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How Social Class Affect Marriage and Parenting Choices for Poor Women.
Today’s women constantly face challenges of reconciling the tough demands of family roles and work obligations. This is particularly difficult from the perspectives of poor women who face constraints of working and being a mother at the same time. This essay examines the conflicting
identities of being a mother and a worker and how it is constrained by social class and gender. Though work and family matters often influence the other, it is interesting to explore how these two domains interrelate.
It is agreeable that childbearing and matrimony are interrelated; however, women’s work and family routes continue to challenge gender expectations. The compatibility of work and marriage seems to be an intertwined domain. For instance, work-family interconnections seem to be different depending on class and levels of education. Firstly, the social class creates different opportunities for a woman.
Woman’s work in and the effect of social class
One draws crucial insights from Edin and Kefalas( 2011, pg 11.) arguments that marriages lost its meaning amongst the poor. Class differences determine employment durations. For one, richer women often enjoy longer and steadier employment durations in their lives as compared to poorer women. Women of the lower social class tend to have a longer non-employment duration and higher work volatility than richer and more connected women. For this reason, poorer women are more likely to enter marriage and childbearing due to a lack of meaningful work commitments. Highly educated and richer women are likely to engage in part-time work while the poorer woman would likely take full-time jobs. This equally affects the choice of motherhood and childbearing. All these dynamics affect long term work outcomes. One can, therefore, argue that class determines fertility choices. It is agreeable that poor women are less likely to get married and would likely get divorced instead of richer women.
The economically disadvantaged women are, however, more likely to bear children from non-marital arrangements. This emphasizes the concept that childbearing and motherhood vary greatly depending on the class and economic capabilities. For example, poorer women would adapt easily to parenthood at a younger age through non-marital parenthood and partnership instabilities. For poorer women, childbearing is less likely to affect labor participation due to poor women’s tendency to engage in long term work commitments to help alleviate their lower social status. Additionally, economically disadvantaged women are likely to marry men who are not very rich; however, there are certain exceptions to this for poorer women who get married to richer men and, therefore, need not engage in full-time work commitments.
Since marriage and motherhood create unique circumstances for women, it is agreeable that circumstances differ depending on partnership preference. Some women may view marriage and motherhood as income reduction engagements and may opt to shun the marriage institution and childbearing altogether. Depending on a woman’s preference, one may opt to stay at home and concentrate on motherhood and childbearing while others prefer to work as part-time mothers. Irrespective of social classes and poverty levels, some women prefer to remain single mothers and continue working unaffected by gender roles or societal expectations. Women who tend to be family-oriented often get into marriage and childbearing early in their lives, irrespective of their social class. Some women prefer to work before getting into motherhood. Others get into motherhood then work later, while others opt to work and avoid motherhood and marriage. Poverty levels and levels of educational attainment are insignificant to women who settle for the aforementioned clusters. The increased variance in family formation patterns and birth control options for women informs childbearing and motherhood options amongst modern-day women. Nowadays, children tend to delay childbearing and matrimony due to the current socio-economic determinants and education attainment levels.
The shift in gender roles changes societal expatiations, and the modern-day patterns of associations all have significant effects on motherhood. One can argue that workforce attachments are higher amongst poorer women as compared to economically advantaged women. Therefore, continuous work participation amongst poor women is responsible for the great variance between family life and work commitment. Work-family patterns differ greatly depending on social class and economic potential. However, it is difficult to conclude that women juggle between family constraints and personal preferences; however, it is agreeable that gender expectations and work-family preferences differ from one woman to another. Indeed, social class reinforces existing differences in terms of work-family preferences for women.
In conclusion, poor women tend not to delay motherhood or marriage since women’s economic opportunities continue to grow. Besides, new family formation patterns allow women to control fertility and birth. Women continue to be more financially independent; therefore, non-marital child bearings are also on the rise. It is agreeable that social class and economic strength influences women’s choice of bearing children. Finally, due to the changing work-family patterns, a woman’s work-family trajectory largely depends on her preferences marriage; therefore has not much meaning amongst the poor women as Edin and Kefalas argue.
Work cited
” Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood before Marriage, by Edin. K and Kefalas M., 3rd ed., University of California Press, 2011, Accessed 12 Nov. 2020.