Two-Income Households Social Sciences Coursework Essay

Two-Income Households
Student’s Name
Institution
Two-Income Households
Traditionally, it was a convention for married couples to coexist peacefully, thanks to the division of labor which was based on gender. As the economy and other aspects of life evolved, there was a need for human beings to adapt to these changes in order to remain relevant and meet the rigorous economic demands. As a result, women, whose major role initially was to take care of the children and the house chores, joined their male counterparts in the labor force to mitigate the financial constraints. This prompted sociologists to embark on a thorough research that eventually gave birth to the popular term second shift.
According to Hochschild and Machung (2012), the term second shift is used to refer to the additional duties one has to undertake after completing the official work that is payable. These duties range from household chores to children care. Traditionally, these roles were primarily meant to be undertaken by women. Second shift however in the modern society, apply to both male and female but it is more prevalent to women. These kinds of revolution have been accompanied by the downfall of male superiority complex among other shortcomings that at times lead to family conflicts.
A number of factors have been the driving force towards the rise of the second shift aspect in modern society. In modern-day, women are no longer working on home chores alone but rather they have opted to work for pay outside the home. Another factor that influences the rise of the second shift is the industrial revolution. Unlike in the older days where everything was meant for domestic use, industrialization led to monetization of farm produces and therefore there was an urgent need to market the produces. Besides, industrialization has greatly reduced homework for the women, some roles being done on their behalf rendering them idle and thus they prefer to find alternatives. The expansion of service jobs has created more opportunities especially for women ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"glMUbatG","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Arlie Hochschild & Anne Machung, 2012)","plainCitation":"(Arlie Hochschild & Anne Machung, 2012)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":75,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/U7J9T4PV"]...