On a slightly different note...

After talking a lot about where power lies within each gender role during my writ-140 class, I was reading this article (http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/homemaker-dad-breadwinner-mom/) and asking myself if I could only get corporate power and a family by having my husband sacrifice his own corporate power in exchange for domestic power. In this case, there is simply a shortage of resources. The issue is not having enough time to split between the woman's corporate life and her kids in order to compete with the stereotypical, or rather, statistical corporate male who does not have kids and is able to allocate all of his time to his job. Unfortunately, there seems to be drawbacks for both parents dabbling in both domestic and corporate worlds at the same time. Due to tax policy, "married breadwinner/homemaker couples are taxed on their joint income, marriage to a full-time homemaker with zero earnings often puts a full-time breadwinner in a lower tax bracket". This means that there is no reward for equal employment in a marriage. The way the government has set up its tax policies makes it economically easiest for middle income families to maintain divided domestic and corporate spheres; however, according to this article, women are making strides against the odds to pave their way in the corporate world by shedding their traditional role of domesticity.

Another topic very much related to this issue of employment is the gender-wage gap. Assuming women were paid less because they were more likely to leave the work force to take care of kids or desire pay during a leave of absence while they were having a baby used to be a logical conclusion to draw; however, now there are many other facets that are being considered. Although no definitive answer has been drawn yet, it seems that regardless of the circumstances, women are getting the short end of the stick. As seen before, women are forced to compete with men whose primary priority is work, according to their gender norm. The issue is that this whole argument is based on statistical men and women through the lens of gender norms. It is not possible to go to ever job offering where men and women are competing for the same position; however, by examining it from this more personal perspective, perhaps a more valid and less biased conclusion can be drawn which explains the gender-wage gap.