Deck 11: Work and Families

Question 1

The most rapid period of change in the gender composition of the workforce occurred in the three decades after 1960 as the proportion of women in the labor force

A) increased from about one-third to three-quarters.
B) decreased from about one-half to one-third.
C) increased from about one-fourth to nine-tenths.
D) decreased from about five-eighths to three-eighths.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

From the 1960s to the 1990s, the percentage of employed women with a child under age 1

A) decreased rapidly.
B) increased rapidly.
C) remained the same.
D) could not be calculated, as employed women lied about having a child.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

The gender division of labor means that

A) women do the lion's share of housework and care work, and they are concentrated in certain paid occupational areas.
B) men and women tend to split labor equally, whether at home or at work.
C) women are naturally more capable of performing housework and care work, and they enter those occupations in which they are naturally more talented.
D) women have learned to perform tasks traditionally done by men in the workplace, but they continue to perform most housework and care work.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following examples illustrates how the state redistributes much of the product of our labor?

A) Apple outsourcing much of its labor to non-U.S. countries
B) private hospitals hiring low-wage immigrant workers
C) income taxes used to pay for Social Security plans
D) student groups sending care packages to disaster areas overseas

Question 5

The term system of care is used to describe what?

A) the central coordinating system for completing housework
B) how a society accomplishes the necessary care work and housework
C) the master plan that families create in order to accomplish all of their care work
D) state-implemented Social Security and elder-care programs

Question 6

The quintessential care work, which is usually hands-on, intimate work to provide children with the material, intellectual, and emotional support they need, is

A) teaching.
B) pediatrics.
C) child care.
D) counseling.

Question 7

Single fathers might be seen as better off than single mothers because single fathers are more likely to

A) be the primary caretaker for very young children.
B) live alone, giving them more bonding time.
C) have lower paying and less stressful jobs.
D) live with a partner who can help care for children.

Question 8

One decision that modern families must face is how to divide the housework and care work within the family. This is often a contentious issue for couples, showing that

A) most couples establish clear communication about who performs which task.
B) it is not really "families" but rather individuals within them that make decisions.
C) both men and women are taking on more and more care work.
D) men and women tend to split care work evenly.

Question 9

In recent decades, the most important sociological change to families has been

A) the growing rates of divorce.
B) the movement of women's work from their families to the paid labor market.
C) children receiving the majority of their parenting from the media rather than their parents.
D) the shrinking role of religion on family life.

Question 10

In the last half-century or so, the main story in the realm of work and family has been

A) women opting out of paid work to stay at home with their children.
B) the growth of the organized labor movement.
C) men's loss of power both at work and at home.
D) the growth of market work in the system of care.

Question 11

When Shawna picks up her kids from soccer practice, sociologists would say she is engaging in what?

A) housework
B) market work
C) care work
D) women's work

Question 12

Economist Heather Boushey, in her book Finding Time (2016), suggests areas in which

A) small policy changes could make a big difference for work-family balance.
B) feminists can organize to demand that housewives be paid wages for their labor.
C) women can take on more housework and spend more time with children.
D) men can become the primary caregivers for children.

Question 13

In historical terms, women's employment patterns have evolved extremely quickly-so quickly that

A) women have faced no struggles in the workplace.
B) there is a growing crisis around lack of child care.
C) women are earning more than men.
D) the expectations people have for work and family are unclear.

Question 14

In what order did women historically enter the workplace?

A) first women under 20 years old, then women between 20 and 40 years old, then women over 40 years old
B) first single women, then married women without children, and eventually most married women with young children
C) first married women who had no siblings, then women with one sibling, then women with two or more siblings
D) first women in the northeastern United States, then women in the southern United States, then women in the midwestern United States

Question 15

Women's employment rapidly became acceptable within the cultural mainstream, in part because of the kinds of paid work women did. Sociologists call this

A) the glass ceiling.
B) pink-collar work.
C) occupational gender segregation.
D) second-wave feminism.

Question 16

Care work and housework are increasingly performed as what?

A) unpaid work
B) overpaid work
C) market work
D) illegal work

Question 17

Care work is defined as

A) the labor of attempting to make people feel better about themselves.
B) work that is performed face-to-face for the purpose of enhancing the capabilities of another person.
C) work that people do that they really care about.
D) the act of caring for someone less fortunate than oneself.

Question 18

The sociological perspective on work and family is different from common notions in that it

A) pays attention to both the content and social context of work.
B) looks primarily at gender and work.
C) sees rich people as the enemy.
D) attempts to understand the workplace from a functionalist framework.

Question 19

The work to maintain a household's function is

A) housework.
B) market work.
C) care work.
D) women's work.

Question 20

The three institutional arenas in which we feed and care for children include the

A) family, the market, and the state.
B) church, the school, and the home.
C) government, the mall, and the Internet.
D) media, the nonprofits, and the banks.

