Extending the Theme of the Exploratory Essay

The Second Shift Demise in Modern Society

Most women work one shift at the office or factory and a ‘second shift’ at home.“- Arlie Russell Hochschild. This quote written in 1989 has conveyed a clear definition of what The Second Shift is. Women have to transition from one mode to another throughout their day, but now in modern days there has been a shift, where women have resources to support them. In modern day society families have different sources that have helped to diminish The Second Shift. As result of the demise parents are experiencing less burden of responsibilities. Parents are being able to complete tasks in less time. They’re able to spend more time with their families now and are feeling more relief than before with the resources they have. In spite of the fact that The Second Shift has diminished largely over the years and have been better for families, others may argue that The Second Shift still exists for families who’re traditional. Families who’re traditional believe in gender roles etc. This means that men and women have certain task and expectations that society has placed on them.

What is the second shift? The understanding of the second shift came about shortly after women joined the workforce. The key term, The Second Shift was created in Hochschild’s book, which was published in 1989. Hochschild is an author, parent and sociologist . There’re a number of definitions pertaining to The Second Shift, but the more frequent definition used is as follows: the second shift is the dual burden of paid and unpaid work experienced by working women (Hochschild, 1989). Also, The Second Shift is defined by the sociology dictionary as household duties that follow a paid work day, typically completed by women. (Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014) The narrative that was built around The Second Shift was that women worked a long day of work then went home to take on numerous household tasks including caring for their children. The idea behind the key term, The Second Shift has, changed in modern society due to accessibility of resources in one’s community.

First, as mentioned in my introduction The Second Shift may be present in current day others may argue. I sat down with a friend of mine, Sky to understand more about her up bringing by her family who family is very traditional. Her parents come from an upper middle class status but my friend also informed me that life for her was very different than the way it was for me. She grew up watching her mom complete tons of task around the house, such as laundry, cooking, and cleaning. Whereas her dad was the bread winner, where he went to work and came home and paid bills. When Sky filled me in on this information it brung me to the idea of gender roles. This idea was created by society where females and males are expected to do very specific things in their household. Sky talked about how her mom took part in The Second Shift to an extent because her mom job was the household then raising her and her siblings. Someone such as Sky would argue that The Second Shift still exists in current day for families who have a different upbringing of me traditional.

Next, Research shows that the percentage rate of women in the workforce has steadily increased since the 1950s. (Hochschild,1989) Research also suggests that ideas regarding The Second Shift are indeed changing with time and amongst younger generations, like anything else. Although many individuals still hold traditional beliefs, we can see a shift in the division of labor in the household. This leads to the idea that The Second Shift has been diminished. (Hochschild,1989) Throughout my research I have been able to come up with the idea that The Second Shift has diminished in modern day. In an article I read, the author spoke about how what women have experienced in the history differs from what is happening in present day.. The article states, “Few modern women would argue that ironing sheets is still on the top of their todo lists, even though this may have been a top priority for their grandmothers.” (Bianchi et al. 2000). This proves that women have a different agenda because there are businesses that provide services for tasks, such as laundry and dry cleaning. As a teenager growing up I recall my mom sometimes taking on the responsibility of doing the laundry herself or dropping it off to a laundromat, which washed the clothes for you depending on the weight and folded them at the end. These types of businesses have made it easier for families to participate in drop off and pick up services. A service such as this one doesn’t take up much of one’s time and can allow them to take care of other responsibilities in their homes. Women in modern day society are taking on less tasks themselves because they have resources around their neighborhoods that make it easier for them to maintain the upkeep of their home. This connects back to the demise of The Second Shift is modern day because of families being exposed to more resources currently. Bianchi et al. 2000 states, “There was an overvaluation on housework in previous generations, whereas standards today are more realistic and allow more time for other activities.” This demonstrates that the idea of housekeeping before wasn’t as realistic for families and in fact in current day it is more practical. I also agree that the amount of tasks women had to complete wasn’t a fair expectation. The task weren’t a fair expectation because parents were being overworked after a day of work when coming home.

