2. Read the text and fulfill the tasks after it: Work or Family: There’s a Problem

When the 20-th century began most of American families shared one characteristics: the wife didn’t work outside the home. The only exceptions were black women. If a wife worked it meant that her husband was not able to support a family. By contrast to the beginning of the century, in the 1990s over 60% of women were in the work force. The transformation was relatively quick. The two major reasons for that were the Great Depression and the World War II – when most women just had to start working. They became electricians, machinists, carpenters, as well as lawyers, engineers, physicians and proved that they could do this sort of work not worse than men.

As work for married women is now accepted and commonplace, the internal character of American families has greatly changed. Most women have to combine family and work outside the home. There is the so-called Supermom – the woman who tries to juggle a career with a family. Others have come to the conclusion that the dual role can often cause them to be mediocre at both. So they’ve given up their career to stay home with children. Some view it as a temporary solution until their children start school. But even when at home, women pursue various interests. They participate in all kinds of organizations, e.g., English-teaching committees for the foreign-born, in fund-raising activities for the colleges they graduated from, the jog in the morning with friends, etc. All that gives them a feeling of achievement.

The major worry for most is that if they decide to go back to work they’ll have problems with finding jobs. Many women say they continue reading in their fields so that they won’t fall behind. Others say that they communicate with their former colleagues to keep up with what is going on. Otherwise, they say, you feel that you’re “a bit of touch”.

Men haven’t easily accepted changes in the family pattern with working women. Sometimes they show anger and resentment. One Atlanta attorney says, “My wife has her own career as a lawyer and when I arrive home from a tough day, all I want to do is put my feet up and have a drink – the sort of thing a man always expects. Instead I have to help with the household or attend to my children. I frequently have to cut short my own working day in order to pick up our eighteen-month-old son from day care or to spend time with my older child. Often I’m also the one who is on call in case of illness, who prepares many of the meals, and who keeps the house clean”.

On the one hand, a majority of men now believe that both sexes should enjoy equal employment opportunities, but on the other, most also believe that children may be harmed psychologically if their mothers work outside the home. This contradiction increasingly rules the Americans.

Tasks to the Text

Task 1. Find in the text English equivalents for the following expressions. Read out the sentences with the expressions and translate the sentences into Russian. Use these expressions in the sentences of your own.

с одной стороны домашнее хозяйство принимать участие трудный/напряженный день посредственный противоречие обычный временное решение отстать

раздражение и обида быть в курсе событий прийти к выводу единственное исключение содержать семью сократить рабочий день рабочая сила достижение вредить

Task 2. Fill in the gaps with the appropriate word (-combination) from Task 1.

1. …..my wife is a very kind and intelligent woman, but on the other, she sometimes shows…..and….. .

2. When women come home after…..they just have no strength for…… .

3. Women staying at home with children…..in various fields such as charity organizations, women’s clubs, sport society etc.

4. After recent nervous breakdown I came to a…..that I should….. .

5. He’s rather a…..student and if he misses many classes he’ll…..the group.

6. As it’s he who……he has to work long hours.

7. Having five children is a remarkable……, at the same time it’s an exception.

Task 3. Points for discussion.

• Why do you think it was unusual for American women to work at the beginning of the XX^th century?

• Why did most women start working after World War II?

• What problems does a woman face when she has to combine family and work?

• Why do some women decide to give up their careers for their children’s sake?

• Why do women staying at home with children go in for different activities? What do they do?

• What do American men think of working women?

• Do you think that children “may be harmed psychologically if their mothers work”?

• Nowadays there’s such a phenomenon as “house-husband”. What do you think about it?

3. Watch the film “Family Album, USA” (Episode 22 “Career Choices”). Follow the guide to the film given in the manual “Traditions and Habits of American People”

4. Use these cards to discuss “family problems”.