¶ … Bind
Russell Hochschild, Arlie. The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work. New YOrk: Owl Books, 2001.
Explain the title. What is the "Time Bind"?
The author of The Time Bind, Arlie Russell Hochschild, states that for many parents today, particularly women, when the formal, paid part of their work shift ends, another unpaid work shift begins. This second shift comprises the demands of home and family care and is effectively another full-time job. This creates a tension, or time bind between work and home, leaving no time for private leisure, much less devoting time to making a better world and community life for the next generation.
More and more women are working, and these women working full-time rather than part-time, despite the demands of their children. Also, men are working more rather than fewer hours, leaving husbands and fathers even less available to help raise the children or to work around the home, much less be equal partners to their spouses regarding chores and child-rearing obligations. (7)
What is cultural transformation?
Once upon a time in America, corporate professionalism was less important than giving back to one's family and social community. The cultural worlds of family and private life were paramount. Even in families where men and women embraced the traditional roles of breadwinner and homemaker, the working father worked put food on the table, he did not work merely to serve the CEO. Now, however, as evidenced at the Amerco...
This cultural transformation makes paid professional work a priority over family for both men and women. One's value as a person is equated with one's salary and the hours one spends at one's occupation.
Part of this cultural transformation has occurred because parents are so worried about losing their jobs. In contrast, the social worlds with which Americans had traditionally associated their deepest values, the family, have receded in the personal and social capital they give the laborer. Once the purpose of working hard was to make a better life for one's family, now the social life of workers often center around their places of employment -- sometimes willingly rather than unwillingly, because the demands of home can seem so burdensome. Hochschild points out Americans work two more weeks a year than even Japan, another highly work-focused country. (xxi)
What are "Family-Friendly" policies?
Hochschild's text focuses on a study she conducted of a large company that was praised by Working Mother magazine for its "family friendly" options such as flexible time schedules, maternity leave, and parental leave. Yet despite these options Hochschild found that employees were often too scared their jobs were at stake to take advantage of these options. The workers believed, often correctly, that their measure of devotion to the company was based in management's eyes on the number of hours they spent at work, not the quality of…
