Sociology Of Family

September 27, 2006

Sociology of the Family- Prof. Mason

Analysis of Getting by on the Minimum

"Getting by on the Minimum" by Jennifer Johnson is in depth analysis of working class women's work using interviews, economic theory and surveys. Current ideologies about career women are from the middle class perspective, while little or no attention is given to the work experiences of middle class women. This oversight is extremely significant since middle class women enter the work force for entirely different reasons and seek a different type of reward (personal fulfillment as opposed to being forced to support an entire household).

Working class women are motivated to enter the work force by financial responsibilities. Education levels also played a major role in the types of jobs which were attained. Those with no high school diplomas were working "gray collar" jobs. Johnson defines this as manual, relatively unskilled jobs which included factory work, constriction or any type of packing or assembling. Due to the relatively unskilled nature of these jobs (which meant employees were easily replaces) and the great financial need on the employee's part, women in these types of jobs got the least amount of respect, or encouragement from supervisors. Although this is the type of work with the least amount of mental challenge involved it is the most vigorously supervised and involves little or no autonomy. For example, in discussing a job experience at a super market, an interviewee (Phyllis) describes a situation in which the lack of autonomy is demeaning because it implies one doesn't have the mental capacity to make decisions and that making mistakes is expected of someone in that type of job:

A lot of times, it feels like I am , you know, in school. You know, like you don't know what you're supposed to do. We get W.I.C vouchers for women, infants and children, where they get milk and cheese and eggs and stuff. It used to be you just- well you had to check the date, make sure it was the right month, and make sure that they were getting the proper items, what's listed. And then you would just write in the amount. It couldn't go over the specified amount either, then you keyed it in. [The Office Staff] have to stamp these things before they send then back to the government. Well, now, when you get a W.I.C voucher you have to ring the bell and wait for somebody to come down. It's just like you're really stupid, [like] you can't read the date. (Johnson, pp.44)

Since we tend to view ourselves by other people's expectations, comment and actions, The lack of autonomy in this case is not only humiliating to the worker, but takes power away from the employee by making him/her feel incompetent, and maybe even start to doubt their own intelligence since they are treated as such.

Pink collar jobs are traditionally performed by women, and include secretaries, receptionists, or light office or filing work. These jobs are seen as more "respectable" since they aren't manual and usually require a high school degree. Although there is more autonomy, in some cases this "autonomy can be manipulated in such a way as to add to the employee's workload without adding benefits or prestige. One example of this is Greta, a secretary in a medical office:

It's a very tedious job, but you really have to know what you're doing. Because one foul- up, giving one wrong report of the wrong patient, you can end up really hurting somebody. By giving the wrong report. Because the doctor will call up and say, "Read off the report what I wrote there." So you have to read off the chart what he wrote there. I mean the doctor himself will call me and he'll say, "What does it say?" [I say], "You came here today. He wants to see you in six months. You had a lab test. He put medication. He did a pregnancy test and he did a sonogram." It's all [on] that piece of paper. I know every code he writes out." (Johnson, pp.48)

Greta may have more autonomy, but the doctor expects her to come even when she is sick. This isn't true autonomy since there are conditions attached to Greta's "autonomy."

In order to be within the doctors good graces she must forfeit certain privileges such as sick days. If I had the power to arrange this differently, I would offer training to ensure employee competence in the job since all the money spent on over- zealous supervision can be spent on better training and I would provide superior adequate sick and personal leaves and benefits for employees to be able to attract the most competent individuals and attain employee loyalty. When individuals feels good about themselves