Question

introduction to sociology

Kyle and Pam Smith have been married for eight years. They have two young boys—Ryan, age four, and Zach, age two. Both Kyle and Pam work at full-time jobs. Kyle is in construction, and Pam works in a construction company's office. Pam would like to go back to school and get an M.B.A. to advance within her company. Explain what societal factors might lead to a gender gap in the performance of housework and child care. minimum 500 words

Answer 1

Here we are discussing about Kyle and Pam Smith who are parents of two young boys - Ryan and Zach. Though both are equally responsible for all the parenting activities there are several societal factors which might lead to a gender gap in the performance of housework and child care.

Here in this case, as children are too young to take care of themselves its parents responsibility to make them have a comfortable and safe upbringing in all ways. Though all the household activties and child care activities are equally divided women are reportedly proven to spend more time in domestic activities and in child care. Due to few social barriers there are few instances where we see men getting paid more than women for different reasons. Women are found to be less progressive in their careers after child birth as they have to undergo so much physical and mental tranformation after giving birth which may lead her to concentrate less on career or take a break from career. Whereas men will be able to concentrate the same way in their profession as they will be less involved in taking care of Children when compared to women. Here, when Pam wants to take up some course to excel in her career she will have to prepare herself to concentrate on her studies at that point in her life where she has got so much responsibility towards her kids. This might hamper her a bit as it is always women who will have to get into more of domestic and child care activities in addition to tasks which are to be handled in her professional life. The factors also include rights, power, work life balance and gender equality.