Blog 24

The most recognized and combated gender stereotype that affects women lawyers is the thought that women are not "tough" enough to be successful lawyers. One aspect of toughness that women face in this field has to do with the stereotype that men are more tough on their dedication to the job than women are. This stereotype stems from the very real discrepancies between men and women in regards to the amount of private life responsibilities that each have thus the different limits on time they have to dedicate to work. While in recent times the difference in private life responsibilities have started to equalize, the fact that women have had the majority of private life responsibilities and many still do is why this sign of toughness is still a very real obstacle for women lawyers to overcome. It is hard for women to combat this stereotype because it forces them to essentially chose private life over work life in order to keep up the appearance of tough dedication in relation to their male counterparts who are more than willing and even expected to take advantage of their lack of private responsibilities. one way that women are starting to combat this idea of tough dedication is through the push for companies to provide more help in the areas of private life for women such as child care and also by bringing more awareness to the amount of juggling that women have to do in order to prove themselves in this area. Another aspect of toughness is the way that men are expected to be more harsh and to the point which are valued characteristics for a lawyer while women are seen as more nice and not as able to get their point across. Men hold the gendered expectation to be more strict and commanding in their style of work which is why they are more valued in the harsh and political atmosphere of law while women hold the gendered expectation to be less commanding in their style of work due to their motherly ways, characteristics that are not valued in the law world. These gendered expectations help to hold women on the outskirts of full acceptance into the law field because others are reluctant to allow them to prove that they can overcome such gendered characteristics.

Blog 23

The way one dresses has a lot to do with the first impressions they make on others which is based on what stereotypes people hold. The reason that women lawyers and politicians are so scrutinized for their dress is because these fields have such an ingrained sense of powerful styling that are associated with them that is very male dominated such as "the power suit". In order for females to make their mark in these fields they had to dress in such a way to represent themselves as being as powerful as their male counterparts as the perception of ones power is very important in the law and political world. When females started out in these fields in growing numbers they had to dress in masculine styles of clothing in order to help their chances of being seen as powerful before they would have the chance to prove their power and competence. As females gained numbers in these fields they were able to recognize how their style of dress was affecting their sense of self in a negative manner because they were being forced to conform to the masculine ways that dominated thier profession so they started to dress in more feminine ways. This change in style of dressing was important for the women because it helped to assert their gender into these fields while at the same time down playing the association with power and masculine styles of dress.

Blog 21

One of the main focuses of the NAFCO is to bring greater awareness to the issues of sexual assault and harassment for women correctional officers which I think also falls in line with some of Britton’s recommendations. Bringing greater awareness to this issue would help to decrease the male dominance of the field because it would allow for the discussion of women’s issues to be presented into the field as well. The discussion of women’s topics would help to break down the reality that prisons are no longer so male dominated thus the prison system should not be as gendered as it is in order for it o function properly. One of the recommendations that Britton gives is bringing awareness to women’s stories in prison in order to combat the male-dominated stereotype that prisons are given which I think would be accomplished by the NAFCO’s push to bring greater legislative protections for the unique problems that women face in prisons. This new awareness would hopefully bring about change in the working conditions of prisons so that they can better accommodate women’s safety and thus their ability to thrive in their environment instead of being a victim of it. NAFCO also works to educate the public on the issues that face women correctional officers in order to develop a more balanced and realistic stereotype of prisons. This work by NAFCO is also supported by Britton who sees the realization by the public of the “real” prison dynamics as being a great help to dismembering the gendered culture of prisons (an important aspect of her theory of gendered organization). I think it is also important to note that by improving the working conditions of women in prisons, it would also help to improve the conditions of men as the women would be better equipped to perform well at their job which affects the other officers due to the intimate nature of their work.

Blog 20

The first striking feature of the news coverage of the hostage situation is the fact that they make a huge deal out of Schriro’s position as prison chief. Both articles make it a point to elaborate on Schriro’s credentials that qualify her for the job despite her gender which further goes to show how male-dominated the prison system is. Also I think it is important to note how the articles emphasized the fact that Schriro really did turn the prisons into more productive and rehabilitative institutions in order to reduce the recidivism rate which was a struggle for her to accomplish since she already had the bias of gender against her and her authority. I also think that the news coverage of the hostage situation shows how praised Schriro’s “female” traits of patience and effective planning are in regards to her ability to overcome the hostage situation in a successful manner. I think it is implied in the way that the news covers the story that if a man had been handling the situation then they would have been more prone to resort to violence and just storm the tower which could have lead to the killing of the hostages and possibly others. Schriro does not storm the tower but instead she uses time, negotiations, and other alternative options presented to her in order to overcome the situation in the best possible way that it could be overcome. While prisons are very male dominated I think that it is important to note how quickly the news praises Schriro for her female traits and how positively they have impacted the prison system. The positive news coverage of the way that Schriro handled the hostage situation is a step towards the realization that having prisons be so gendered and male dominated is not what is best for that system or the outside communities.

