The article "Heading Home: Women, Work, and Identity in America" was one of my favorites of this class. In the article they asked how woman can leave their jobs and become at-home moms without losing social status. I think the answer is that, people half expect women to become at-home mothers after having a child, so by doing so they are not betraying some social standard. Men on the other hand are expected to stay at work, and work, work, work to provide for their families, and if they leave work to become at-home dads then their social status does suffer. It is just a matter of how society perceives gender roles.
In some ways if a woman can leave work to become an at-home-mom then her status could even go up, because it means her husband can earn enough income to support the household solo. It is a simple answer to why women don't lose a social status when they leave work - because culturally we expect them to do so.
I really liked your post about this article. I too, thought this was by far the best article we read in Anthropology this semester. I also agree with your views on this article. I feel the same way.
ReplyDeleteThis was one of my favorite articles as well because I feel like it brings up a point that things are changing. Women are more likely to go back to work after having children which I personally plan to do. I think over time men will be more socially accepted if they are stay at home dads because more men will do it if their wives are making financially more than them.
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