Home & Work /Public & Private (Blog #3)

Care work is something that I have very familiar with in my family. Coming from an Italian family it’s something that we when you have a family member that has become ill, or is aging and can no longer care of themselves alone. In November of 1999 my grandmother became terminally ill with Lou Gehrig’s disease. This is a very uncommon disease that strikes people after they have burned out their motor neurons. It’s very fast moving and something that will take over the functioning of your body and limbs; However, something that does not affect their mind and brain. As I grew older and entered into the workforce it became more and more difficult to deal and assist my grandmother. Yet, she means the world to me. I really had to determine what type of care I could offer her, yet still be able to manage my work and school schedule as I was going to have to deal with all three of these items. For close to six years, I was able to help take her to appointments, dr visits, and all other sorts of recreational actives due to the flexibility I had at work. This was very nice to have this luxury as I enjoyed spending time with her, however, needed to make money to live and survive so I really did not have to choose to many times when I needed to be in two places around the same time.

The efforts made in the UK are very nice to see. I would say slowly but surely the United States is starting to adapt that model. What I mean by that is we are currently seeing more and more companies enter into the flex work program, work from home, and other options allowing for their employees to work more around a busy life schedule while still fulfilling their job duties. Because of this program, it is allowing many more women to enter into the working field; however, it’s still allowing them to manage their home lives. As the video refers to many women are working on average 12-15 more hours a week then men when you include their home duties. The reason behind this some researches refer as it being that men do not want to give up their machoism. While on the flip side a lot of women do not want to turn over the duties of ‘their’ home either.

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