I think that the hostage situation goes to show the poor training that correctional officers receive, especially on the state level, which focuses more on being fearful and aware of possible violence in prisons yet not how to handle these situations. In Britton’s interviews it becomes quite evident that the trainings do not focus on how the officers are supposed to cope with the situations that they come across whether it be hostage situations, interactions with the opposite sex or the metal games that inmates may try to play. Many of the interviewees comment on how they felt under prepared when they finally entered the prisons and had to learn the necessary aspects of their job along the way since the trainings did not cover the real issues they come across. The training should focus more on how to handle the real situations that the offices come in contact with so that they can transition from being just “keepers” of the inmates into real correctional officers who help to “correct” the inmates in order to better them for release. It seems to me that the trainings main focus is just to instill fear into the officers in the hopes that they will effectively handle any violent situations that may arise instead of actually training the officers in a uniform way to handle different violent situations.

I do also think that despite all of the positive coverage that came out of the hostage situation like praise of the female prison chief it also lends fuel to the argument that women should not be allowed to guard male inmates due to their inability to combat them and the increased danger that they face in regards to sexual assault. While it is true that women do have an increased chance of being sexually assault by the inmates rather than their male counter parts, I think that this once again goes to the lack of training in this area due to how male dominated the training is. Issues of sexual assault or any issues relating to gender obstacles are not addressed in the trainings due to the fear of what would happen if gender was explicitly talked about rather than the way it is implicitly implied.

Blog 19

The media plays a part in continuing the sexual discrimination of women in male –dominated jobs by highlighting the very few situations that make people weary of having women in those jobs. Turing on the news will show stories of sexual harassment towards women in such jobs which begins to spark debate over whether women should be allowed to work in those fields or if it is essentially too dangerous for them due to their inability to handle and avoid such situations. For example, when reading the news coverage of the Lewis Prison hostage situation, the vast majority of the coverage is on the women officer and her ordeal during the situation while the male officer is rarely mentioned. While he was released after 7 days and the women officer had to stay an extra 8 days with the inmates, his side of the story and what he had to go through during that time is not told. Instead the media coverage focuses on the inability of the women to overtake the inmates and restore control at the beginning of the siege, her repeated sexual abuse by the inmates, and the way that she used mental combat in order to survive the ordeal instead of physical combat. During this time I am sure there were many discussions surrounding the true need for women officers in prisons and if it was greater than their perceived danger. This also goes to play upon Britton’s discussion of how the use of force is so attributed to male officers by both of the genders and is seen as something that is necessary. In male prisons, many times when there is the need to use violence the male officers are called in to do so and if a female officer is there at the time they are quickly relieved so that a male ,who is seen as stronger and more capable, may take her place. This undermines the authority of the women in the eyes of the inmates and the other officers and it makes seem like she is not qualified for the job. In women’s prisons, males are used as the enforcers due to their added strength but also because it allows for them to assert their place in the prison and gain the respect of the inmates. Either situation down plays the capabilities of women officers and only helps to solidify the occupation as being male-dominated.

Blog 18

In the prison systems, it is a fact that males are the norm in regards to both inmates and correctional officers which automatically makes it hard for training to be gender neutral. Due to the fact that historically prisons have been male dominated it is essentially an unsaid rule that when discussing prisons it is in reference to males, even if it is in training. The women and men that Britton interview are both able to realize this fact and do buy into the thought that prisons are masculine in nature. During the trainings, the constant fear of violence is drilled into the correctional officers in order to keep them aware of their surroundings and ready to combat any kind of situation that the inmates can spring upon them. Many of the interviewees commented on how the trainings focused mostly on the physical aspects and requirements of the job rather than the mental part of the job which is used more on a day to day basis. When discussing and teaching the physical aspects that are needed in a correctional officer, it is implied that this means they must be masculine since strength is socially attributed to male dominance. In this way the trainings emphasis the male gender and the perceived positive traits that come with it such as strength. This is not only a problem because it silently brings gender into the trainings but it also does not allow for the vocalization of female gender aspects and differences since that goes against the norm. The interviewees state the disadvantage of this as being their lack of awareness regarding what to expect when dealing with women inmates. They had been taught in training to focus on their own physicality and subconsciously taught that they would be dealing with men so when they are put into the different environment of a women’s prison they feel very unprepared. Women are inherently different from men and it can also be argued that they need more mental guarding than physical guarding which is something that is not emphasized in training.

