Benefits and Disadvantages of the Family - Book Report/Review Example

Chapter Summaries Chapter 3 In this chapter, the authors discuss, as the title implies, the benefits and disadvantages of the family as an economic unit. It introduces something called the Neoclassical model, which is essentially the traditional model of the family in which the husband goes to work to support the family while the wife stays at home to care for the family property and to raise the children. The reason these differences exist, according to the authors, is not necessarily because women are more suited to housework and men more suited to outside work by biology, but rather that this is so to some degree because of the differences in the way that men and women are raised as boys and girls. Some of the advantages to this arrangement are given as an increase in the quality and quantity of production and the minimization of inherent costs such as child care. However, there are also several disadvantages which seem to outweigh these advantages. These disadvantages include reduced sharing of housework, life cycle changes that require changes in work specialization, the difficult to quantify costs related to interdependence of the individuals comprising the couple, reduction of expression of individual taste and bargaining power and increased levels of domestic violence, not to mention the disadvantages to women specifically as a result of their exclusion from true marketable autonomy. Comparative advantages include the nature of the resources available (work vs. meals made at home for example), the cost of production, population size (indicating level of competition), climate, religion and culture which may restrict or open gender roles, race and gender, available technology and governing systems in place. In recent decades, American families have pushed beyond this Neoclassical model of the family, though. The reasons for this are difficult to pin down, but it is thought to be the result of a combination of factors including higher educational attainment among women, greater market specialization of women, higher market wages for women with less barriers placed to their entry, time-saving technologies such as microwave ovens and increased availability of out of home services such as child care that enable both parents to work outside of the home. Chapter 4 With more and more families watching the adults stay within the marketplace rather than staying home in the Neoclassical model, the next question to ponder is how do these families allocate their time between work and home. As more and more women have entered the labor force, more men have left it for a variety of reasons. As a result, "men's and women's labor force participation rates and their patterns of involvement in market work over the life cycle are becoming increasingly similar" (76). The U.S. Census Bureau tracks the American workforce through a variety of criterion. In this system, the labor force is considered to be the number of people over the age of 16 who are employed plus the number of people who are unemployed but have sought employment during the past four weeks prior to the week of data collection. To determine the unemployment rate, the census bureau counts the number of people who are unemployed, divides that number by the number of people comprising the entire labor force and multiplies it by 100. To determine the labor force participation rate, the bureau divides the number of people within the labor force by the number of people in the general population and multiplies that by 100. Trends over recent decades have seen increasing numbers of women entering the labor force and, of these women, more of them are staying in the labor force for greater proportions of their life cycles. Although the number of women in the labor force has been increasing relative to the number of men, they are not necessarily the cause of male unemployment. Causes of unemployment in the current market include frictional, seasonal, structural, cyclical and induced unemployment as a result of market factors. Other causes are voluntary, involuntary, dishonest and discouraged workers as a result of individual factors. The chapter also discusses the implications of substitutions which affect the bottom line. Substitution in consumption refers to choices made on how to spend the resources of time and money, substitution in production refers to choosing methods of production, and substitution between market goods and non-market time refers to the tendency to begin substituting goods-intensive commodities for time-intensive commodities in consumption and goods-intensive for time-intensive production techniques. Because individual tastes are so difficult to measure and track over time as a result of their changing nature, economists generally don't attempt to track them, but must acknowledge that they do play a significant role in determining individual choices and substitutions. Factors that play into this include women's need for independence and the degree to which they consider participation in the marketplace to be an expression of this independence, cultural and religious backgrounds that may affect how they view their importance in the marketplace or their need to participate in it, attitudes regarding children in the workplace, and individual assumptions about what they are expected to have/earn in their lifetime. Individuals thus base their decisions regarding entry into or remaining within the labor force on their perceptions of the pay-off of working as compared to the pay-off of non-market time given their expected resources and individual tastes and family needs. Chapter 5 From this discussion, the book then shifts over to consideration of differences in occupations and earnings, looking not just at the differences between men and women, but also at the differences which occur between races and age groups. Studies have shown that there are some industries that are still mostly dominated by white men while women and minority ethnicities make up the majority of other, typically lower-paid and less-skilled, occupations. White men still dominate the upper hierarchal levels of the industry while women and minority groups fill the lower rungs. Although a great deal of progress has been made in attempting to equalize opportunity among these groups, this analysis demonstrates that there are still problems to be overcome. This is not to say that the fault rests squarely on the industries or companies themselves, although they can contribute to the problem. There are instead a variety of factors that feed into these inequities. For example, the book points out the differences in available education individuals receive both in and out of the school setting. While boys are being trained how to compete on the athletic field, for example, girls are being taught how to negotiate within the civic groups formed inside the schoolroom. While boys are encouraged to enter science and mathematics, girls are left to choose their own way and are frequently guided toward the humanities. Another problem is underjob training, which the book indicates is a reflection of this same encouragement for specific roles within the organization that occurs generally within the schools. Internships can contribute to these numbers as they reflect individuals in training for a specific job and thus get paid significantly less than the fully experienced professional. Other elements that can contribute to inequality in employment potential can include the work location, the nature of the available human capital, the individual worker's race, gender or age, the financial cost and benefit of putting a specific individual in a given position or that individual's assessment of the financial costs and benefits of putting themselves in that position, the level of risk involved for both the individual and the company, the person's social status as perceived by those in power to place them in a given position, the individual's family, friends and mentors' influence over those in charge of the company, security issues and historical trends regarding placing these individuals in these positions. As women and minorities continue to challenge these trends and prove their ability to hold various positions traditionally held by men, the field is slowly shifting but remains unbalanced. Part of the reason for the push among women and minorities to reach into the territory of what has been traditionally reserved for white men is the realization that these positions are those offering the greatest pay for the effort and allow for the greatest exercise of political and social power. Read More