The Second Shift [Paperback]

Arlie Hochschild (Author), Anne Machung (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 29, 2003

Fifteen years after its first publication, The Second Shift remains just as important and relevant today as it did then. As the majority of women entered the workforce, sociologist and Berkeley professor Arlie Hochschild was one of the first to talk about what really happens in dual-career households. Many people were amazed to find that women still did the majority of childcare and housework even though they also worked outside the home. Now, in this updated edition with a new introduction from the author, we discover how much things have, or have not, changed for women today.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The best discussion I have read on what must be the quintessential domestic bind of our time. -- The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Arlie Russell Hochschild is the author of The Time Bind and most recently Global Woman, which she edited with Barbara Ehrenreich. She is a tenured professor at University of California, Berkeley.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; Reissue edition (April 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142002925
• ISBN-13: 978-0142002926
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #188,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Married women who work outside the home will identify March 2, 2011

By hestia74

Format:Paperback

Originally published in 1989, this book is more relevant today than it was 20 years ago. The author, sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild from the University of California, compiled data about the working and household chore habits of modern two-career couples. In 17 chapters the author gives historical and individual context to what she calls "the stalled revolution" of women leaving the role of full-time housewives to become salaried workers outside the home, and compares it to the process of men leaving the family farm to look for salaried work in the factories during the height of the industrial age 200 years ago.

Opposite men who still had a wife back home to cushion the sudden change into industrialization, most women who have traded the apron for the briefcase (for professional women) or the uniform (for women working in the service industries) have not had the advantage of having someone back home to cushion their aggressive entrance into the marketplace. Somehow they have had to make ends meet, sacrificing their marriage, their children or their job. Usually the marriage goes and the sudden rise in the divorce rate since women entered the marketplace in droves seems to be evidence of it.

The author discusses the inner workings of family life of eight particular working married couples with children, and how they cope with what has come to be known as the second shift, in which women are now expected to contribute to the financial life of the family by working outside the home. At the same time they are still expected to keep doing most or all of the household chores and taking primary responsibility of the day-to-day care of the children, which results in an extra month of work per year for women compared to men. On the other hand, men have not paralleled women's entry in the marketplace with an entry into the world of domestic responsibilities, which has led to a different kind of tension and conflict in modern marriage. Most married women with children who work outside the home will be able to find at least one woman here with whom to identify.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent takeaway messages, not an academic book though February 2, 2012

By mwr

Format:Paperback

I read the book when it first appeared. Its one drawback is that the information doesn't hold up academically, as by one reviewer. That said, I think this should be required reading by anyone who enters marriage and wants to have a family.

When I was reading the book, it had been front page news and my husband cowered in the shadows and took on more housework than normal. I quickly told him, that he is not like those make shirkers. And never was.

My husband and I had that conversation when we were engaged. He wanted a career wife and when I raised the issue about running a home and raising children his common sense was spot on. In my years, I have heard only two people who said that marriage is a team venture, and you are reading one of them. This is where is begins. Anyone who has a profession that is that demanding really should not have children. One can balance work and home but it begins with teamwork and compromises not to mention a sense of humor. I think reading this book is very useful as a trigger for young couples to really think about choices and the makeup of their partnership.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book to read about family from 1950s to now. September 17, 2011

By JC

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I love this book.

In THE SECOND SHIFT: WORKING PARENTS AND THE REVOLUTION AT HOME, Arlie Hochschild holds up to the light this and many other strategies by which women and men in two-career marriages juggle work pressures and family needs. Between 1980 and 1988, Hochschild and her research associates interviewed fifty couples at great length. Hochschild also observed family life in a dozen homes. At the heart of her book are the stories of eleven couples. All but two are members of the middle and upper-middle class; each couple has made decisions and developed justifying myths a bit differently. Each has its own "economy of gratitude."

Hochschild is very much interested in the interrelationships between power--perceived and actual--and bonds of human caring. Her phrase "economy of gratitude" makes reference to what is given and received as gifts between spouses and how those gifts are valued. For example, if a woman earns more money than her husband, his male pride may suffer. His willingness to bear the affront may be viewed by both as a sacrificial gift, and out of guilt and gratitude she may assume most of the household responsibilities. Hochschild found many such contorted notions of what merits gratitude among the couples she studied.

As a college-age adult, I thought I would have little reason to read a study about the struggles of working women. That is wrong. I learned so much from reading this book. Learn more about family in this book.