Blog 17

Building relationships with the inmates is detrimental to the correctional officers because it undermines their authority which is something they need in order to effective keep order. It is especially important to the officers in the North Carolina Women’s prison due to the more lax organization of the prison which also makes it harder for the officers to keep their authority over the prisoners. The officers realize that they cannot build relationships with the inmates because that is not part of their job; their job is to keep order and protect the inmates from each other. In regards to the other officers, building relationships with inmates compromises the security of the rest of their fellow officers as the relationship may lead to the bringing in of contraband into the prison which could then be a breach in security. In regards to the inmates, the officers cannot build relationships with the inmates because then the inmates learn to take advantage of the officers and thus lose their respect for their authority. The officers also do not encourage relationships between the inmates because of the intense feelings that it can bring about which causes the inmates to shift focus from bettering themselves to the well-being of someone else. This shift in focus can cause the inmates to act in ways that are violent and against the rules as they try to protect their girlfriend and their relationship. It also causes the inmates to essentially have an escape from the prison life since they can go about having all of the feelings and thoughts that go along with a relationship on the outside which is something the officers do not want since it is an important aspect of prison to be reminded on a daily basis that the inmates are in prison to be punished for crimes.

Compared to the prison environment that Britton describes in the beginning of her book, which is the stereotyped view of prisons, it is very different from the prison environment that is presented in the documentary. First of all the prison is filled completely with seemingly calm women inmates instead of the stereotypical violent male inmates. The women wear skirts and dresses in pale colors instead of the stereotypical orange jumpsuits that are so popular in media portrayals. The next difference is that there is a majority of female correctional officers working all areas of the prison instead of the stereotypical male officers with a few female officers doing less dangerous work such as clerical. It seems that in the North Carolina Women’s Prison it is the opposite of the stereotype where women officers are the majority and male officers are in the minority. I think it is also very appropriate that the documentary did show some of the added hardships that are on the male officers to conduct themselves in such a manner to avoid a loss of authority with the women inmates and officers by being very careful of the way they handle themselves. The male officers realize that they are in the minority and that they can easily be taken advantage of or accused of different violations by the inmates due to their opposite gender so they make sure to keep their conduct very professional and masculine. While many of the women correctional officers felt that it was important for them to keep a professional and strict guard over the inmates, there were also women officers who were more friendly and relaxed around the inmates which I think is a luxury that the male officers do not have. It was also interesting to see that the women had many different training programs offered to them in order for them to learn a trade that could be useful to them upon their release in order to help them better their life once out of prison. In the stereotype of prisons, one does not think of helping the prisoners but rather of punishing prisoners through the stripping of all things enjoyable. In Britton’s book this also follows in line with the long standing thought that women in prison should be rehabilitated through such means as job training and education while male prisoners are less often afforded such programs and instead have their incarceration focus around punishment and control with no thought of how they will survive a crime free life once released.

Blog 16

I think that the biggest difference I noticed between the paths the men and women took to get into the field of corrections was the motivations behind their decisions. Men it seemed were motivated by their need for a military type of work environment whether they had been in the military in the past or just felt the need to be a part of a strict, militaristic environment. It seemed that the men liked the structure and power that a job in corrections gave them allowing for them to showcase their masculinity while getting praised for it. They were recruited for the job through these praises of their military-type traits and how well they would be able to effectively guard the inmates from themselves and each other. They were also drawn to the job because of the other benefits it afforded them such as economic stability which to many was important due to their lack of higher education and specialized job skills.

Women on the other hand were drawn to the job of correctional officer due to economic causes that allowed for them to afford themselves and their children a better life. Many of these women had been stuck at clerical jobs with very little chance of advancement and small salaries that were barely able to allow them to provide for their families. They were recruited through word-of-mouth from other women who had started working in the prisons as they were able to get them testimonies and real life stories regarding the type of work that working in the prisons would involve. Once the women were able to hear and see the difference that a correctional job made in other women’s lives they were able to make the decision to move into the prison system. It is interesting to see that men relied on their personality traits such as masculinity and the benefits afforded to those in corrections to convince them to join the field while women relied on the testimonies of other women to reassure them that going into that field is possible and valuable to their future.

Blog 15

Men’s prisons started out as institutions meant to punish criminals with intermediate times of rehabilitative pushes in-between. While women had been in prisons before the time that official women prisons were established, they were few in number and seen as abnormalities that were of great inconvenience to the prison system as a whole thus many of them were immediately pardoned of their crime so that they could be set free (as was the case in Arizona’s beginning jails as well). When women’s prisons were established they had a greater push to rehabilitate women so that they could function properly once released through different job training programs and educational programs. Women as inmates goes against our socialized views of women as being gentle, caring and frail thus that is why they were so ignored during the beginning years of prisons.
Women are growing in their presence in the prison system which is of great concern due to the added private responsibilities that many women are charged with handling such as child care. With the rise in women in prisons there is also a trickle effect of different rises in such areas as social services for children and their care since their mothers are stuck in prisons and unable to take care of them. This rise in women and decrease in motherly care for their children is why many prisons and research are trying to once again focus their resources on rehabilitative efforts so that the women are better equipped to take care of their children and stay out of jail upon their release. This difference in the private sector of women is an advantage when they are inmates because it allows for them to receive more resources such as education that will allow them to better achieve a crime free life once released compared to men who due to their lack of responsibilities in their private sector and their huge numbers are often not afforded such helpful resources.

