need a reading response. ( two pages, in 5 hours)

11/1/2017 Yuzu: Psychology of Gender: Fourth Edition

https://reader.yuzu.com/#/books/9781317345046/cfi/6/42!/4/2/2/12/4@0:0 1/2

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CHAPTER 12

Paid Worker Role and Health

ife was pretty simple for June and Ward Cleaver of Leave It to Beaver. Every morning, Ward, dressed in a suit, kissed his wife and left for work. June, in a dress, took care of the children and had a hot meal waiting for Ward’s return from work. The routine was the same for Margaret and Jim Anderson, the

married couple on Father Knows Best. These two popular television shows from the late 1950s depicted the traditional nuclear family, where men worked outside the home and women worked inside the home.

Contrast that scenario with today’s single-parent families where a woman might be responsible for the emotional, practical, and economic support of her children. More recent television shows reflect this changing state of the family by offering alternatives to the traditional families of the 1950s, such as Parenthood, a show about a single mother raising two children, or Modern Family, a show about two gay men raising an adopted girl. Even the media images of two-parent families reflect a move from the traditional. Consider the show Friday Night Lights, a show about a mother who is the high school principal and a father who is the football coach, both of whom are involved with raising children. Today, more families are sharing responsibilities. Women, even mothers, often work outside the home, and men are more involved in parenting. There are societal signs of this shift. For example, public places have “family restrooms” where both women and men can change children’s diapers.

Today, both women and men juggle multiple roles, in particular the roles of spouse, parent, and paid employee. A role is defined as a position in society governed by a set of norms, which are expectations for behavior. Having multiple roles means that there are many norms to which you are expected to adhere, posing the potential for role conflict. On the other hand, access to multiple roles provides many resources—resources that can be used to offset stressors arising from any one role.

The focus of this chapter is on the role of paid worker. Because this role does not typically exist by itself, I also examine how women and men combine the role of paid worker with family roles. First, I discuss how the paid worker role influences health. Then I examine how the paid worker role affects family roles, how family roles affect the paid worker role, and whether people are better off if they have fewer or more roles. I also discuss how the quality of the paid worker role affects health. One important aspect of this role that is relevant to gender is discrimination, including the pay disparity between men and women. I discuss a variety of factors that contribute to the pay disparity. Another gender-related aspect of the paid worker role is sexual harassment. I define sexual harassment, discuss its incidence and effects on the worker, and describe theories of sexual harassment.

One important reason for studying the effects of different roles on women’s and men’s health is that sex differences in the possession of roles may explain some of the sex differences in health discussed in Chapter 10. Are women more depressed than men because they hold fewer roles, hold different roles, or value different roles? The differential exposure hypothesis states that differences in the kinds of roles women and men possess explain sex differences in health. For example, to the extent that men are more likely than women to possess the paid worker role, and the paid worker role is associated with good mental health, women may suffer poorer mental health compared to men. The differential vulnerability hypothesis states that roles have different effects on health for women and men. For example, if parenthood is more central to women’s than men’s self-concepts, difficulties with children may be more strongly related to women’s than men’s health.

PAID WORKER ROLE

11/1/2017 Yuzu: Psychology of Gender: Fourth Edition

https://reader.yuzu.com/#/books/9781317345046/cfi/6/42!/4/2/2/12/4@0:0 2/2

The traditional belief that it is better for men to earn the money in the family and women to take care of the home and children has changed over time. As shown in Figure 12.1, whereas 52% of women and 74% of men endorsed this belief in 1977, the numbers decreased to 39% of women and 42% of men by 2008 (Galinsky, Aumann, & Bond, 2009). The numbers not only changed but the sex difference greatly decreased. On the other hand, it is remarkable that over a third of women and even more men maintain this belief even today. The figures are somewhat lower for younger people, suggesting that there will be further change.

FIGURE 12.1The traditional belief that men should earn the money and women should take care of the home and children has decreased over time. Source: Adapted from Galinsky et al. (2009).