Scarcity, Expansionism, and Contemporary Women - Essay Example

In contrast, the expansionist hypothesis relates to women working outside the home as a positive feature of society. Expansionist supporters believe that the more roles a woman takes on, the more multi-tasking that she does, the more fulfilling and successful her life will be. Where scarcity supporters feel that participation in many different roles can essentially run down a woman’s energy resources, supporters of expansionism feel the opposite in that many different roles engage different parts of the brain and lead to happier working women.

Specifically, multi-tasking is said to have a reward association. This means that women working outside the home are subject to achieving role privileges, personality enhancement, and enjoying success in one role when another may not be going so well. Women who work outside the home and also provide the most care for their children can appreciate their success as a mother during tough times at work, and vice versa. Women can also experience an increase in self-esteem when they participate in many different roles at the same time; instead of feeling pigeonholed and relegated to one specific role, be it an outside-the-home job or a role within the household.

This is what expansionist supporters are trying to address in their theory: the idea that women cannot exist within and without the home without overexerting themselves and ultimately making themselves miserable and hurting their families in the long run. The scarcity theory does not intend to insinuate that women cannot hold multiple roles successfully, but maintains that they cannot be expected to do so without harming their mental health. In terms of the actual mental health of women, it appears that the more successful roles that women hold, the happier they are.

Stress levels can be heightened by holding multiple roles, however, this is independent of the women themselves and in general, a woman’s happiness is not dependent on the number of societal and family roles held but on the amount of appreciation shown by those who matter most to her. A sense of well-being does depend on some level of independence and ability to cope with various roles, however. The expansionist view and the scarcity view must be taken into consideration together to ensure the best outcome for working women.