Blog 14

Britton’s use of the theory of gendered organization in her research helps to shape the types of questions and thus her interactions with her interview subjects. In the ensuing chapters you can see how Britton encourages her interview subjects to answer questions focused on the topic of gendered organization in their field of work and thus reflect on the idea as well as how it impacts them.

Britton explains the theory of gendered organization using a three-fold approach that encompasses structure, agency, and culture all having a part in continuing the process of organization gendering. First there is the structure of organization that separates males and females in regards to their perceived private and public sectors. This division is based on women’s ability to reproduce and thus their responsibility to care for the children they produce which takes away from their ability to devote their whole being to a job which is what men are seen as being capable of increasing their production value for a company. The structure of companies place emphasis on the ability to be a constant producer with no interference from one’s private life which is seen as a male trait and not a women trait thus women are not favored which creates segregated occupations. The next aspect of gendered organization is the agency through which male and female inequalities are perpetuated. Due to men and women being inherently different, they form alliances based on being the same sex in order to advance their genders causes and interests since they are the same and it is very valuable to them. This creates greater inequality in the workplace as each gender interacts in a way to promote their genders causes and interests in order to be accepted by those of the same gender and even those of the opposite gender. The last aspect that comes together to promote organization gendering is the culture in which we grow up in that gives the meanings and thus justification to the differences between men and women. Through media, socialization, and language we are taught about the differences between the genders and what they are supposed to mean such as the fact that men are usually more muscular than women thus they are stronger physically and mentally. These different meanings given to the biological differences between men and women allow for us to justify our actions that promote inequality between the genders thus it allows us to continue organization gendering. These three aspects work together to promote the theory of gendered organization in the workplace subsequently continuing to promote gender inequality.

Blog 13

Not until Britton’s opening descriptions of the ways that prisons have been portrayed in the media had I really realized the discrepancies or stereotypes that are being ingrained into our society. It is so true that despite my best efforts, the first images of prison that pop into my mind when the word prison is mentioned are of commanding military type men trying to keep guard over the constant violence that is started among the hugely deviant male inmates. While I have never been in a prison, I have done a lot of research into them thus I know that violence is rare and that the internal environment is not shrouded in darkness yet it still does not affect the immediate images and thoughts that flood into my mind when the word “prison” is mentioned. The stereotypes of prisons, the inmates and the everyday activities in that environment has so been altered in its portrayal in the media and everyday life that we have been socialized to think of prisons in such ways and to combat the true views of prisons even when they are factual presented to us. It is hard for many to believe the truth about the prison environment due to not only the media but also the perception that prisons are supposed to be a place of punishment for criminals so we inherently think of them as places of violence and male-dominance. When women are portrayed in prisons as inmates or correctional officers they are seen as possessing masculine traits since prisons are seen as being male-dominated thus in order for women to “fit” into prisons they need to be able to fit into the male stereotype that prisons are given. When jobs in such areas as prisons or other male-dominated fields try to recruit women they also enforce the male stereotype by hiring women that they see as possessing masculine traits in order to continue the gender segregation in the workplace. Women must therefore compromise their femininity in order to be hired into these jobs yet that is still not enough to have them fully accepted in such jobs for they are still seen as an outcast because they are not a man.

Blog 12

I think that occupational segregation would happen no matter what laws we do or could have against discrimination. Discrimination, especially gender fueled discrimination, is a part of our lives everyday due to the way that we are socialized as children and on into life. While everyone does not hold that belief that men should be strong and women should be fragile, every single person can give examples from their life when they have heard that saying or been taught to believe that saying. When we are young, boys play with trucks and are told to grow up to be strong men while girls play with dolls and are told to grow up to be caring women which helps us to shape the gendered perceptions that will eventually permeate into every aspect of our lives, including our work life. I think it is also hard to escape gender discrimination because there are inherent differences between men and women in regards to biology so many people use these differences to justify their discrimination which is why it is so hard to battle and bring to light compared to other types of discrimination. While men and women are different biologically that does not mean that their differences hinder either one in any way not to effectively do a particular job, they just might bring different skills to the job in order to successfully complete it.
I think that it would only be of benefit to men to have women in male dominated occupations because it would bring a different perspective into such jobs which might help to make it become more successful and efficient. The different skills and personality traits that women can bring into such jobs would help to fuel new ideas and growth in these jobs and the same goes with men entering women dominated jobs as well. By incorporating the opposite sex into a strongly gender dominated occupation, it helps to battle such gender stereotypes that we are taught as children and only by consciously battling such stereotypes will we be able to overcome them and see the harm that they have caused.

