As you engage with this week’s discussion and with one another, be sure to read what has already been posted and then add substantively to the discussion. Time goes quickly, so remember to post early in the week! The first question is based on what you have learned so far in this course so that you can post immediately without having completed all of this week’s readings.
The first set of questions in this discussion is opinion and experience-based, so you can begin immediately. For subsequent questions please meaningfully integrate your readings including the text, articles, and module notes.
Consider the following scenario: A man and a woman have one child with another one on the way. The husband has a higher paying job than his wife, but she places a high value on her career. They both agree that a parent should be at home for the first year of their newborn’s life.
In your opinion,
What are social norms and expectations for how you should manage the first year of your child’s life?
What are men expected to be responsible for versus women in this situation?
What are your own expectations in this regard? In other words, how would you divide the caregiving between parents based on sex?
After reading the assigned readings for this week and watching the videos, respond to the following questions:
Summarize male and female gender roles in caregiving. What physical, emotional, and economic factors affect these differences? How are the dynamics changing?
How could FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act) potentially contribute to a more equitable sharing of family caregiving responsibilities for men and women? What else could the government do to provide more support? What could the workplace do?
The COVID pandemic has impacted care giving in many ways. Summarize how caregiving has been affected by this pandemic and the potential benefits to both men and women when if there was an equitable sharing of caregiving responsibilities for children as well as aging parents.
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Required:
Glynn, S.J. (December 19. 2016). Breadwinning mothers are increasingly the U.S. norm (Links to an external site.). Center for American Progress.
Godfrey, N. (July 31, 2017). The stay-at-home Dad syndrome (Links to an external site.). Forbes.
Caregiver.org. (2018). Caregiver Health | Family Caregiver Alliance. (Links to an external site.)
Ness, D. L. (2011). Women, Caregivers, Families, and the Affordable Care Act’s Bright Promise of Better Care (Links to an external site.). Generations, 35(1), 38-44.
Palley, E., & Shdaimah, C. (2011). Child care policy: A need for greater advocacy. (Links to an external site.) Children & Youth Services Review, 33(7), 1159-1165. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2011.02.008.
The Urban Child Center (AUGUST 17, 2011). Culturally Responsible Parenting (Links to an external site.)
Module Notes: Psychosocial Issues: Caregiving, the Family, and the Workplace
Chose one of the following to read about your own state and FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act):
STATE FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE LAWS (Links to an external site.) (July 19th, 2016). National Center for State Legislatures.
A State-by-State Analysis of Parental Leave Programs (Links to an external site.) pp 16 – 17 (review your state pp 17-43)
View:
Required: [approximately 29 minutes total view time]
A Day in the Life of a Caregiver (Links to an external site.)| AARP. [02min 17 sec]
What I’ve learned about parenting as a stay-at-home dad | Glen Henry (Links to an external site.)[10min 46 sec]
How America Fails New Parents — and Their Babies | Jessica Shortall | TED Talks (Links to an external site.)[15min 45 sec]
PBS Health (Dec 29th, 2016). The hidden, growing plight of eating disorders among men (Links to an external site.).Health Dec 29, 2016 12:19 PM
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In Module Five, we are exploring psychosocial issues in sex, gender and health. Our specific focus is on the experience of caregiving for children, family members and aging parents. This includes; healthcare decision-making in the family, and work-related health issues.
Men and women have historically played very different roles in family caregiving. A carryover of past generations defines family roles in traditional gender-based roles. These preconceptions delineate women’s responsibilities and men’s responsibilities. In parenthood women take primary responsibility for raising children, with the father often in a peripheral role fulfilling his responsibilities as breadwinner.
When children become ill, the mother most often takes prime responsibility. If she works outside of the home, this means taking time off from work, with the father’s job taking precedence over hers. If a spouse experiences illness, then caregiving roles become more complicated, especially if the husband becomes responsible for caring for his wife. This issue is discussed in your reading assignment from O Magazine (Links to an external site.), “In Sickness and in Health”.
Caregiving needs are rising for aging parents as life expectancy for the elderly increases. Women have traditionally carried most of the responsibility for aging parents personal and health care needs. Women in the ‘sandwich generation’ care for their aging parents while simultaneously caring for their children, and possibly grandchildren (this is known as a ‘club sandwich’).
Here are some interesting statistics from the Health and Human Service that illustrate this lopsided responsibility between genders:
Both men and women provide informal care. However, up to age 70, women are more likely to be caregivers and to provide more hours of care, to provide more care over longer periods, and to care for more than one person.
Across all age groups, 27 percent of women as compared with 21 percent of men provide informal care over the course of a year.
On average, women provide about 50 percent more hours of informal care per week to their care recipients than their male counterparts.
Women are twice as likely as men to provide informal care to ill or disabled children. This is partly the result of traditional gender expectations for child care but also because of the increase in households headed by single mothers.
Mothers also provide about three times more informal care to children with disabilities who do not live in the same household. However, fathers provide informal care over slightly longer periods–averaging about 19 weeks over the course of a year compared with 15 weeks for mothers.
The number of hours of informal care provided by men across the life course is relatively low–ranging from about five hours per week among men aged 60 to 64 to 11 hours per week among men in their late forties. The exception to this pattern is men in their late sixties who provide about 15 hours of help per week to their disabled wives.
Nearly two-fifths of the women who reported providing informal care in 1987 also reported providing informal care in 1992–whereas only one-third of the men who were informal caregivers in 1987 also reported providing care in 1992.
Women tend to be more involved medical consumers, as you will read in the Time article. They play a greater role in making health-related decisions in the family (including, as we saw in Module Three, persuading their husbands to get medical attention).
** INFORMAL CAREGIVING: Compassion in Action. (1998, January 1). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved , from http://aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/reports/carebro2.pdf
Male and female gender roles have rapidly evolved in the workplace in many ways. Women are demanding more respect as professionals and organizational leaders. New roles for women in the workplace have not come without a price, however. Women are becoming more susceptible to the health risks that men face in the workplace, including the effects of stress and the potential for work-related injury.
Consequently, working women are also demanding that their male partners take on additional responsibilities within the family, including caring for children. This has had a major impact on family caregiving. Working women are not as available to meet the needs of aging parents, disabled children or chronically ill children. This evolution has led to new government policies, such as the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), as well as new directions in eldercare.
Family and Medical Leave Act
Overview
The FMLA entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave. Eligible employees are entitled to:
Twelve workweeks of leave in a 12-month period for:
the birth of a child and to care for the newborn child within one year of birth;
the placement with the employee of a child for adoption or foster care and to care for the newly placed child within one year of placement;
to care for the employee’s spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition;
a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job;
any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a covered military member on “covered active duty;” or
Twenty-six workweeks of leave during a single 12-month period to care for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness if the eligible employee is the servicemember’s spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin (military caregiver leave).
From: United States Department of Labor. Family and Medical Leave Act. (Links to an external site.) Wage and Hour Division (WHD).
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