Women and Men: Sharing the Work Load.
With the dawn of the 21st century, more and more women have ventured into the workforce and accepted the challenges of competing with their male counterparts. This transition has brought about many changes, not only for the married couple, but for their children as well. Pioneering women in the labor market during their adult years have been met with both support and rejection from their peers. Spouses of the independent women have had to develop a whole new life filled with different questions regarding lifestyles completely separate from those that their parents faced in previous generations.
These new complications are due to many factors, the most devastating aspect being the struggle that is waged between finding time for a career while also raising children. If a husband and wife decide to both develop careers in order to support their family they must reevaluate their roles as future workers and parents. Sacrifices and compromises must be made and they often depend on which values are held by each partner. These might entail a man who adopts traditional beliefs that might have him force his wife into leaving work in order to raise their children.
The changing norms found in society are obvious in the behavior of those who are at the edge of creating for themselves a new lifestyle, such as the students found at UCR. Although the norms have changed within the culture, the individual perspectives may or may not have adapted to the new rules or standards governing specific behaviors. In order to find out where this new generation stands on this issue, I interviewed 10 students from the freshman class, both male and female. I was interested in finding out whether or not males would accept and support their wives" decisions to contribute to the family income and thus leave less time for the upbringing of their children.
I attempted to carry out my interviews in as neutral and as unbiased a surrounding as possible.