Smith 2
Smith 2
Jack Smith
Casey Errante
SOC 213 (I03)
21 April 2019
The Family and The labors Divided
The study of household labor and paid labor and how families come to the decisions on who does what is a complex issue. Being born in the late 60s, growing up in the late 70s and 80s for my family it was more gender-related when it came to household duties. Mother did the cleaning, cooking, and child time when she could. Both parents worked fulltime jobs and because of the heavy labor that my father did and the long hours he had to work, my mother made it her responsibility for a safe and clean environment in the house and the care of the kids fail to her responsibility. My father did the outdoor work and keeping the only transportation we had maintained and running. Being a poor family, they assumed these roles because it was the only way to secure a health functional family environment. This division of labor duties would probably be classified as traditional divisions more than a less traditional division. Be brought up in a Baptist family, duties were based on the testaments of the forefathers before us. But as with the “time use studies” discussed in the textbook called “The Family: Diversity, Inequality, and Social Change” (Cohen), the evolving dynamics of the times changed the family labor duties over time.
We, being the children of three in the house and being born a year apart from one another the duties of housework became our responsibility at the age of 9, 10, and 11. Even then though it seems that the work divided between us was based on a traditional line of division. Sister having the kitchen and laundry duties, while my brother and I hade the floors, walls, and the dusting of the furniture. All of us shared ...