Blog #11

The movie that stands out in my mind concerning poor working women is Erin Brockovich. This movie details the life of a poor working mother trying to provide for her three children while at the same time do her best at a job she truly loved. The movie starts out showing how difficult her living situation was due to the fact that she was poor, uneducated and had had children had a young age. She struggles to make ends meat and keep a roof over her family’s head which is a constant worry to her. In one scene she finds a huge cockroach in her broken kitchen causing her to reflect on the bad conditions she is putting her children in yet she has no other choice and is doing all she can to get them into a better situation. She starts to work as a secretary at a law firm and stumbles upon a case that interests her so she starts researching it and working longer hours. This causes her to have a miscommunication with her boss and results in a powerful scene when he fires her and you can see her whole world cave in around her because she needs the job so desperately and invested so much time away from her children for it. Her long hours working cause her to rely on a neighbor to watch her children when her primary care arrangement falls through and later she even brings them to work with her at times when she has no other care options. Once Erin receives her job back, she puts many long hours into it due to the nature of the case but also the feelings of accomplishment and worth that her job gives her which she has not received from a job in the past. This results in even more time away from her children which turns into a hard thing for Erin to deal with once she realizes how negatively it is affecting her children yet she continues to work in hopes that her job will soon allow her greater time and economic freedom to spend more time with her children. While in the end Erin wins the big case and starts off towards a path of great accomplishment both personally and economically which pulls her out of the poor working mothers world, her beginnings do show the struggles she must face in the workforce and also the sacrifices to her children she must make in order to get to that point.

Blog #10

I think the most important adaptive survival strategy that Chaudry’s poor working mothers showed was their ability to preserve through all of their setbacks and obstacles. The example that stood out the most to me was Sara and Christina’s story. Sara went from living in the US to moving to Ecuador, back to the US where she unsuccessfully lived with her mother, to living in a homeless shelter and then finally having public housing of her own. Throughout all of these transitions, her main priority was to keep Christina in the day care center she had fought so hard to get her into because it was able to provide her daughter with a stable environment and care which she could not at the time. She did not allow her economic situation to fully control her daughter’s care thus she made sure to keep the child care arrangement she wanted for her daughter despite all of the forces acting against her. She did not give up once she was rejected for public housing or for a different homeless shelter rather she continued to fight for the conditions she wanted and needed. Many of the other mothers discussed their ability to effectively use the bus system in order to get to their jobs and thus keep their jobs despite them lacking their own transportation or the unpredictability of bus schedule changes. Some mothers would take multiple buses and thus it would cause their commute to work to be hours long instead of the mere minutes if they had had their own car. When the mothers got something right in their life, such as a job or a child care arrangement, they would fight against all odds to keep this right in their life especially since welfare reform made it harder for them to get aid in times of need and forced them to work no matter what.

Welfare reform also caused the mothers to be more inventive in piecing together their child care arrangements and open to many different possible arrangements that they might not have initially chosen. Many mothers once again relied on kin care to help care for their children this time as more of a supplement and on an emergency basis. When the mothers work schedule went over the hours that their children could be in their primary care arrangement they would lean on kin to help them out so that they could keep their required job. The mothers did not want to burden their kin or did not feel like their kin was in the best condition to take care of their children yet they knew that they had to accept the help in order for them to hopefully advance their economic future. One mother, Kari allowed for her child to say overnight and sometimes even for a month at a time with her child care provider due to the quality of the care she provided and late hours that Kari worked which made it hard to even find a provider to accommodate such a schedule. When Kari found one she was willing to do anything to keep her child in that care even when her provider went on vacation.

The mothers needed to work but they also needed child care which caused them to chose one as being the central aspect to which all other decisions were made. Some mothers chose work because they had a good job they liked, the pay was good or they could receive lots of hours which caused them to work their child care arrangements around their work. This lead to many switches in arrangements and settling for non-preferred arrangements yet it allowed the mother to have peace of mind that she would be able to provide for her family. Other mothers chose child care as the central part of their life thus they had to find work that was able to fit into their preferred child care arrangements. This lead to mothers having multiple jobs and switching jobs frequently but it allowed for them to have peace of mind that their child was receiving the kind of care that they wanted them to receive.

Throughout the course material, it really depends on how you talk to and what research you believe as to whether welfare reform was successful. In some people’s eyes and research they point to, statistics show how welfare recipients has decreased since the reform was enacted yet there is also evidence that enrollment in other social resources such as food stamps has increased which leads one to believe that more poor people may be off welfare but they are still not able to fully provide for their family. In the eye’s of former welfare recipients, they are able to see how just having a job is not enough to get oneself out of poverty because of the low wages that such jobs offer. They realize that in order for welfare reform to be truly successful it needs to address the other issues to that play into the working poor’s plight such as child care and education. The only real way for the working poor to advance in the job market is to get an education which they cannot achieve without the help of the government by means of scholarship. Chaudry’s women that he interviews prove that working a job is not enough to get oneself out of poverty as there expenses are too great due to their economic status and the resources that are there to help them are too complicated to truly aid them. Welfare reform needs to come in the form of true reform of all the aspects that play into poverty and not just more work at low wage jobs.

Blog #9

First of all, I think it is a remarkable statistic that this data shows that the federal poverty level for a family of four needs to be twice the amount in order for them to adequately live. This research data means that not only is the federal poverty level set low thus excluding multitudes of families who should be considered poor but also it shows the need for more resources for these families that are at or below the federal poverty level since they are not able to adequately provide for their families. Specifically for poor working mothers this data means that they are at a great disadvantage in regards to meeting the needs for their families since the majority of them rely solely on their income and are only able to secure the lowest paid jobs. These disadvantages not only affect them but also their children as they face sacrifices in their life.

