1. Explain the meaning of the following phrases and use them while discussing the text.

• to turn over paychecks;

• a home maker;

• a raiser of children;

• means of self-fulfilment;

• unpaid maternity leave;

• to contribute to the family budget.

2. Find the words in the text which have a similar meaning to the following. Translate them into Russian/Belarusian.

• extreme tiredness;

• to come across, to meet;

• to bring up children;

• to criticize or punish sb severely;

• a strong feeling in society that a type of behaviour is shameful;

• to keep the house;

• firmly established and difficult to change;

• to believe that sth is true without making sure.

3. Insert a preposition or a particle where necessary.

1. In many families husbands turn … their paychecks to their wives.

2. Teenage children often contribute … the family budget.

3. When a family wants to buy really expensive things they decide … it together.

4. In some countries there is a stigma … being simply a housewife.

5. In some families it is the wife who takes responsibility … managing the household.

6. She never complains … the problems her family faces.

Speech activities

1. Agree or disagree. Give arguments to sustain your ground.

1. Ordinary Russian women take it for granted that they are the binding force in the family.

2. Russian women prefer the exhaustion of too many burdens to the “spiritual death”.

3. Having to be breadwinner can transform work from a means of self-fulfilment and independence into drudgery.

4. The Russian women are rebelling inwardly against having to be breadwinners.

2. What in your opinion are the similarities/differences between the role and status of women in British/American and post-soviet families. For more information and new ideas read the supplementary texts They’ll never go home again and Working Mothers.

3. Give arguments for or against the following statements. Develop the idea.

• A pay cheque is the most powerful instrument of liberation.

• Women are not needed at home any more.

• Women work because they want to.

4. Role-play. Discuss the problem.

The Problem.

Mrs Webb is married with two children who are both now of school age. For the last ten years she has been a housewife, but would now like to rejoin the work force. She is a qualified nurse. Her husband, however, is very resistant to the idea.

The Characters.

The frustrated housewife: Ann Webb

She was a nurse before she got married. She has been a housewife for the last ten years and feels bored. Her children are both of school age, so she wants to go back to work. One of her dreams is to be able to afford an overseas trip to visit her parents. She hasn’t seen them for 11 years.

Husband: Bob Webb.

He is a sales representative earning only an average wage. He has no qualifications and has been working in the same job without promotion, for the last ten years. He has a very traditional view of the role of the wife and mother within the family. He is resistant to the idea of his wife going back to work.

Grandparent: Mr or Mrs Webb senior (either mother or father of Bob and Alice).

He/she is elderly with health problems, lives with Bob and Ann but doesn’t get on with Alice because he/she dislikes the fact that Alice puts her child in a child-minding centre during the day. He/she has very traditional views of the role of the wife and mother within the family and, although liking Ann, doesn’t want her to go back to work.

Bob’s sister: Alice Jones.

She is a social worker/marriage counselor and enjoys her job. She has just booked a world cruise which she is able to afford because she works. She went back to work as soon as her child was born. She has one child who is 18 months old. The child is looked after in a child-minding centre. Alice thinks Ann should go back to work for many reasons.

Alice’s husband: Richard Jones.

He is a teacher. He is very liberal in his views about his wife’s role. At first he was unhappy about the child being put into a child-minding centre, but says now that it is working out very well.

The Discussion

Assemble into your discussion groups and, by discussing the problem, try to work out a way to solve it. Afterwards each group is going to be asked to give an account of the outcome of the discussion. While discussing the problem use the appropriate language exponents from the Speech Functions Bank.

Chris Carter. . For a Change. 2001

Listening comprehension