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As the title suggests, the book Balancing Act: Motherhood, Marriage, and Employment Among American Women broadly discusses the economic role of women in American society. The book has different chapters that examine critical issues linked to the financial standing of women. The first chapter of the book addresses issues that involve marriage, childbearing, and living engagements. The second chapter discusses matters touching on women’s education, employment, and occupational achievements. The next chapter compares women’s earnings and the connection to their family status for both married women and unmarried mothers. In the last chapter, the authors talk about the role of women and the effort they put into balancing their careers and family maintenance. The book involves a great art of blending figures with policy paper discussions across varying abstract controversies and perspectives.
The book captures the struggles women endure in society to seek to gain a better living. It points to the persistent gender imbalance across many aspects of life, including sex isolated work arrangements and gender disparities in earnings, among other social injustices (Spain and Bianchi xi). These developments co-occur with significant changes in females’ and males’ lives, although in varying proportions (Spain and Bianchi 91). The book repeatedly describes the absence of change in some areas combined with significant variations in other areas. For a student, the book provides considerable academic interest and makes them conscious of societal issues and an important chronological epoch for gender issues.
The authors implore a composed and data-rich evaluation of the strides the American women have made far and the tasks they need to accomplish in the coming times. The authors succeed in expanding our appreciation of the matters touching on women by employing a combination of quantitative analysis and qualitative readings of relations and developments at home or place of work. The authors wrote the book based on government data collected in the 1990 population census, but they also derived information from cases of public opinion (Spain and Bianchi xiii). The government numbers describe in figures the condition of the American women, including the historical and cross-national contrasts. The authors explore additional data that is sourced from different census reports and survey sources. They use the statistics to characterize the different conditions in which women find themselves.
Spain and Bianchi methodically fill the book with essential information that highlights women’s changing behaviors. Some of the women’s conduct inferred in the book involves the ratio of women’s income to men and the growing prevalence of motherhood among older women and single women in general (Spain and Bianchi 157). The authors carefully analyze these along with other factors concerning women’s balancing act. The writing makes the book a vital resource for reference or use in the classroom.
Daphne Spain and Suzanne Bianchi also review the progress made in women’s education. They mainly rely on the data indicating that the female enrollment in colleges surpasses that of their male counterparts. The authors discuss the widening scope of occupations open to women and their capacity to stay longer in one profession even when they become wives and mothers. The book also highlights the large number of women who take up lower-paying office and service jobs. In addition, the text indicates that women still earn less than men despite the narrowing pay gap between men and women. The book points to another critical challenge women have to deal with: delayed marriage and motherhood (Spain and Bianchi 3). It means that women have an opportunity cost to their growing careers out of the traditional household roles. As American women become more empowered, the number of out-of-wedlock childbearing and divorce cases rises (Spain and Bianchi 4). This fact presents a clear explanation for the rising single-parent households.
On the other hand, women who come to be married engender a positive impact in society as their financial well-being is enhanced, which increases their contribution to the family. However, American women have to juggle through both the demands of caregiving and wage-earning (Spain and Bianchi 12). The women are also likely to equate their preferences to those of women in other republics. The authors indicate that the United States (U.S.) is the only developed economy that lacks policies to support working moms and their relatives. Surprisingly, the U.S. does not offer support for working women who decide to have children (Spain and Bianchi 108). This predisposes American mothers to work in less satisfying part-time or conventionally female occupations that permit stress-free exit and re-entry. Such circumstances expose women to the single greatest danger of poverty (Spain and Bianchi 159). Furthermore, the authors provide an account of the risks of poverty across different racial groups and ethnicities characteristic of American society. In particular, they indicate that African American women, mainly those who bring up their kids in mother-only families, tend to be the most negatively affected (Spain and Bianchi 158). These risks remain present and show the critical flaws that are yet to be fixed.
In general, Daphne Spain and Suzanne Bianchi wrote a book that dramatically adds to the nationwide discourse regarding issues that touch on women. Some of the problems include welfare reform, family policy, and the responsibility for the young ones by bringing to light the central roles the American women play in the connection between work and family. The authors wrote a book that is comprehensively nourishing and pleasurable to read on all measures of arrangement and content. The book is meticulously structured and transcribed in a pure and dynamic style. Every chapter of the book starts with an attention-grabbing tactic, outlining the changes that have transpired in the past ten to fifteen years. The chapters in the book contain additional information from outside sources, including media stories. The information supports the views deduced from the data collected by the government that the authors describe in a comprehensive and easy-to-understand manner. The authors creatively wrote on a wonderful compilation of everything anyone would have wished to know and understand regarding the changes in women’s roles at the household level and out of the home.
Despite the effort put in writing the book, there are some areas that the authors would have gone further to provide better writing. It would have been preferable if Spain and Bianchi had provided more material on American society’s positive initiatives in improving gender equality and inclusivity. It is hard to suggest that the country with extensive recognition as the U.S. has not attempted to promote the welfare of women. The information provided by the authors on this area is limited. Chapter seven provided a little brief regarding the talk about the work-family matters mainly involving a combination of paid and unpaid work. The authors would also have gone further to provide a regional or state or rural/urban description given the vastness of the country and different rules of governance. However, it is challenging to balance all aspects simultaneously that could also lose the focus of the book.
In conclusion, this book-length set of propositions by Spain and Bianchi aims to expand on the evidence of the changing roles of women in society. The authors outline what changes in policies and legislations are vital for the U.S. to consider in order to achieve equal opportunities and rights for both sexes. The examples provided in the book reveal the deeply seated disparities that are detrimental for the U.S. society, as they perpetuate the imbalances through systemic discriminations and gender bias.
Work Cited
Spain, Daphne, and Suzanne Bianchi. Balancing Act: Motherhood, Marriage, and Employment Among American Women. Russell Sage Foundation, 1996.
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