Women’s & gender studies
Paper details:

2. Read the Introduction in Women Worldwide By Janet Lee & Susan M. Shaw
(pages 1 – 14).

3. Analyze Plate 34 (Debt) on pages 90 – 91 in the Penguin Atlas of Women in the World by Joni Seager. The Atlas provides a lot of information and statistics for various issues that affect the lives of women. You should find that the visual nature of the information helps you see regional and global patterns. In this case, you should be able to identify the relationship between colonialism, poverty, and economic globalization.

For this assignment you will need to pick one of these former British colonies – Bangladesh, Kenya or Malaysia – and do some research about how colonialism affected the status of women. Next, analyze current conditions for women in the country you chose. What has been the biggest impact of British rule on women?

Your answer should be approximately 200 words in length and edited for grammatical errors. If you use statistics or quotes, you must also use references.

Paper details: Paper Assignment #2 – Work-Family BalanceOverview:
The primary goal of this assignment is for you to gain first-hand knowledge
about how couples coordinate their work and home demands and what
strategies they employ to do so. The second goal is for you to gain experience in
conducting interviews on gender to generate your own data to analyze.
General Instructions:
You will conduct two separate interviews with an adult couple (married or
cohabitating of any sexual orientation) that works full-time and lives in the same
household. You may interview friends or family members, but you may not
interview yourself. Interviewing a couple with at least one child is not required,
though this may provide you with interesting information for your analysis.
Interviews may be conducted in person, on the phone, or through video
conferencing. You may record the interviews only if you have the consent of the
person being interviewed. If you do record the interview, you must destroy the
recording at the end of this course. If you do not record the interviews, you will
need to take detailed notes during the interviews.
IMPORTANT: In order to respect the rights of the interviewees, all interviews
must be conducted ANONYMOUSLY, which means that you will NOT record
the names of those you interview anywhere, including your notes and final
paper (fake names are allowable).
Interview Instructions:
Your goal is to determine the way couples coordinate the demands of work and
family. You cannot, however, ask direct questions such as, “How is your home
life gendered?” Most people will not know how to answer such a question. Your
job, as a sociological researcher is to develop a picture of how the individual’s
work and family life is or is not gendered from the interviews. What they tell you
may seem unrelated, such as what she does during work breaks, what his daily
tasks are, etc., but these may paint a broader picture of how gender
enables/constrains their choices.
Before beginning the interview, you must first introduce the project to your
interviewees, give each of them the purpose of the interview, and offer them
your contact information in case either wants further information from you after
the interview. You should type this introduction at the top of your interview
questions so that you can read it to your interviewees. You should also include
my name, email, and work phone number in this introduction so that you can
provide this to the interviewees as well.
Sociology 1310 Due: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 by 4:30pm
Gender and Society Where: Sociology Main Office (Seashore Hall Rm 140)
and our ICON dropbox
Soc 1310, Paper 2 Instructions, Spring 2016 2
SAMPLE INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT: “I would like to invite you to
participate in an interview for one of my classes at The University of Iowa. We
are interviewing couples to learn how they manage both their work and family
lives. We are required to conduct separate interviews with both members of a
couple who works fulltime. The interviews will be conducted anonymously,
which means that I will not record your name on any of the responses you give
me. [If recording: To help me with the report that I will write, I would like to
record your responses on my audio recorder. No one other than me will hear the
recording. The recording will also be destroyed once my project is turned in.]
The interview will take approximately 45 minutes. Would you be willing to
participate? I would also like to provide you with contact information in case
you have questions or concerns about this interview. [Give the person your
phone number and email address.] You may also contact the professor of the
course, Sarah Harkness, at 319-335-2485 or sarah-harkness@uiowa.edu.”
Below is a list of sample questions that you can ask. You may modify this list by
adding questions of your own and not asking others. If you wish to add
questions, you must have your TA approve them prior to your interview. Since
you will be graded on the insightfulness of your analysis, be sure to choose
questions that will generate sufficiently telling information.
SAMPLE QUESTIONS:
1. What is your occupation? Your exact job title?
2. How did you get this job? What kind of education did you have before
getting this job? [It may be appropriate to ask for college major].
3. What is an average day like at your workplace? [Try to get them to
walk through what they do hour-by-hour]
4. On an average day, who do you see most when you are at work? [Get
first names of up to 5 coworkers.] What are their job titles? What kind
of interactions do you have with each person – more work-oriented,
more friendly, a mix of both? Do you spend time with any coworkers
during breaks or meals? How about outside of work? Who? [Note: if
you are unsure of the gender of their coworkers, ask subtly].
5. How much time do you spend at work each week? Is your workplace
flexible regarding your family needs? Does work ever cut into your
personal time or time with your family? If so, how? [Try to get specific
examples].
6. Who lives in your household? [Note: Get names and ages].
7. What are your main responsibilities at home? In an average week, how
much time do you spend doing housework? Cooking and planning
meals? Doing childcare [if appropriate]? Doing errands like grocery