In addition to The Second Shift being diminished in modern day society research shows that women have less household responsibilities. A source states, “since 1960, women have cut their domestic labor time in half due in part to the outsourcing of chores to takeout and restaurants, dry cleaning services, and meal preparation stores.” (Johnson & Johnson 2008, 503). This supports the idea that women have cut the amount of household tasks in half. With their being an outpour of resources in the present day the time frame to complete a task is less. The authors writes, “Juxtaposed to scholars building on the conceptualization of the second shift, some scholars suggest the second shift has diminished largely due to a more service-driven, technologically developed culture.” (Brailey and Slatton 2019) This piece of evidence has informed readers that students are aware of the demise. Students are expressing that they think this has happened because of the services provided in modern day.

Personally, I remember growing up in a neighborhood where everything I wanted and needed I was surrounded by. I had a deli that I always went to and when my mom would be at work I would buy stuff and add it to her tab. Having this deli in the area made my mom feel comfortable leaving the house and not cooking. My mom knew she could send us to the deli to get sandwiches to eat in the meantime until she arrived home to decide if she would cook or get something on the way home. Having this resource in the neighborhood left me always being able to get food on my own. I would get snacks sometimes and other times I would get hot food, such as hot wings and fries. Having a relationship with the business around my home allowed me to purchase stuff when I didn’t have money. On my mom pay day she would go stop by the deli and pay off what she owes. Having an experience like this has impacted the idea I have of The Second Shift being diminished in modern day society due to their being accessible resources.

Next, I decided to interview someone who is around me and currently lives in the upper side of Manhattan. I interviewed my girlfriend, Ayla Rain, to personally understand her experience while babysitting families also to see what her perspective and experience would be about The Second Shift. This was a great idea I thought because she babysits kids throughout the upper west side who are considered to be upper middle class. Ayla described in an interview that the family she babysits have hired her to maintain the health and wellness of their children during after school hours. She also expressed to me that the family utilizes grocery resources, such as Instacart or fresh direct. Instacart and fresh direct are applications where one can go grocery shopping at their own leisure. These applications allow you to also select a time frame of when you would like your groceries delivered. Also notes are allowed for the customers to leave in a specific section that can inform the delivery person to leave groceries at a specific location without contact of a person. On these applications they allow you to order as much food as you desire. Furthermore, the delivery person is someone who does your shopping for you. This person receives a notification on what groceries you would like and what store to pick them up from. After the delivery person collects all the items and checks them out they will deliver the food to the customers location. A resource such as this one is giving families the opportunity to partake in online services while paying a service fee. These services create an opportunity for families to take care of other responsibilities around their home. After receiving this information from Ayla, I asked what other responsibilities in the household are families partaking in? She mentioned that cleaning services are utilized weekly, which is a deep clean of the house. This means that a cleaning service is coming in or the babysitter would be responsible for deep cleaning throughout the home. I asked specifically who would be responsible for things such as the dishes? Ayla’s response was the dishwasher. From this information it can be clearly seen that generations have changed like any other and there’re other means now that allow parents to get the job done. I wrapped the interview up with Ayla by asking what more information would she like to leave me with after today. Ayla said, “ Nowadays it’s a lot easier to maintain the upkeep of a household and children. Families have an abundance of resources in their neighborhood to help them get things accomplished. Families rely heavily on outsourcing household tasks in order to have more leisure time with their family. In my opinion families are comfortable with having dirty clothes piled up or a few dishes left in the sink to have free time. I often hear things like I would rather spend quality time with my family than stressing these minute chores.” This led me to circle back to my idea that The Second Shift does not exist in modern day society due to the variety of resources families are making use of.

As can be seen the idea of The Second Shift has taken a turn for the better in modern day society. We live in an era now where we have dishwashers that come with homes, which allow families to not wash dishes individually but place it inside a washer that does the job on its own. We also have more businesses in the current day that provide service where parents don’t have to clean themselves, but in fact can pay a fee. I have come to the conclusion that The Second Shift has been diminished due to the advancement of technology in society. There’re machines that complete tasks and that takes away one less responsibility a parent would have to partake in. Parents hiring babysitters are another example of them utilizing the resources around them to receive a helping hand. Without the outpour of resources provided in current day I can only imagine how much of a burden parents would come across. Despite the fact that others may argue that The Second shift still exists in current day for families who’re traditional, research shows there has been a demise due to the outdoor of resource.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.