211 - Thematic Session. 25th Anniversary of The Second Shift (co-sponsored with the Section on the Sociology of the Family)

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

In 1989, Arlie Russell Hochschild published her groundbreaking book, The Second Shift which chronicled how two-job couples with young children make it work. Her study, documenting how the flood of women in the workforce generated social and economic shock waves, analyzed how couples dealt with the ripple effect of these forces within their own marriages. Her research brought to light not only the uneven gendered division of labor in the home, but that this disparity was a prime battleground in the intimate lives of these couples. Through an analysis of gender ideologies, gender strategies, and strategies of emotional management, Hochschild revealed how couples came to strike emotional bargains both with themselves and with their partners to reconcile a deep conflict in their marriage – that between faster changing women and slower changing men. Twenty five years after the publication of the Second Shift, this panel addresses central themes that emerged from the book – how the market shapes intimate life, how cultural transformations influence the kinds of work (practical and emotional) that individuals and families do, and how changing social dynamics impact the type of marital and familial negotiations that now take place within families. The papers presented at this panel will explore these intersections among family, culture, social structure, and feeling.

Sub Unit

• Thematic Sessions

Session Organizer

• Marianne Cooper, Stanford University

Presider

• Marianne Cooper, Stanford University

Panelists

• Arlie Russell Hochschild, University of California-Berkeley

• Margaret K. Nelson, Middlebury College

• Nazli Kibria, Boston University

Discussant

• Allison Pugh, University of Virginia