Will my hard work, long hours, and continuous employment pay off? Does seniority guarantee security? These are the questions that more and more Americans are asking themselves. The once held belief that a good education and hard work will lead to a time of leisurely retirement is debunked by Moen and Roehling.
The authors provide ample evidence that the Career Mystique is a myth based on out-of-date socialization patterns such as the breadwinner/homemaker arrangement and that the on-going automation, globalization, and continuous technological advances that are constantly throwing curve balls at the marketplace create an increasingly unstable, inconsistent, and thus precarious world of work.
In 1963, Betty Friedan introduced the world to her best selling book The Feminine Mystique and renewed the second wave of the women's movement. Friedan’s argument that women’s total fulfillment comes from marriage and motherhood was destructive was met with both consensus and criticism. Conversely, the 1950s and 60’s male equivalent to the feminine mystique was the career mystique meaning that men’s total fulfillment came from their occupational careers with a wife at home to raise the children and manage the household.
With the women’s movement came a redefined career mystique that women can do anything as well as men with goals of equal pay and equal opportunities. In the late 1980s and 90s we saw another shift in the career mystique in which society began to embrace the belief that men can do anything as well as women and the care work of home and family should be shared. However, given this new career mystique and the fact that most Americans now endorse and believe in equality, why does gender inequality persist?
Moen and Roehling argue that a variety of factors are at play. Increasing numbers of women want to spend more time with their children. However, given the continually changing global and technologically advancing economy, women who choose to stay out of the workforce and are supported solely by their spouse, do so at great risk especially if death, disability, desertion, or divorce occurs. Also, given the continuous increase in cost of living, it often takes two paychecks to pay the bills.
Although many elements of the outdated feminine and career mystique beliefs have been discarded over the years, their ghosts still linger. Despite the fact that women are working outside of the home more than ever before, they still do 70-80% of the household work and care.
Mass media proliferates the idea that work-family balance is a women’s issue. Women must find a way to run the household, find daycare, and keep up with their job responsibilities all at the same time. So, women burn out faster, decide to take jobs with less responsibility, part-time work that is flexible to fit the family’s needs which ultimately affect their career paths negatively.
Not only is the career mystique harmful to women, it is harmful to men and the workforce at large. The authors call for a paradigm shift in three areas of mismatch between current family and organizational expectations that if not remedied will continue to be of great cost to not only individual households but the U.S. economy. The mismatches identified are:
1. Work and Family Mismatch – work and family are set up to compete against each other for time and attention. With both men and women working outside of the home, many of the past housewife duties are either being unattended to or outsourced. Who has the time to care for children and elders, pay the bills, shop for groceries, make meals, let alone do the laundry?
2. Lock-Step Mismatch - The belief that first an individual spends their time gaining education, then is continuously employed, and lastly enjoys a time of leisure during retirement before death no longer works for most Americans. Advances in technology and medicine mean that the world moves at a faster pace and we need more education to keep up and we’re living longer, so the old belief that retirement occurs between 62-65 doesn’t work not to mention that no longer does loyalty, dedication, and seniority necessarily mean security.
3. Risk-safety net mismatch - Due to automation, globalization, off-shoring, and downsizing there is very little security for any worker. More and more, individuals in their mid to late fifties are laid off or if lucky they are offered an early retirement package. Because of a longer life expectancy and need for additional income, many so-called “retirees” take new jobs to pay for health care and additional living costs.
The U.S. workforce deals with these mismatches by having one primary and one secondary income per household, accepting the high costs of absenteeism due to family illness, outsourcing childcare and eldercare. Many couples delay having children, have fewer, or none at all. Additionally, more and more individuals are staying single and choosing not to marry. Houses aren’t cleaned, families eat out more, we’re all functioning on a lot less sleep than we need, less community participation, less free time, little or no retirement, and the ever popular presenteeism occurs daily – at work but taking care of personal matters during work time such as phone calls, email, and paying bills.
While this book is an excellent summarization of today’s current workforce issues, there is still much more work to do. For instance, the lack of statistical information regarding the costs of healthcare and difficulties in acquiring and sustaining insurance coverage are not addressed. We are only beginning to understand the great impact that the high costs of health insurance cause both organizations and individual families.
Here's another review of the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment