia Hess, Tamina Ahmed, and Jeff Hayes, (January 2020), and Read the linked 2020 New York Times Editorial by Kim Brooks, “Forget Pancakes; Pay Women”. Write a 5 page doubled-spaced essay (1000-1500 words) Explain how the “double burden” or responsibility for completing a ‘second shift’ of unpaid domestic work in the home after working for wages outside the home was a “historic” problem for the World War II era “Rosies”, and whether you think this is a continuing ‘problem’ for U.S. women workers. If so, how does the “double shift/ double burden” affect women’s lives? If not, explain your response. You might want to explain your own experience with the ‘double burden’, too. Is this something that you have personally experienced, or that your mother has experienced?
Be sure to use some of the language/terms we are learning in the “Key Concepts” that introduce this module 4 in your analysis! and when you are including quotes or other specific information from the assigned readings in your essays [and you should be doing this!!] include a brief reference following the quote or the specific information you want to reference by including the author’s name and page number in parentheses following the quote. Examples: (Hess, Ahmed, & Hayes, p. 2 ; Kessler-Harris, p. 250; Brooks editorial; )
material to use only:
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://iwpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IWPR-Providing-Unpaid-Household-and-Care-Work-in-the-United-States-Uncovering-Inequality.pdf
https://www.womenshistory.org/resources/general/working-defense-industry
https://www.womenshistory.org/resources/general/home-front
M4 Key Concepts:
“Double Burden” or “Second Shift”
The “double burden” or “second shift” refers to the added workload, most often the social reproductive labor performed by women, who work outside the home for wages and then perform significant amounts of unpaid domestic labor in the home. Increasing percentages of U.S. women worked outside the home after World War II, but their household and care work obligations generally did not decrease. According to a January 2020 study conducted for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, “In the United States women spend considerably more time than men over their lifetime doing unpaid household and care work. The unequal distribution of this work—work that is essential for families and societies to thrive—not only limits women’s career choices and economic empowerment but also affects their overall health and well-being.” The social reproductive sector of labor, primarily women’s labor, provides care and nurture, unpaid in the household and community, and the double burden of women’s unpaid labor cushions their families against the impacts of government cutbacks on social services, by providing substitute services ‘free of charge’, though at a cost in women’s time and effort.
Women and Men and War
War-making is a highly gendered activity. Historically and across cultures, male decision-makers and warriors planned and waged civil and international wars. War makers have cultivated hyper-masculine gender attributes—such as violence, aggression, physical strength, and misogyny—to win wars and force their enemies to retreat. Nonetheless, modern war-making requires the participation of all members of society, men and women. Moreover, government propaganda messages are infused with masculine and feminine gendered messages in order to mobilize their citizens to wage wars. In war mobilization propaganda “women” may be portrayed as victims in need of male protection; as caretakers and keepers of cultural traditions; or as symbols of nations and homelands worth fighting for; or as peacemakers. To be sure, some women have historically advocated for war, and some women have fought alongside men in multiple combat, combat-support, and home front support war work. Consequently, over the course of the 20th century and especially after World Wars I and II, some women have been “rewarded” with more opportunities to participate in public sphere activities in government (gaining voting rights after the First World War) and in the paid workforce (working in previously ‘male-only’ factory production during the Second World War, and earning higher wages than in their previous ‘women’s work during and after the war).
