Showing results for "Job" in Gender Studies

When Christine Armstrong became a mother, it never occurred to her that she would want to stop work or even work part-time. But the truth is, combining work and small kids is hard. From the broken breast pumps on business trips, to hiding chicken pox from the nursery, to the heartbreak when you come home and realise your baby smells of the childminder. When Christine Armstrong tried it, she found herself desolate with misery. Determined to make it work, she looked for answers by interviewing other working mums and found that she wasn't alone.

Are you spinning multiple plates at once? Mother, wife, employee, cook, cleaner, project manager, taxi driver, homeschool teacher? If it’s actually possible for women to have it all, as society assures us it is, then why do we feel like we are failing? All over the world, women shoulder most of the responsibilities of parenting and managing a home, even when both partners are in paid employment. The better they do this job, the more invisible it becomes. Failure to both recognize and value the Invisible Job is at the heart of today’s gender imbalance.

Plastic surgery has become the answer for many Americans, and in American Plastic sociologist Laurie Essig explores how we arrived at this particular solution. Over the last decade there has been a 465 percent increase in cosmetic work, and we now spend over $12 billion annually on procedures like liposuction, face-lifts, tummy tucks, and boob jobs.