Caretakers Of Children And The Family

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Caretakers of Children and the Family From the conflict perspective, having and caring for children is a responsibility that fall solely on the woman in the family. Due to the women’s lack of economic resources, men are the ones who are sent to the workforce and women are left taking care of the children. In society, there are different “classes” or categories that can be looked at from a gendered perspective. Many jobs in the 50’s were geared towards men, so that women didn’t have the opportunity to go out and make their own money—so in return they were left at home to take care of the kids. Also, since women are more in tune with their feelings, they can probably provide more emotional support to the children. From the exchange perspective, women are often left to take care of the children in return for the income from their husbands. This is seen as an equal exchange since both partners are gaining from this. From a different exchange perspective, if the women do not feel as though their services (taking care of the children) are an equal exchange for the man’s services (income) then women are left feeling a little inadequate and in return the men are gaining more power. From the symbolic interaction perspective, women are the caretakers of the children because it is the “womanly” thing to do. They are acting possibly this way because they see it as the social norm, or possibly that they were raised by their mother while their father worked. Husbands may find it hard to complete certain childcare tasks when given the opportunity. For instance, when feeding their child, they may make a big fuss about doing this because they feel as though they do not have the skills to perform this task and do not want to feel inferior to the woman. On the other hand, fathers are often the “playmates” which may be a result of feelings of success in play and that they have

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