Women on the unbeatable road between home life and a career
Where do women stand on the educational front? Of course, women have equal rights for enrollment into higher education, but where does this leave us on the home front? Employment, education, and home life are all hand in hand. “Although women in the United States have increased their presence and status in the workforce (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010b), as well as their presence in higher education (U. S. National Center for Education Statistics, 2010), women still experience lower wages and greater household duties than men” (Fetterold, J. Eagly, A. PG 1, 2011).
Even though women could continue their education, they are still faced with lower wages, a future family, higher education, and a career. Women who want to further their education and have a career that will open so many doors for them, they must focus also on their potential future families, their home life, and the money they may or may not make. Women face many more obstacles when searching for more because they are women. Society still views them as having to care for the children, their home, their husbands, and make money. “The American Time Use Survey similarly found that married women spent an average of 21.2 hr per week in 2003–2006 on tasks such as housework, food preparation and clean-up, shopping for the household, and lawn care, while married men spent an average of 9.2 hr per week on the same tasks (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008). Thus, women do almost 70% of the household work” (Fetterold, J. Eagly, A. PG 2, 2011).
With these additional responsibilities that women hold, because society dictates so, it is much more difficult to make the decisions of what is the right thing do, continue education at the chance of having an equal employment opportunity or finding a suitable job that allows for flexibility to balance life and work. “Thus, both men and women may believe that any career sacrifices to focus on family demands should be made by mothers, especially to the extent that they implicitly associate women and family” (Fetterold, J. Eagly, A. PG 2, 2011) Women are still treated less than men, women are treated as delicate flowers or crazy, women are treated as we've always been treated, as just women.
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References:
Fetterolf, J. C., & Eagly, A. H. (2011). Do Young Women Expect Gender Equality in Their Future Lives? An Answer From a Possible Selves Experiment. Sex Roles, 65(1-2), 83-93. doi:10.1007/s11199-011-9981-9
