The Second Shift [Paperback]

Arlie Hockschild (Author), Arlie Hochschild (Author), Anne Machung (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1997

In this landmark study, sociologist Arlie Hochschild takes us into the homes of two-career parents to observe what really goes on at the end of the "work day." Overwhelmingly, she discovers, it's the working mother who takes on the second shift. Hochschild finds that men share housework equally with their wives in only twenty percent of dual-career families. While many women accept this inequity in order to keep peace, they tend to suffer from chronic exhaustion, low sex drive, and more frequent illness as a result. The ultimate cost is the forfeited health and happiness of both partners, and often the survival of the marriage itself.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A brilliant, urgently needed analysis of the new problems...of the working woman who 'has it all.'" -- Betty Friedman

"A fascinating read that makes us think twice about how much the Women's Movement still has to accomplish." -- Parenting

"Brings the dilemma of the working mother to life as never before. -- Newsweek

"No book analyzes the human impact of the work-family track for both sexes more perceptively or thoroughly than this...study..." -- Newsday

"The Second Shift is like a scream in the dark. It aches with truths. It cries out for change." -- Seattle Post Intelligencer

"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.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 325 pages
• Publisher: Avon Books; Edition Unstated edition (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380711575
• ISBN-13: 978-0380711574
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #845,503 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Arlie Russell Hochschild's most recent book The Outsourced Self: Intimate Life in Market Times, explores the many ways in which the market enters our modern lives. It looks at how we both turn to the market as a source of much needed help and also how we try to protect ourselves from the implicit emotional detachment it can involve. The book has been reviewed in The New York Times Book Review and was excerpted - "The Outsourced Self" - in the Sunday New York Times "Review" Section.

Her other books include: The Managed Heart, The Second Shift, The Time Bind, The Commercialization of Intimate Life, The Unexpected Community and the co-edited Global Woman: nannies, maids and sex workers in the new economy. In reviewing the Second Shift (reissues in 2012 with a new Afterword) Robert Kuttner noted her "subtlety of insights" and "graceful seemless narrative" and called it the "best discussion I have read of what must be the quintessential domestic bind of our time." Newsweek's Laura Shapiro described the Time Bind as "groundbreaking." In awarding Hochschild the Jesse Bernard Award, the American Sociological Association citation observed her "creative genius for framing questions and lines of insight, often condensed into memorable, paradigm-shifting words and phrases." A retired U.C. Berkeley professor of sociology, she lives with her husband, the writer Adam Hochschild in Berkeley, California.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone should read this February 23, 2003

By Phil_D

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As a college-age male, one might think that I would have little reason to read a study about the struggles of working women. That is wrong.
This insightful, modest study of family life (witnessed by the capable Arlie Hochschild as a fly-on-the-wall) gives perspective on a dillemma everyone should think about before marriage: how to reconcile economic and personal needs with having children. This problem affects women and men, mothers and fathers.
Unfortunately, it is rarely talked about. People are forced to muddle through using their parents as examples, or to try to construct new strategies from scratch. Hochschild provides a useful structure for discussing the problem and avoiding the emotional and marital cost of relying on "myths." Any serious couple should be able to talk about these subjects to avoid misunderstanding and conflict.
One problem with this book is the writing - the points do not always flow together, and sometimes the sentences are simply awkward. This study is also weighted toward middle class families, though it explores others as well. Despite being over a decade old, this book is still relevant.
Well worth reading, whether you are deciding on a career, getting married, or already trying to balance both.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for modern families September 20, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Hochschild's book is a superb description of what so many of of us live but barely understand. She examines the demands of work in the home and outside, the gender identities that shape our feeling toward work, the goals that shape our chices and the intentions that define our commununication about responsiblity. The author validates the struggle of working women, without bashing men and talks about how to resolve the "stalled revolution" of shared responsibility both at home and in the workplace. Most importantly, Hochschild illuminates how our methods of dealing with the second shift, not the second shift itself per se, negatively impact our children.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb!! June 5, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This book, which voices something that has been long silent, explains how women have been overburdened as a result of living in a world which no longer accepts part-time work. Even though women have resulted in incredible gains in the latter half of the 20th century, and have gained enfranchisement into many careers that were formerly only the domain of men, there still lurks the job of being a mother, which is NOT a part-time job. This book is highly recommended, not for only the truth and candor that it tells, but for the questions that it poses.

Dexter Fabi

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Anyone with husband,kids ,and a carreer--this is for you!! December 10, 1998

By [e-mail]

Format:Paperback

If you have kids, carreer, and a husband, you must read this enlightning social probe into the lives of families just like yours. You will feel 'comfort' knowing that you are not alone if you are feeling crazy, anxious, or overwhelmed. Before you quit your job, or think of having another child.....Read this!!!

23 of 38 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars If you want something well written, this isn't it. June 12, 2001

By "luckyjen"

Format:Paperback

Probably a first of its kind study about families with two-working parents. However, the writing is poor, redundant and cliched. The cases she presents don't suggest much variability except income and ethnicity. Additionally, she skimps on a serious evaluation of what would make a successful household with two working parents and instead leaves us with the overwhelming feeling that success is almost impossible.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Review of "The Second Shift" December 10, 2002

By heather

Format:Paperback

Excellent examination of the Dual-Earner family and the changes this is causing to America's traditional familial structure. Hochschild brings attention to many of the tensions within the working family and discusses causes and solutions. Her idea of a stalled cultural revolution is riveting.

16 of 31 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars The book that defined the problem of women's double day January 24, 2001

By Kathy Fitzgerald Sherman, author

Format:Paperback

This groundbreaking book was the first that dared to speak the hidden truth--that despite women's advances in the workplace, we still perform the bulk of the unpaid, unfulfilling chores at home. Unfortunately, far too many of the solutions Hochschild proposes involve government programs--not too practical, in my view. My marriage was in a state of emergency, so I hired a twenty-hour-per-week housekeeper. My experiences, including a dramatic improvement in my whole family's quality of life, led me to write "A Housekeeper Is Cheaper Than a Divorce: Why You CAN Afford to Hire Help and How to Get It." If the disparity of who does what at home is causing strife in your marriage, you can start with Hochschild's book to understand the problem, but be warned that you'll have to look someplace else for a solution.

13 of 63 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars The Inherent Evils of Combining Work and Home February 17, 2000

By la

Format:Paperback

This book infuriated me to no end. Such helpless and hopeless case studies of men married to women(many of whom worked full-time) with children, who still refused to share equally at home. In my humble opinion, married couples who decide to have children should insure that one of them will be at home full-time until the child is at least in adolescence. Hochschild simply states that there should be a happy medium of sharing with men and women, and that the government should introduce more profamily policies. Personally, I take offense with the ever-popular suggestion that the government should pay for people's children. Enough money is wasted as it is. Having children is a choice; choose to have children, then pay for it. Anyway, men whose wives stay at home I take no issue with, but men whose wives also work full-time should either do half the work at home, pay for a housekeeper, or quit their jobs. Especially those men who earn less than their wives and still insist on remaining ne'er do-wells at home. Believe me, the chapter on the loser who works at a bookstore while his wife earns three times as much as he does at an executive job will make you tear your hair out.