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Assignment Details
(SYD3800-0001.sp22) Sociology of Sex and Gender
As you’ve read in our textbook, “work” tends to be thought of as
paid work – which leaves much of our unpaid work unrecognized in
society and invisible in government statistics. For this activity,
we’ll collect data to get us thinking about the economic value of
this unpaid work – that is, the carework — that goes on in families.
We’ll use these data to frame our discussion of the devaluation of
this economically valuable work.
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To collect the data, follow these steps: Go to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics website (www.bls.gov). In the search box, type
“overview of BLS Wage data.” Click on the first result. Then click
“For over 800 occupations.” Next, develop a list of all the tasks
that family members do to help care for other family members.
Think about parents caring for children – as well as adult children
(and others) caring for older family members. Now, look through
the BLS data to find the average wage received for doing this type
of work in the paid labor force. You’ll see both the mean and
median listed – either is fine for our purposes. You’ll need to
search within several different occupational categories, like food
preparation, healthcare support, and others!
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Address each of the following on the discussion board:
1. Describe the data you collected. Which jobs did you find
that approximated carework tasks? How much did they
pay? Do you consider these jobs to be well-compensated
for the work involved or not? Were you surprised by
anything you discovered in making the list of carework tasks
or learning what corresponding jobs in the labor market
paid? (20 points)
2. How does carework contribute to the functioning of
society? Be sure to think about not only the direct needs it
meets but also the paid work it facilitates. In other words,
how does the fact that someone is doing this work make it
possible for other kinds of productive, socially beneficial
activities to take place? (20 points)
3. Offer an explanation for our society’s devaluation of
carework. Be sure to think about how gender and race
inequalities influence who is likely to do this type of work
(whether it’s paid or unpaid). (20 points)
4. Offer a suggestion for a government or workplace policy
that could better recognize the economic value of
carework. Your policy could address paid or unpaid work —
or both! (20 points)
5. Respond in a substantive way to another participant’s post.
(20 points)
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