Gender and Development
Are women overburdened by performing their traditional familial roles along with
their occupational responsibilities nowadays? Support your argument with
reason.
Double Burden.
A double burden is a term used to describe the workload of people who work to earn
money, but who are also responsible for significant amounts of unpaid domestic labor.
This phenomenon is also known as The Second Shift as in Arlie Hochschild’s book of
the same name. In heterosexual couples where both partners have paid jobs, women
often spend significantly more time than men on household chores and caring work,
such as child-rearing or caring for sick family members. This outcome is determined in
large part by traditional gender roles that have been accepted by society over time.
Labor market constraints also play a role in determining who does the bulk of unpaid
work. Efforts have been made to document the effects of this double burden on couples
placed in such situations. Many studies have traced the effects of the gendered division
of labor, and in most cases, there was a notable difference between the time men and
women contribute to unpaid labor.
Etymology.
The term double burden arises from the fact that many women, as well as some men,
are responsible for both domestic labor and paid labor. However, due to the thinking that
a woman’s time spent in domestic work is more valuable than a woman’s time spent
doing paid work, and that a man’s time spent doing paid work is more valuable than a
man’s time spent doing domestic work, there is the issue of women having to do a large
amount of both paid and unpaid work, leading to the double burden. Some alternative
terms for double burden include double day, second shift, and double duty.
Unequal work burdens around the world.
Pre-World War II.
The traditional female homemaker male breadwinner model characterized female
employment prior to World War II. At the turn of the 20th century in the continental
United States, only 18 percent of women over the age of 15 reported receiving non-farm
employment. These women were typically young, single, white, and native-born. In
contrast, married women in the non-farm labor force were “predominantly blacks or
immigrants and very poor.” Working mothers often exited the labor force once their
children were old enough to earn money. This migration of women into the workforce
shook the traditional ideology of gender roles, but importantly, it was the catalyst to the
double burden becoming noticeable. The 1930s “encouraged women to fulfill what
Stalin termed the “great and honorable duty that nature has given” them. Evident in the
Soviet Union, “an officially sponsored cult of motherhood, buttressed by anti-abortion
legislation” accompanied by a “depression of living standards” led to industry’s immense
demand for laborers which got women into the industrial workforce in unprecedented
Are women overburdened by performing their traditional familial roles along with
their occupational responsibilities nowadays? Support your argument with
reason.
Double Burden.
A double burden is a term used to describe the workload of people who work to earn
money, but who are also responsible for significant amounts of unpaid domestic labor.
This phenomenon is also known as The Second Shift as in Arlie Hochschild’s book of
the same name. In heterosexual couples where both partners have paid jobs, women
often spend significantly more time than men on household chores and caring work,
such as child-rearing or caring for sick family members. This outcome is determined in
large part by traditional gender roles that have been accepted by society over time.
Labor market constraints also play a role in determining who does the bulk of unpaid
work. Efforts have been made to document the effects of this double burden on couples
placed in such situations. Many studies have traced the effects of the gendered division
of labor, and in most cases, there was a notable difference between the time men and
women contribute to unpaid labor.
Etymology.
The term double burden arises from the fact that many women, as well as some men,
are responsible for both domestic labor and paid labor. However, due to the thinking that
a woman’s time spent in domestic work is more valuable than a woman’s time spent
doing paid work, and that a man’s time spent doing paid work is more valuable than a
man’s time spent doing domestic work, there is the issue of women having to do a large
amount of both paid and unpaid work, leading to the double burden. Some alternative
terms for double burden include double day, second shift, and double duty.
Unequal work burdens around the world.
Pre-World War II.
The traditional female homemaker male breadwinner model characterized female
employment prior to World War II. At the turn of the 20th century in the continental
United States, only 18 percent of women over the age of 15 reported receiving non-farm
employment. These women were typically young, single, white, and native-born. In
contrast, married women in the non-farm labor force were “predominantly blacks or
immigrants and very poor.” Working mothers often exited the labor force once their
children were old enough to earn money. This migration of women into the workforce
shook the traditional ideology of gender roles, but importantly, it was the catalyst to the
double burden becoming noticeable. The 1930s “encouraged women to fulfill what
Stalin termed the “great and honorable duty that nature has given” them. Evident in the
Soviet Union, “an officially sponsored cult of motherhood, buttressed by anti-abortion
legislation” accompanied by a “depression of living standards” led to industry’s immense
demand for laborers which got women into the industrial workforce in unprecedented
