I'm Tired Too!!!

For my excursion I chose to do the family and friends excursion. I have known these participants their whole life and I learned things about them that I never knew before this research. Gender plays a big part on how people choose to live their life and run their household. Gender is not the only aspect; it varies from different age ranges, educational background to if we are single or married. Not that it is obvious but men and women have a different mind frame when it comes to how they choose to live their life. Women are always going to have to work two times harder compared to men when it comes to responsibilities.

Males in their early 40’s compared to males in their 20’s have different perspectives on life. Disguising their real identities I will use Mark and David as examples. Mark is 42 and David is 27 years old. Mark’s highest level of education is a high school diploma. Although he did not attend college he landed a good job with the MTA as a bus engineer. He earns over $50,000 without overtime. He is also a home owner He is content with his job and doesn’t see why should he go back to school if he is doing well, why fix what’s not broken? David goes to school while working as a housekeeper his annual salary is $30,000 without overtime. David does not have kids but still lives at home with his mother and pays her a little rent nothing major. What I found interesting is that David does not do any house chores or laundry, his mom still does it for him at the age of 27 years old. I’m thinking she doesn’t want her little baby boy to leave the nest so she is going to continue to baby him. How would he ever learn to fly if she doesn’t let him? Mark on the other hand has a wife with children and does cook and some of the chores because he is a neat freak. The wife does the laundry and takes care of the children. He feels the wife does a better job at finding the childcare and the clothing for the children. Although David does help with the cooking his mentality of a “woman” does a better job at certain duties is sexist. I think because of the time he was brought up in he feels a man should just work as a man should and the woman takes care of the duties she is suppose to. Although he does help with the so called womanly duties which is a bit ironic.

I observed that females tend to be a little more understanding to their partners as opposed to males. Disguising their identities I will use Mary and Stacey. Mary is 31 and Stacey is 38 years old. They are not that far apart in age as the men are previously discussed. One thing I want to question is do you believe women are genetically fixed to deal with more crap then men? I ask that because Mary has two daughters and she is engaged. She works 12-14 hours her annual salary is around $45,000, and when she is not working she goes to school, whether she is working or going to school she still gets up early and takes care of her kids. On the weekends she cleans and does the family laundry. She stated her fiancé is too tired to help which she understands. Is she not entitled to be tired too? Or is it naturally in us women to be able to handle so many things at once? I think those are just the expectations of us as women but that is not something we are born with. Her fiancé can help her out she works double harder than him. Stacey is single with a son with no help from the son’s father. She makes around $1,500 every two weeks. She pays for childcare all on her own. Thanks to the help of her mother who she lives with she doesn’t have to worry about cooking but takes care of the household chores. Stacey would love to move out but can’t afford it and school can’t fit into her schedule. Is it Stacey’s fault that she doesn’t have support from her father’s child? No of course not she had no idea he would abandon his family and leave her with all these responsibilities. These women are both suffering knowingly and unknowingly. I say that because whether there is a man in their life or not they still have to work twice as hard to survive.

Men have a certain perspective on what and how their life should be. If there is a woman in their life whether it’s their girlfriend or their mother, the woman should do her womanly roles. David for example is so use to his mother doing chores and his laundry he is going to crossover that same behavior to his girlfriend or wife. Even though there would be no excuse if he was to act out that behavior but it traits back to his mother. Women may be able to escape societies naturalizing of what women should be and may not depending on how their life is situated. Women will always have to work two times harder than a man whether it is work related or family related just to be comfortable. My main concern throughout this whole excursion is will women ever get a break in this corrupted society?