Unit A- Blog 3

I have experienced “carework” in my family mostly in the last year and a half, but not so much me personally having to perform it. It first started when my great grandmother moved out here from California to stay with my grandma because healthcare and caretakers were costing over $80,000 a year. My grandma had some government aide for caretakers during the day, but it wasn’t very great service. My grandma was having to leave work early or would be late from preparing certain types of food for my great grandma. After a few months, my grandma was allowed to work from home as she worked in sales and could do a lot of it over the phone and computer. As time progressed, so did her performance. She is still getting by, but she is not nearly as efficient as she once was. The second example of this that is currently happening in my family is with my sister and mom. My sister had a child and the father is not around. She now lives with my mom while she is finishing up her degree. My sister works in the evenings and goes to school in the mornings. During the middle part of the day she is with her child and my mom takes care of the child in the evening. There have been several times where my mother or sister would have something come up and they would have to adjust there schedule and miss class or work.

In the video, “Juggling Work and Care,” it discussed many issues that arise when individuals that are employed also have to take on the responsibility as a care taker. Some of the problematic issues that arise are a decrease in efficiency of employees, absence, and stress while on the job. I think these organizations in the UK have some great ideas and that they could possibly work, however, I think there is also a lot of room for the ideas to fail or be taken advantage of. My dad was able to leave work when an emergency occurred (i.e. missing the bus, sick at school, etc.), which was very beneficial to him as a caretaker. I can say though, that this was a very rare occurrence and I think that most organizations would allow caretakers or parents to leave in these types of situations. The system being described in the video would allow a lot of freedom for the employees to come and go. It is basically an honor system. I believe the video said that there would be a team of employees to look out for each other and make sure the system wasn’t being abused. What if they team was all corrupt? I definitely feel that employees’ moral and stress would decrease, and obviously attendance won’t be affected if it isn’t being taken, but from a capitalist standpoint; is it efficient for the company? One positive area that I think is pretty possible was the idea of being able to set schedule. If that is feasible to the needs of the business, then I think that’s a great idea. I know that many organizations wouldn’t be fit for that, but some are and likely don’t give that benefit.

Society needs to reconstruct the notion of women’s work by understanding how society has evolved. It is pretty honorable that women are now able to have a career and work, and to be successful at both of them. However, I society once was socialized for women to do “women work” at home without working. It is now to the point where they are expected to do those duties as well as work. Society is in the process of reconstructing though. All these issues are fairly new. I think males are beginning to step into the roles at home that were once classified as the women’s role. As our society is adjusting to all the injustices of the past, some individuals and communities are going to adjust faster and some are going to be extremely slow. The fact of the matter is, is that these expectations are no longer going to be reasonable. Men have a lower unemployment rate; more women are attending college than men, and attending more than women ever have period.