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5 - Priorities and Expectations

Men's and Women's Work, Family Life, and Health

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Chloe E. Bird  and
Patricia P. Rieker
Chloe E. Bird
Affiliation:
RAND Corporation, RAND Graduate School
Patricia P. Rieker
Affiliation:
Boston University, Harvard Medical School, Simmons College
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Summary

In this chapter, we examine how work and family life are related to men's and women's health. Many of the differences in men's and women's lives that we have considered in earlier chapters have their roots in their family roles and in their jobs. Family and work are the two arenas where the constraints on choice are most readily apparent and frequently experienced, because they involve a myriad of routine decisions that occur on a daily basis. Consequently, in these arenas it is clear that individuals are making choices actively or at least by default. Moreover, both work and family roles are associated with some activities, as well as stresses, that tend to occur along gender lines. For example, occupations, careers, and family life each carry with them expectations derived from men's and women's social roles. Thus, as one of the mothers Judith Warner interviewed for her recent book on motherhood aptly noted, “These are choices that don't feel like choices at all. They are the harsh realities of family life in a culture that has no structures in place to allow women – and men – to balance work and child rearing” (Warner, 2005). Many of these choices are forced by time or financial constraints, which as this mother's comment illustrates can often leave individuals with a sense that they had little if any freedom to choose among the competing priorities, tasks, and goals.

Type
Chapter
Information
Gender and Health
The Effects of Constrained Choices and Social Policies
 , pp. 146 - 182
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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