UNIT A - Blog 4

I think some characteristics of a good family life are staying in communication with your family, being there for the family, responsibility, loyalty, compassion and honesty. Balancing a career and family life is being able to take care of your family while also having a career. Everyone should be able to go to their job and work their required shift and afterwards go home and be with their family. It's understandable that this can become quite difficult because many jobs are demanding and it can become difficult to make time for appointments or to leave work because a child is sick and alot of jobs have consequences if you go home sick whether it's legit or not. I think a decent company will understand that their employees have a family life as well and will try and accommodate their employees to the best of their abilities. I think what makes this work and family life balance hard to achieve are the job requirements. Companies that aren't flexible make a persons work life stressful and often unbearable if they aren't allowed to leave to help out a family member. Overtime at jobs can also cause a stress on this balance because they require longer hours than usual and the parent might come home late and miss out on certain family interactions. I also think that if companies don't offer flexible shifts this might make it difficult for a mother or father to deal with their children's school schedules if they can't come in later or earlier on certain days and this can make it hard to deal with the balance as well.

Changes in traditional gender roles can make work and family issues more complex because if a man has to start cooking because the woman is working too late this might start drama or an argument because this isn't something he's used to doing. Also for a single parent balancing work and family is probably more difficult than the usual two parent household because they have to find time to work and find a daycare or babysitter to take care of their child or children which can cost quite a bit and may not be in their budget. With two parent households there is sometimes one parent that either doesn't work or gets home sooner than the other parent so there's always someone there with the family but with single parents all they have are themselves to help provide for the family and this can become challenging. My mother raised me on her own and I remember times where she was in over her head but she managed to always come out on top but it wasn't always easy.

Employers can become more sensitive to their employees needs by offering flex schedules so they can vary the hours they work to help accommodate them for appointments they need to make or whatever else they need to take care of. They can also offer discounts to maybe daycare programs or cell phone companies etc to possibly help out a family so they can afford more things for their home life. My job offers discounts for Verizon, dell, apple and much more and this helps me save 17% on my cell phone bill each month which is very helpful since I don't make alot of money. I also think companies should offer counseling or a number that they can call if they need to talk to someone about personal issues. I also think vacation time should be increased per paycheck or employees should have free days or passes that will allow someone to call out sick without being penalized. At my job we get an occurrence each time we call out sick and when we reach seven occurrences we get written up and once we get eight we can get fired so by allowing a free pass we wouldn't get an occurrence and this can help people out who are prone to being sick or who need to go home when a child falls ill. I also think FMLA is a wonderful idea because this helps out people who have a reoccurring sickness or who might have a family member who falls ill and needs someone to stay home and take care of them.

Having the support of family members and/or neighbors might make balancing priorities easier because if you have children one of the family members of neighbors can watch them for you until you get home from work which can save you alot of money by avoiding day care costs. Also if family members are willing to help around the house with chores and cooking then this will alleviate some of the stress off of the working parent since they have to start cooking immediately when they get home or bring home fast food which also costs money.

UNIT A - Blog 3

Carework seems like a really good program. In the videos I watched on carework in the UK, I saw that the companies make this carework program to help out their employees so they can maintain their home life and still stay on top of their job. One company gave their employees flexible schedules which allowed one man to come in and work a certain amount of hours then leave to go pick up his children from school and then come back to work later to complete his eight hour shift. I also saw that they allowed one man to work from home which helped him take care of his elderly mother. This program seems very convenient and I think it eliminates the stress that many employees deal with in their everyday life. I think this helps working families that have children to take care of and makes their life alot more flexible and I think this will increase their productivity at work because they will be happier at work. This type of program makes the employees feel appreciated and respected especially when they are willing to accommodate them with their life and their family life.

I don't think I've ever experienced much carework in my life but i have found it difficult to juggle a full time job and attend school and i also find it hard to get days off in order to study for upcoming exams. I also have a hard time getting days off for doctor appointments but my job allows me to change my shift randomly so that i can make certain appointments or to come in work a few hours then go to my appointment and come back afterwards and make up whatever hours i have missed. I think society needs to reconstruct their notions of the home as women's work by realizing women have more responsibilities other than housework and that if they do need to take care of their home life and work that companies should be more flexible like the UK and allow them to change their shifts when they have problems at home or give them time off to deal with their personal lives. Also men are capable of cleaning and cooking as well so i think society should realize that chores don't just revolve around a woman because men are just as capable of doing housework.

UNIT A - Blog 2

The wage gap video peaked my interest the most and I think it's amazing how the video stated that only two percent of women own fortune five hundred companies. Women have so many jobs to choose from and have all these options out there for them yet they are put on such a lower scale when compared to a man in the same position. I don't really understand why it is like this but it seems that males seem to lead a pattern of dominating in the work place and employers feel the need to pay them much more in salary than a woman. The job can be done just as well if not better than a man and I don't think this is equal or fair.

The you tube video on Patriarchy also seemed interesting because it listed alot of detail on women and men and how men seem to dominate the work place and overtake most jobs that are even available to women. This video said that woman only make up 16 of the 100 seats in the Senate and I don't know why this is. I thought about this for a while and thought that maybe they just felt that 84 men were more qualified for the position than woman but now that just seems bazaar and I'm starting to think that they feel men represent the Senate better because they think men are stronger and smarter which seems like a form of sex segregation. I think sex segregation is when you separate men and women in anything such as telling them they can each only play certain sports or in the work place paying a man and a woman differently when they have the same job and same credentials. When it comes to ASU the only time I really see it is maybe with the types of positions women get such as receptionist or front desk person but I'm hardly on campus so I can't really answer this question that well.

Socialization at my job produces gender roles because most of the supervisors are men and there's two out of five supervisors that are women and I also notice that the men make themselves known and are very loud and abrupt when talking to their employees. All I really do is process medical claims at work but in my own position I honestly don’t really see any specific gender roles because we have a lot of male and female processors that work at my job. However, I do find it odd how every company Ive ever worked for had a man that was head of the company. In reference to the report "Moms become breadwinners as job losses hit men" i think sex segregation and the wage gap still persists even when men are becoming unemployed because women are still receiving lower wages and poor benefits compared to other men that are in the same occupation. Even though men are being laid off the women still have to find jobs and work to make a living but this doesn't necessarily increase their wages and even if it did they'd still be on the lower end because men are always making a little bit more than women in the same field.