One such sacrifice is that they are not covered by health insurance at a higher rate than non-poor children. This lack of health insurance impedes on their health which is important at such a young age as ailments that are not treated can affect them for the rest of their lives causing more hardship. It is also important for them to have health care because the mother’s of these children largely are not able to provide adequate living conditions which causes them to have a higher rate of health issues.

It is also important to notice that immigrant parents are more likely to be poor and thus have children in poor households than non-immigrant parents as well is true for minority parents verses white parents. This data was backed by Chaudry’s sample of poor working mothers as all of them were minorities and talked about their lives in communities filled with minorities. This raises the question about how much race plays into a parents ability to provide for their child and why so many minorities are stuck in poverty in this country.

Blog #8

One problem that is of great concern to the poor working mothers in the middle of “urban poverty” is the fear of crime in their neighborhood that might affect them and their children. The mothers are scared to let their children play outside alone because they fear that they might somehow get involved in the massive amount of crime in their area either as a bystander or as an active participant. In the poverty stricken areas that make up the neighborhoods that these mothers are stuck in, crime is an everyday occurrence that results in many deaths and incarcerations which has a negative effect on the community as a whole because it keeps the people in fear every day. It also causes an increase in single mother households as the rate of male incarceration is higher due to the drug trade which is an added pressure on these mother’s for they have no male support. In mixed income neighborhoods crime is still a problem but it is not as prevalent as there is more of a police presence and action taken against crime due to the different levels of income and their effectiveness to receive the proper help and resources from the police. Poor working mothers in these neighborhoods are able to benefit from the stronger police presence and neighborhood action against crime which helps to lessen their worry and allow their children to benefit from the safer community. Along with the presence of higher incomes comes the added resources to stop crime such as neighborhood watches and community programs that allow for the children to have a safe, constructive environment to hang out in instead of the streets.

Another problem that the poor working mothers must face due to “urban poverty” is the relocation of the middle class and the presence of affluence in their neighborhood. This causes them to become even more distanced from the realization of better conditions for themselves and their families because they no longer have constant reminders of better life conditions. The presence of those that are able to provide a better quality of life gives the poor working mothers a standard to strive for because they are able to see that it is possible for them to get out of the cycle of poverty thus it gives them hope and the ability to continue on their path of self betterment. Being surrounded by those who are worse off than they are only helps the mother’s to feel more hopeless in their situation and they are unable to receive the encouragement and advice that they need to get out of poverty. This also helps to further isolate them from the outside world as their only interactions are those that are inside their community of poverty. This isolation does not allow them to fully take advantage of the resources that can help them because they are unaware of the world outside of their neighborhood. There is little drive to go into the neighborhoods of the “urban poverty” and help its people because of the stigma that all who live in there like and prefer the life they lead with little motivation to change it. Mothers in mixed income neighborhoods are able to see on a daily basis that there is life outside of poverty and that that life is achievable and preferable to the life they are leading. Seeing people of different income levels that are not only above but also below them gives the mothers a gauge of how well they are doing and whether they are succeeding in their drive to provide a better life. Living in a mixed income neighborhood also provides them the ability to interact with different people and resources that can aid them in their times of struggle since community programs to help the working poor are more available in such communities since they are seen as being wanted.

These and other problems that hinder the poor working mothers in “urban poverty” communities also help to increase their concern and worry over their children’s outcome that they feel they have little control over since the community life is so entrenched in their everyday dealings. They do not want their children to grow up the way they did such as dropping out of school or getting pregnant at a very early age but if that is the only life that their children see and experience it makes it hard for the mothers to lead them in a new direction. The mothers work harder and longer in order to provide more for their children which in turn gives them less time with their children to shape their development the way that they want to. Poor working mothers in mixed income communities are able to provide their children with a more diverse outlook on life and the different directions that they can chose. Their children are able to see affluence and destitution allowing for the mothers to give them guidance to follow the path of affluence instead of poverty. The neighborhood brings the mothers and their children a sense of hope as they are not constantly surrounded just by poverty but also by better ways of life that seem achievable and something real they can strive towards.

