hat: For this assignment you will need to talk with two women of different generations. Your goal is to understand how their work and family choices were shaped by social forces (and not just by their individual choices).
• These women should be different generations from your own. So, consider someone your mother’s age, or someone near her age (40s-50s).
• And consider someone your grandmother’s age, or someone your grandmother’s age (60s to 70s).
• Or if you fall into one of these age groups, pick someone from a younger generation (20s-30s) to interview.
• Your interviewees do not need to be relatives, they could be a classmate, colleague, or friend.
How: Set up a time to talk to both women separately. This can be virtually (Zoom), or over the phone). You will ask both women a few questions so that they can describe the work and family choices they’ve made in their lives.
Questions can include:
• What did you aspire to be when you were a child?
• What kinds of women were your role models?
• What kinds of career options were available to you when you graduated from high school? Were these options limited? How?
• How did you choose whether to start a family? What kinds of forces (cultural, economic etc.) impacted the choices you made?
• Did you make any compromises or choices that you regret? Would you do things differently now?
• How have things changed for women in terms of having careers and starting families in the past generation?
Interviewing tips:
• Your goal as an interviewer is to have the person you are speaking to talk as much as possible.
• Encourage them to tell your stories (e.g. tell me about a time when you could not be there for your family).
• Assure them that their information will be kept confidential and only used for this assignment. You may change their names in your paper.
• If you record them (you can do this on Zoom), make sure to ask permission (And confirm this in your paper/recording)
• Make sure to thank them for their time at the end of your interview!
Paper requirements:
• Your final 4-6 page (double-spaced) paper should analyze the responses you receive from both women.
• Your paper should be analytic and must bring in concepts from the textbook.
• Make sure to use specific examples of their experiences wherever you can.
• Minimize the use of “I” statements
• Ensure to use APA formatting, especially when citing the textbook, other articles and the interview
• APA format includes a Title Page and Reference Page (this is not part of the page count)
• Use this resource to help with APA citation: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_style_introduction.html
Your paper should answer the following questions:
• How were each woman’s choices constrained by social and institutional forces?
• How did inequalities like race, class, ethnicity etc. influence their decisions?
• How have women’s choices changed from one generation to the next?
• How does what you have found relate to the course reading material?
• How do their choices relate to the choices you yourself (or women around you) are currently making?
Grading will be based on:
• Does the paper meet all requirements listed above?
• Is it analytical in content, not just a summary?
• Does it use concepts from the textbook?
• Does it demonstrate your ability to extend what we have learned in class to the work/family choices people have made (and will make) in your own life?
• Does it demonstrate that you are thinking sociologically about work and family choices?
• Does it demonstrate strong writing ability, including thorough proofreading?
