Sociology Of Family
September 27, 2006
Sociology of the Family- Prof. Mason
Analysis of Getting by on the Minimum
"Getting by on the Minimum" by Jennifer Johnson is in depth analysis of working class women's work using interviews, economic theory and surveys. Current ideologies about career women are from the middle class perspective, while little or no attention is given to the work experiences of middle class women. This oversight is extremely significant since middle class women enter the work force for entirely different reasons and seek a different type of reward (personal fulfillment as opposed to being forced to support an entire household).
Working class women are motivated to enter the work force by financial responsibilities. Education levels also played a major role in the types of jobs which were attained. Those with no high school diplomas were working "gray collar" jobs. Johnson defines this as manual, relatively unskilled jobs which included factory work, constriction or any type of packing or assembling. Due to the relatively unskilled nature of these jobs (which meant employees were easily replaces) and the great financial need on the employee's part, women in these types of jobs got the least amount of respect, or encouragement from supervisors. Although this is the type of work with the least amount of mental challenge involved it is the most vigorously supervised and involves little or no autonomy. For example, in discussing a job experience at a super market, an interviewee (Phyllis) describes a situation in which the lack of autonomy is demeaning because it implies one doesn't have the mental capacity to make decisions and that making mistakes is expected of someone in that type of job:
A lot of times, it feels like I am , you know, in school. You know, like you don't know what you're supposed to do. We get W.I.C vouchers for women, infants and children, where they get milk and cheese and eggs and stuff....
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