shopping or going to the post office? Paying bills? Gardening? Doing
repair work on the house or car? Shoveling the snow? Other tasks?
8. How do your partner’s responsibilities differ from yours? [Note: you
can use the term husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/etc. rather than
Sociology 1310 Due: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 by 4:30pm
Gender and Society Where: Sociology Main Office (Seashore Hall Rm 140)
and our ICON dropbox
Soc 1310, Paper 2 Instructions, Spring 2016 3
partner]. Do you each specialize in certain tasks that you are good at?
If so, how did you learn these tasks?
9. What do you do for fun? What are your favorite leisure activities, for
example: watching TV, reading, camping, going to hear music, visiting
friends, etc.? How much time a week do you spend on these activities?
10. How do you balance all of your responsibilities at home with those at
work? Is this difficult for you? Do you feel that you have enough
leisure time?
After the interview, go back over each person’s responses. Analyze these
responses and think about how gender might influence their experiences. Try to
analyze any differences that emerge between the two people you have
interviewed. In the process of analyzing the interview notes or recordings, you
might see patterns that you had not noticed before. For example, you might
discover that men and women interact with different kinds of people at work or
interact with coworkers for differing amounts of time. You might notice that the
two partners have different amounts or kinds of leisure or different approaches
to their household responsibilities. Your goal is to come up with an analysis of
how gender is apparent both at home and at work and in the balancing of those
responsibilities. The chapters you read from The Second Shift should provide a
good example.
Paper Sections:
Here are the following issues that your writing assignment must address. I have
also provided an approximation of how much space each section should take.
You will NOT be graded by whether you meet each section’s suggested length.
They are merely intended to serve as a guide.
Introduction (about 1 paragraph): Please provide a paragraph telling the reader
what question you are trying to answer in this report and a sense of how you will
go about answering the question. Include a description of the couple you
interviewed, without giving their real names.
Body of assignment (3 pages): In the body of the paper, summarize your
findings, starting with the most basic and moving on to more complex findings.
Where appropriate, compare your findings with those of researchers from the
work/family readings (e.g., Hochschild).
Conclusion (paragraph): To conclude, you should provide a general answer to
the question with which your paper began.
Writing Guides:
I do have a few writing pet peeves that it is only fair to let you know about:
Sociology 1310 Due: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 by 4:30pm
Gender and Society Where: Sociology Main Office (Seashore Hall Rm 140)
and our ICON dropbox
Soc 1310, Paper 2 Instructions, Spring 2016 4
1. Please keep direct citations down to a minimum. As a general guide, your
review should contain possibly 1 or 2 short quotations (clauses or 1-2 sentences),
if any. If you do provide a quotation, please explain what the quotation is meant
to demonstrate. The quotation must never stand on its own, especially when you
are trying to show your mastery of the material.
2. Please do not use contractions. This is a formal writing project, so please take
the time to type both words.
3. And, of course, no plagiarism; please cite the work of others.
Pertinent Info:
Due: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 to BOTH our course’s ICON dropbox and the
Sociology Main Office in Seashore Hall. There will be envelopes or a tray with
your TA’s name by the front desk for you to submit your paper. Be sure to put
your paper into your own TA’s envelope/tray. Each day the paper is late
(including Saturday and Sunday), I will take off 2 points. If you need to, you can
hand the paper in early without penalty.
Length: approximately 5 pages long (concise and incisive is better than
needlessly wordy)
Mechanics: double-spaced, 12 point font (like Times, Cambria, and other bland
typefaces), 1” margins.
Citations: If you are citing lecture or Hochschild’s piece, you only need to mark
that in your paper (ex: (Hochschild), (Lecture), “As Hochschild noted…”, “As
stated in lecture…”). If you cited anything beyond that, say from another class
reading, please do include a references section at the end of your paper in
addition to an in-text reference of the kind mentioned previously. We really don’t
care about the format of that, so you can use something simple like: Author’s
Name. Year. Title of Piece.
– Papers must be typed by computer or typewriter. No hand-written assignments
will be accepted.
– Each paper must have a heading that includes: (1) your full name, (2) due date,
(3) Paper #1, and (4) TA: {Your TA’s name}. Put this information at the top left
hand side of page 1. An example of a header would be:
Sarah Harkness
3/30/2016
Paper #2
Sociology 1310 Due: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 by 4:30pm
Gender and Society Where: Sociology Main Office (Seashore Hall Rm 140)
and our ICON dropbox
Soc 1310, Paper 2 Instructions, Spring 2016 5
TA: Inga Popovaite
– STAPLE together the pages of the assignment. DO NOT bend corners, use
paper clips, or any other means to bind the papers together. I will not provide
the class with a stapler, so if you do not do this, it’s a ½ point off the top of the
grade.
– Put your name at the top right hand corners of the second page onward. Please
also insert page numbers on these pages.
– You WILL be graded by your grammar and sentence clarity/structure. Please
be sure to edit your papers carefully. You may also want to go to the Writing
Center and/or have a friend read your paper for clarity.
– I do not give extensions for assignments unless you provide me with
documentation showing me the need for your extension. You must come to my
office hours to provide me with the information, as I will make a copy of it for
my records of the class. Please refer to the syllabus for the acceptable College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences format for this information.