Social Integration of Women

When starting a family in contemporary American society, women are faced with greater challenges and fewer supports, increased and confusing choices about work and family arrangements, ambiguities about men’s and women’s proper roles, and demanding expectations of themselves to be both a knowledgeable and nurturing partner and parent. In a detailed, qualitative study, Arlie Hoschilds (1989) notes that working mothers come home to a “second shift,” where they are working an extra month a year in comparison to their husbands. This paper explores the assumption that the gender roles of men and women influence the institution of marriage and lead to the social isolation of women.
This study examines the satisfaction men and women derive from their social system, in particular the institution of community. Social integration can be defined as the degree to which an individual is psychologically linked to others in a group. Katz and Kahn (1978) argued that the integration of a socia...