Question 21

In the last half-century, the growth of women's employment contributed to conflicts between family and paid work obligations for various reasons, including the fact that

A) the system did not work for single parents, who could not combine the paid and unpaid work of two spouses.
B) married couples, who spent more time and energy away from home, spent even more time getting housework and child care done.
C) employers attempted to provide more flexible work policies for employees, leading to employees working less.
D) parents and couples tended to opt out of jobs that demanded a lot of time, leading to financial troubles.

Question 22

American workers have long aspired to balance which three things?

A) sports, study, and movies
B) work, rest, and leisure
C) shopping, eating, and crafting
D) school, parties, and family

Question 23

The motherhood penalty is

A) the stereotype that mothers are hypersexual.
B) the weight that women gain during pregnancy.
C) the loss of earnings women experience after they have children.
D) postpartum depression often experienced by new mothers.

Question 24

What trend in child care does the American Time Use Survey find in the last half-century?

A) Men and women have both increased their time with children.
B) Men and women have not changed their time with children.
C) Men have increased their time with children while women have decreased their time with children.
D) Men have decreased their time with children while women have increased their time with children.

Question 25

In the late 1970s, only one-third of Americans thought that mothers' employment was not harmful for their preschool-aged children. Thirty years later, that proportion rose to two-thirds, illustrating

A) that women have become better mothers, able to juggle both paid work and child rearing.
B) that popular attitudes toward the appropriate divisions between men and women have gradually shifted.
C) that Americans tend to value the Protestant work ethic, encouraging everyone, despite their social status, to engage in paid labor.
D) the limits of the feminist movement, which failed to make care work a waged occupation.

Question 26

When the welfare system was reformed in 1996, policymakers abandoned the assumption that

A) poor women are not fit to care for their own children.
B) men, not the state, should care for single women.
C) no single mothers should have to work if they do not want to.
D) the government would provide income support instead of full-time work.

Question 27

John works a paid job, and May primarily performs unpaid labor, such as taking care of the home and the children. What is one consequence of this situation?

A) John and May have an egalitarian relationship.
B) John is more likely to help out at home.
C) May's work is not recognized because it has no direct dollar value.
D) May gains the skills to take care of herself in case of divorce.

Question 28

One reason that gender difference in housework has eroded over the last half-century is that

A) the balance between men and women has not shifted.
B) the total amount of time spent on housework has declined.
C) technology has reduced the time it takes to perform household tasks.
D) children have taken on more housework tasks.

Question 29

One of the advantages of time use studies, in which researchers investigate how people fill their days with activities, is that they

A) take account of care work that often seems invisible.
B) see how much men lie about the amount of work they do in the home.
C) help mothers speed up their care-giving tasks.
D) encourage parents to spend more time with their children.

Question 30

Which group has been identified by sociologists as having more traditional gendered divisions of labor?

A) lesbian and gay
B) White
C) Black
D) Christian

Question 31

The three main factors within couples' relationships that seem to account for the fact that women perform so much more unpaid work in the home are

A) food, entertainment, and health.
B) sexuality, race, and class.
C) age, sex, and location.
D) time, resources, and gender.

Question 32

As sociologist Judith Lorber puts it, "Workplace pressures are thought to be unchangeable, so the burden of innovation falls on the _."

A) state
B) family
C) individual
D) market

Question 33

Time use data show that married women have cut their housework time roughly in half over the last half-century, while men have

A) reduced theirs by two hours.
B) remained about the same.
C) added about an hour.
D) doubled theirs.

Question 34

The phenomenon in which women have seemingly endless housework and child care on top of hours of paid work is referred to by sociologist Arlie Hochschild as

A) second shift.
B) occupational segregation.
C) multitasking.
D) feminism.

Question 35

When the time demands, strains, or obligations of work or family roles make it difficult for people to fulfill their obligations in either role, they experience

A) work-family conflict.
B) stress.
C) hypertension disorder.
D) higher rates of divorce.

Question 36

The greater number of hours of paid work for men are, on average, balanced out by

A) men paying for more things at home.
B) the greater hours of unpaid work for women.
C) men having more decision-making power at home.
D) women having more free time.

Question 37

Although some people enjoy housework and child care, most prefer to avoid at least the more onerous aspects of those responsibilities. Therefore, when couples negotiate over who does what work, the partner who has a higher-paying job

A) sometimes has more decision-making power and sometimes has less.
B) has the same amount of decision-making power as the partner with the lower-paying job.
C) has more decision-making power.
D) has less decision-making power.

Question 38

When asked why 25-year-old Joy does more housework than her 28-year-old husband, Jim, Joy said that Jim works longer hours and she therefore doesn't mind doing some extra work around the house. Joy's explanation is an example of what phenomenon?

A) Women are usually submissive to their husbands.
B) Spouses commonly rationalize unequal divisions of labor.
C) Women tend to have low self-esteem.
D) Younger couples tend to have a more uneven division of labor.

Question 39

The 1970s Wages for Housework campaign attempted to

A) demand housewives be paid wages for their labor.
B) unionize maids, domestic workers, and nannies.
C) push women out of the home and into the paid workplace.
D) elect a feminist-friendly state senator in New York.

