Blogs On a Boring Snow Day

Today, due to the weather, there was no school and I am very grateful for that. Although I did not have my lovely English 150 class so I will try to make this blog involve a little more information than usual to make up for loss of class time (I have to suck up every now and then to show that I care).
Anyways the two stories involved in today's blog are "She Works, He Doesn't" by Tyre and McGinn and "Doctor's Daughter" by McMurray. The overall theme or subject in these stories is women's responsibilities and abilities in the millennium. The ability of women to work and keep their responsibilities as a mother at home.
In our grandparents' or even parents' ages, women were urged to find a man that would provide for the family they would have together. The man was the "breadwinner" and the woman was the "stay-at-home mom" that would clean and tender the home. Well as we all see times have changed and these two stories are examples of this
In "She Works, He Doesn't" it was the intention of one couple to have a traditional family. That tradition had to change when the man was laid off and the woman had to pick up the slack. The term laid off and unemployment are words we hear too often lately which is a reason many women work. It use to be traditionally that a woman would look for a well off stable man but according to Maria Cancian, men consider women a good catch based off of their salaries. Many even agree that it is hard to have a couple with careers and a family. They say they would like more time with their children so one drops their career. They may even flip flop between breaks in each person's career to spend time with the family.
In the second story "Doctor's Daughter" Julia McMurray talks about her childhood. The stories she heard about her father's and her mother's work as doctors before she was born begin her talk. Her mother became a stay at home mom after she was pregnant so she could take care of family situations while Julia's father was always on call for the hospital. Once again this brings up the topic of women working. Her mother was a doctor and had the capability of supporting the family. Well Julia became a doctor but when she started having children she saw what her mother had gone through. Julia made the choice to work part time to take care of her children but even that was hard at times. Overall Julia kept working and still made time for her family.
Even though these two stories expressed their meanings in different ways, the themes were still similar. Work and family are hard things to juggle and I believe that it is possible to be successful and take care of a family. I believe women are much stronger than what some believe them to be. In the end though, man or woman, work and family are important but make sure work does not over power family.