Blog #7

Jacqueline started out in the care of her father because he was already staying at home and Julia needed quick care since she was starting school in hopes of achieving a better job in the future. She was hesitant due to Jacqueline being only one month old but knew that the sooner she started school the sooner it was going to be able to aid her in her job options. That care ended when Jacqueline was 5 months old due to the dissolution of the relationship between her father and Julia which started Julia into a summer of desperation where she cared for her children while not working due to her waiting on school to start back up again. Once the semester started, Julia’s younger sister moved in with her and provided care for Jacqueline full time while Julia went to school and had a job internship. This care did not last long either as Julia’s sister got a job and started to increase her working hours while Julia could not do the same in fear that her public assistance would be cut off thus leaving her in a worse position financially then she was in at the moment. At this point Julia quit school so that she could care for her daughters while working few hours as she waited for a Work Experience Program which upon finally receiving she was able to take advantage of their child care benefits and get Jacqueline into a family day care. A few months later this care ended due to the programs inability to pay the provider in a timely fashion and also Julia’s inability to pay her until the program was able to figure out the problem. Once again Julia placed Jacqueline in kin care, this time with her cousin, due to the quick ability and her feelings that a family member would be more willing to deal with the late payments. This care fell through as well a few months later as the payments continued to be late or non-existent, so Julia was forced to quit one of her jobs in order to take care of Jacqueline until another family care provider could be found. Julia really like the new provider due to the positive environment she provided in her home and the learning opportunities she gave to Jacqueline. As jobs and need changed, Julia did everything in her power to keep Jacqueline with this provider because she felt that the stable and positive environment she gave to Jacqueline outweighed any extra money or stressors that it caused and because the provider was able to better accommodate Julia’s changing needs for care. As Julia moved through the welfare and work system, she was suddenly stripped of her child care aid which eventually made her stop her relationship with Jacqueline’s provider which Julia did not want to do by any means but had to due to lack of funds thus she went back to kin care this time in the form of her ailing mother. Julia and Jacqueline were both upset by this break with the provider but were left with no other choice but to leave their preferred care due to lack of money and hours flexibility. The major factor that contributed to Julia’s need to switch child care arrangements, even when she did not want to, was the need for money to pay for child care but also to survive.

Minimum wage greatly effects poor working mothers to find and maintain stable, affordable, preferred child care because they are stuck in the catch-22 of the welfare system. If they make more money then they are cut off from public assistance which despite their small pay increase is still greatly needed in order to provide their children with adequate care yet if they make less than minimum wage they are stuck using whatever care they can find while not being able to save money or make their way up the pay scale due to their low end job or no job. The women in the videos show that minimum wage is not enough to provide their family with a better life because all of their time is spent working long hours in order to receive their meager pay checks that are barely able to get them the necessitates of life. They are not allowed anything other than the basic needs of living and feel bad for not being able to provide their children with more things that would better their life like school supplies and better schooling. One of the women goes hungry sometimes so that she has enough food to feed her children which only helps to weaken her beyond the long, tiring hours she is putting into work. They feel hopeless because it seems that no matter how hard they work they are getting nowhere because their checks are barely able to support them and their families, leaving no money for savings towards emergencies or a better future.

Blog #6

The first type of child care use that many of the mothers’s used outside of their own care was kin care which was characterized by some type of kin such as the father, grandmother, aunt, etc of the child watching the child for little or no money. This care was used the most because it was relatively easy to secure on such short notice due to the mother’s need to get back to work in order to provide money to pay for “real” child care. This type of care was also the shortest in its duration due to the kin becoming unable to further care for the child and also the mother’s acknowledgement that they child was not being cared for in an environment that was conducive to their development. Mothers wanted their children to be cared for but also to be stimulated in their environment in hopes that it would later benefit them once they started school and would allow them to be successful in that environment. A few of the mothers promoted kin care because they were sure of the type of environment that their child was in which was very important to them because they knew they could trust their child care provider and knew that their child was receiving the type of love and care they would have provided them with. Most mothers got their children out of kin care as soon as they could but continued to use it as a quick form of secondary care that they could rely on and be secure with in the short term.

The next type of child care for many of the mothers was with an in home provider who was either licensed or unlicensed but who made child care their occupation. The rate and duration of mothers using this type of care all centered around how they felt about the provider and the type of environment they could provide for their child. Some mothers did not feel comfortable with leaving their child in the home of a stranger especially when they could still rely on the use of kin care. Other mothers preferred the use of home providers if they were able to chose one that they felt would provide added structure and care that the child would not be able to receive from kin care. This was the view of Annette who was able to find providers who she felt were properly equipped and trained to care for her son while also providing him with a learning environment. While it may take a mother a few tries to find the right provider for them that they felt comfortable with, such was the case for Yolanda who stopped care with one provider upon her son getting constant diaper rashes, she was able to find a provider that she was more than happy with due to her caring demeanor. Finally some of the mothers received such a bad taste in their mouths from disagreements with home providers to missed expectations that they preferred to send their child to formal day care centers.

Formal day care centers were used mostly for children aged three and older because by that time many mothers felt that it was important for their child to start receiving the interactions and structure that these centers provided in anticipation to get their child prepared to start school. The mothers expected that these centers would be more equipped to provide proper care to their children due to the facilities and resources that they had at their disposal. They also felt that it was important for their child to have positive interactions with other kids their age so that they would be able to better succeed in school since they were used to being around other kids and taking orders from a teacher figure. Most of the mothers had a very hard time getting their children into such centers due to age restrictions and long waiting lists which was disheartening for many of the mothers who preferred this care due to its feeling of security and safely for their child compared to the other types of care.

Between all of the different types of care that the mothers used for their children the underlying factors in their decision making had to do with availability and cost rather than the more important factors of quality of care and security. All together the mothers had varying and valid reasons for why they preferred a certain type of care yet many were unable to provide their child with that type of care as they could not afford it or it was not available to them. Many of the mothers struggled with getting the monetary aid they were entitled to from the government only to then not receive the aid in a timely manner which then defeated the purpose as they were not able to effectively use it and had to settle for less expensive care which many times was not the care they preferred. Other mothers struggled to by past or get through the long waiting lists that accompanied the top choice of care such as the Head Start program which was seen as a very safe and educational thus preferred type of care causing mothers to once again settle for lesser care. The bottom line was that instead of mother’s feelings towards a care arrangement being the deciding factor in whether their child went there or not, it was money, and actually the lack there of, that decided where and how a child was cared for. Mothers only want the best for their child and when they cannot provide the best or even the second or third best for them it is a very defeating feeling for them and a negative experience for the child.

Blog #5

Chaudry’s main argument throughout the book is that by promoting more work as the only answer to how to get families off poverty is absurd when you look at all of the expenses and politics that are involved in their life in order to work. All of the families that he interviews and chronicles throughout the book have nothing against working hard and would prefer to work due to the feelings of self-worth and accomplishment that it gives them yet they are discouraged from working by lack of child care and the red tape of the very government programs that are supposed to help them not hinder them. The reasons that the mothers chose not to work center around the lack of quality, affordable child care which is important to them because they want their children to be safe and in a positive environment followed by the added stress and paperwork mess that getting off welfare causes them as they are striped of most of their financial aid. These are not reasons that focus on them being lazy or not willing to work hard, in fact the mothers work very hard at various different jobs and job trainings in order to provide all that they can for their families, but they are hampered by forces that not only cause negative effects on them but their children too.

The children born into these families are hindered by their poor economic situations in many different ways such as medical, educational and relational. Medically theses children are hindered because of the poor health conditions some of them live in leading to illnesses that cannot readily be cured and also due to some of their special conditions that do not receive the proper care such as asthma. Educationally these children suffer due to the lack of attention that their cognitive development receives which makes it very hard for these children to receive timely diagnose and treatment in order for them to fully develop and thus be able to have a successful school career. Relationally many of these children miss out on developing a proper and early attachment to their own mother since she is working so many hours away from them and also the constant moving from care arrangement to care arrangement does not allow them to form a proper attachment to anyone who can be stable in their lives. All of these effects of their economic situations have such negative outcomes in the lives of these children who will grow up and be a part of the public and that is why it is important for the public at large to have a sense of responsibility to them in order to break the cycle of such negative effects. Most of the public do have this sense of responsibility to the working poor as can be seen in the videos where most of the people’s answers to the working poor are not that they need to work harder but center around raising minimum wage and providing more jobs for them. They do not play a blame game onto the working poor because for the most part they understand that they are working very hard but that there are other reasons that keep them in poverty, reasons that the public is aware of but that they do not know how to fix or do not care enough to demand change so they let the government handle the problems in any way they see fit. Working harder is not going to help the working poor near as much as the public coming to their aid by advocating for them and creating an environment where they can effectively work their way out of poverty without having to sacrifice their lives or their children’s lives.

#1

A) I chose the handle KAT because technically it is my initials as I did get married earlier this year but I did not legally change my name so its in honor of my husband since I didn't take his last name...also it's the first three letters of my first name which is cool too.

B) My major is Psychology BA with a minor in Justice Studies and I will be graduating at the end of this semester.

C)I chose this class because I thought it would be interesting as I am a women who will be in the work force and who has a focus on justice. I hope to get more background on women in the work force and even more insight into justice/injustice in this subject.

The first thought that comes into my head concerning this subject is injustice. While I would not say that I have explicitly experienced injustice relating to my gender and work I think that history has shown great injustices concerning women in the work force. There have been injustices in what type of work they were allowed to do and the way that they were stopped from entering certain sectors of the work force. There have been injustices in the amount of money they have received for the type of work they did and also when compared to male counterparts. There has also been injustices in the way that women and work have been portrayed socially which has allowed for the continuance of wrongdoings in the workplace against them as it has become an ingrained part of life. I want to be prepared if and when I come across injustices in the workplace by having a background knowledge of the topic and also by being aware of current issues in this area. I also think it is just helpful to be able to discuss justice as it relates to many different topics and areas of interest for it allows you to have a more developed idea about what justice is and what it is not.

I think that this is an interesting time to be taking this class and discussing this topic as it has become a topic that relatively recently has been debated and fought over. As women have gained more power and a stronger voice in all areas of life they have been able to bring issues concerning them and the workplace into greater light with much more force. I also think it is interesting as with the state of the economy now and the uncertainty that is surrounding the work world, it will be intriguing to see how and where women are able to fit into the workplace during and after this economic trouble.