Question 40

Socialization means that the lessons learned in childhood are applied to the situations in which people find themselves as adults. This means that boys who grow up with an employed mother

A) hire someone to clean their homes for them when they grow up.
B) have their mothers do their housework their entire lives.
C) do more housework when they grow up.
D) do less housework when they grow up.

Question 41

What is one of the consequences of current trends in time use among men and women?

A) Because women earn more money, they are more likely to control family finances.
B) Because men get out of the house more, they are more likely to have a fulfilling social life.
C) Because women's careers stagnate, they are less at risk in case of a divorce.
D) Men and women average about the same number of hours of both paid and unpaid work.

Question 42

In the United States, care work is much more than it is in many other countries, which tend to have more solutions.

A) family-based; bureaucratic
B) public; private
C) affordable; expensive
D) market-based; state-based

Question 43

One solution to work-family conflict that people choose reluctantly is

A) reducing the role of family in their lives.
B) taking higher-status jobs that allow for more leisure time.
C) going back to school to get better-paying jobs.
D) taking children out of extracurricular activities.

Question 44

People who support state-provided early child care argue that

A) most parents can already afford high-quality child care.
B) the cost and time management needs of child care are major impediments to parents' careers.
C) most European countries do not offer early childhood education.
D) such schooling will not equalize opportunities for children as they grow up.

Question 45

Which country offers the most total paid family leave guaranteed to parents with children?

A) Switzerland
B) Finland
C) United States
D) Japan

Question 46

Employers are reluctant to embrace a reduction in work hours by shortening the workweek, increasing the number of part-time workers, or offering more time off from work because

A) workers are less dedicated to the company.
B) employees have a more difficult time communicating with each other.
C) work tasks are harder to allocate.
D) they have to train and provide benefits for more workers.

Question 47

This chapter considers the various contexts in which family work occurs. Consider how family work, such as feeding children, might occur in one of the following institutional areas-the family, the market, or the state-and describe some of the implications of work taking place in that context.

Question 48

What are time use studies? Describe one study from this chapter and what it has taught us about work and family life.

Question 49

What has been one of the consequences of wealthier families reducing their work-family conflict by employing service workers?

A) exacerbating work-family conflict for low-wage workers
B) freeing up time for all families
C) establishing meaningful connections with service workers
D) children scoring lower on standardized tests

Question 50

The most common reason for families to adopt an at-home father arrangement is that

A) the couple is homosexual.
B) the woman can make money more easily.
C) the father has lost his job or is unable to work.
D) studies have proven that children develop better with a stay-at-home father.

Question 51

The authors of this chapter mention that the state often redistributes the products of our labor. What does that mean, and what impact does this have on family work? Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing overall? Why?

Question 52

While parents with professional careers often have to work extra-long workweeks, working-class parents often

A) have little motivation to have a professional career.
B) string together a series of overlapping part-time or temporary jobs.
C) work multiple full-time jobs.
D) make most of their earnings from government handouts and subsidies.

Question 53

The theory that the state can jump-start change in both the workplace and the family arises from the belief that government can create incentives for reform that are more universal, and more equalizing, than either __________ or __________ can achieve on their own.

A) families; the market
B) individuals; parents
C) men; women
D) employers; employees

Question 54

Women who have less than a high school education are more likely to when they have their first children.

A) quit their jobs
B) take disability leave
C) take paid leave
D) continue working

Question 55

Families that practice what Francine Deutsch calls "equally shared parenting" have succeeded best by

A) focusing on the early childbearing years, when the division of labor tends to be the most strongly marked by gender.
B) having stay-at-home mothers develop their own hobbies so they don't feel inferior to husbands with full-time jobs.
C) letting one parent focus attention on one child or set of children while another parent focuses attention on another child or set of children.
D) outsourcing as much of the parenting responsibilities as possible so as to create more free time for parents.

Question 56

This chapter describes three different types of work: care work, housework, and market work. Name and describe two of the interesting challenges that modern families face in relation to these types of work.

Question 57

What was the Wages for Housework campaign? What did the campaign try to achieve? Why do you think this campaign was sociologically significant?

Question 58

Which factor tends to play a large role in the options available for balancing work and family?

A) one's level of education
B) quality of one's job
C) one's gender
D) one's intelligence

Question 59

How have the patterns of women's work in the home and the workplace changed over time in the United States? What have these changes meant sociologically?

Question 60

What concept does sociologist Judith Lorber propose as a way to gradually erase gender differences in the responsibilities of men and women?

A) Protestant family ethic
B) degendering families
C) divorce
D) marriage counseling

Question 61

How does the United States compare to other countries in terms of providing state-supported family and medical leave?

Question 62

Compare and contrast how single parents and married parents experience work-family conflict. What is one possible solution for work-family conflict proposed for each group?

Question 63

Although patterns that concern care work are developed within families, the institutional setting surrounding families is crucial as well. Describe at least two of the institutional factors mentioned in this chapter.

Question 64

This chapter lists a number of different possible solutions to work-family conflict. Explain at least one proposal that seems promising to you. Suggest one possible solution not listed in the chapter and provide justification for why you think this solution could work.