Deck 8: Work and Families

Question 1

Time-diary studies that covered almost 50 years compared the changes in the amount of time women and men spent in household work and they found that

A)the gap in the amount of housework done by men and women has ceased to exist.
B)the gap in the amount of housework done by men and women has increased.
C)the gap in the amount of housework done by men and women has seen no substantial change.
D)the gap in the amount of housework done by women and men has decreased.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which of the following is one of the difficulties observed with telecommuting?

A)buildup of leftover work due to a lack of supervision
B)children interfering with the amount of work done from home
C)men availing this option excessively on the pretext of family emergencies
D)the anxieties of the workplace invading the home

Answer 2

D

Question 3

One-third of all dual-earner married couples with pre-school-aged children arrange for childcare by

A)hiring nannies.
B)enlisting the help of relatives.
C)working different shifts.
D)receiving government aid.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

People who do paid care work

A)earn less than people who do comparable work.
B)have jobs that are devalued in the labor market.
C)often experience "free-riding" from others.
D)face all these issues.

Question 5

Face-to-face activity in which one person meets the needs of another who cannot fully care for herself or himself is called

A)personal assistance.
B)nursing.
C)care work.
D)none of the these.

Question 6

Which of the following is a view held by the proponents of the care work movement?

A)Most Americans value the ethic of care, but this ethic needs to be passed on to individuals belonging to economically disadvantaged sections of society.
B)People who perform paid care work should be paid substantially more than those who do comparable work that does not involve care.
C)Caring labor should be viewed exclusively through the lens of the private family.
D)The separation of what goes on in families and what goes on in the world of work is artificial and should be abolished.

Question 7

In 2004, what percentage of all workers had evening, night, or rotating schedules?

A)18
B)5
C)22
D)32

Question 8

The historic rise in married women's labor force participation appears to have peaked around the year

A)1995.
B)2007.
C)2000.
D)2005.

Question 9

The percentage of workers who work very long weeks (50 hours or more) is higher in the United States than in

A)France.
B)The United Kingdom.
C)Germany.
D)all of these countries.

Question 10

The transfer of mood or behavior between work and home is called

A)spillover.
B)task anxiety.
C)task stress.
D)task size.

Question 11

One of the most important twentieth-century developments for the family has been

A)the decline of patriarchy.
B)the movement of married women into employment outside the home.
C)birth control innovation.
D)none of these.

Question 12

By the mid-2010s, what percentage of wage and salary workers telecommuted on an average day?

A)50
B)5
C)20
D)35

Question 13

In the United States, women do more household work than men.

Question 14

Which of the following is one of the stipulations of the Family and Medical Leave Act which was passed by U.S. Congress in 1993?

A)12 weeks of paid leave for all part-time employees.
B)12 weeks paid leave for all full-time employees.
C)12 weeks paid leave in firms with more than 50 employees.
D)12 weeks unpaid leave in firms with more than 50 employees.

Question 15

Which of the following factors is not related to women's increased participation in the labor force?

A)expansion of manufacturing jobs
B)rising divorce rate
C)lower fertility rate
D)expansion of service jobs

Question 16

and others believe that we overvalue individualism and _________ and undervalue interdependence and __________.

A)autonomy; work experience
B)caring; autonomy
C)autonomy; caring
D)caring; work experience

Question 17

The most common and widely used employee benefit is

A)job sharing.
B)flexible vacation schedules.
C)flextime.
D)part-time work.

Question 18

The concerns of workers, and increasingly of the managers who employ them, about easing the conflicting demands of work and family have led to a movement toward what is called the

A)family-responsive workplace.
B)family-focused workplace.
C)work-responsive home.
D)work-focused home.

Question 19

Some observers have suggested that balancing work and family has become difficult for Americans because they are

A)working longer hours.
B)working too hard.
C)earning less money.
D)receiving fewer benefits.

Question 20

People tend to devalue and demean types of work that have historically been perceived as women's work.

Question 21

What kind of benefits for families does a responsive workplace provide?

Question 22

Fathers have been observed to adjust the time they allocate to child care and housework depending on whether their wives are doing part-time or full-time work.

Question 23

What makes parental leave from jobs such a great idea?

Question 24

The labor market seems to be moving toward longer hours among the college educated and shorter hours among the less well educated.

Question 25

The presence of modern tools of communication has been observed to sometimes compound problems related to task size.

Question 26

Why is it in U.S. businesses' best interests to make their workplaces more responsive to women?

Question 27

How does the middle class benefit from U.S. businesses' childcare assistance plans in ways the working class does not?

Question 28

The proportion of housework done by husbands in the United States went up dramatically as wives entered the labor market.

Question 29

The United States has been a frontrunner among industrialized nations in implementing family-friendly policies for workers.

Question 30

To whom and under what conditions does the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act apply?

Question 31

Compare the costs and benefits of working part-time if you are the mother or father of two preschool children.

Question 32

The Family and Medical Leave Act was passed in 2003.

Question 33

Discuss the different views on care work.

Question 34

Keeping in mind what you know of sociological explanations, why do you think men have been far more reluctant to help with childcare and housework than women have been to enter paying jobs?

Question 35

The movement of married women into the labor force is one of the most important changes in American family life in the past century.

Question 36

Describe how the service sector has contributed to the rise in the number of women in the workforce.

Question 37

As a woman's income rises, a dual-earner family is less likely to hire outside care for their children.

Question 38

Childcare was the major responsibility that historically kept women out of the labor force.

Question 39

The historic rise in women's labor participation seems to have peaked.

Question 40

Why would small firms (fewer than 50 employees) be less likely to offer family-friendly policies such as parental leave, flextime, and childcare assistance?

Question 41

Canada and many European countries have polices that provide several months leave with at least partial pay for families that have just had or adopted a child. Why do you think this does not occur in the United States?

Question 42

Describe spillover involving work and family for men and women.