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10. What can resurrect family feelings and inspire a deep and
conscious urge to have children?
11. Who should be opt out of parenting for good?
WRITING
Write a summary of the article “The Very Personal Sides of
Women without Children” and a commentary on the problem
discussed in it.
TEXT 4
BABY BUST BORN OUT OF BOOMERS
by Jack Sirica
More American women are childless now than at any time since
the Great Depression. An increasing number of women postpone
motherhood — either by choice or circumstance: some 18 percent of
the nation’s women are now ending their childbearing years — age
44, according to federal statisticians — without having had children.
If the trend continues into the early part of the 21st century, as
demographers expect, the social and economic landscape of the
country could be altered in some dramatic ways. In part because оf the
new childlessness — primarily among the white middle class —
experts predict America in the next century will be older, more ethnically
diverse and much less the land of the traditional nuclear family.
Demographers say the trend toward childlessness is largely the
result of increasing numbers of women delaying marriage and
motherhood — often in favor of career and personal freedom — until
their late 20s or 30s. The delay contributed to the “baby boom act” of
the late 1980s, when millions of women in their 30s and early 40s had
their first children. But for millions of others, the postponement has
made it difficult to conceive оr carry a child to term.
Some reluctantly have given up; others have turned to adoption. But
many childless women say they have grown accustomed to their
lifestyles and have decided they don’t want to make the personal
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sacrifices necessary to raise a child, especially in tough economic and
social times.
“There’s an open-ended quality to life in this country today, which
I think, to some degree, comes out of the turmoil of the 1960s,” said
Dominick Cavallo, a historian at Adelphi University who has studied
the American family. “Making a commitment to have children means
that you’re going to be locked up for a significant number of years.“
One result is expected to be a major shift in demographic patterns
in the next century. By 2010, American Demographics magazine
predicts, nearly 19 million women will be living alone, an increase of
nearly 40 percent over 1990. And for marketers, aging baby boomers
“will make childless couples one of the hottest growth segments in the
1990s and 2000s,” the magazine reports.
The new childlessness is already fueling some of the most
prominent family trends of the day ― from the adoption movement to
the growth of fertility clinics, surrogate motherhood and women
having children without having husbands. All are driven, in large part,
by women who have postponed motherhood and are trying, sometimes
desperately, to have children before it’s too late.
Behind the census numbers are women like Laura Van Wallendael,
41, an insurance account representative from Long Island who first
tried to have a child when she was 32. Infertility treatments ultimately
failed and so did her marriage. “We always avoided a lot of things
because we had a lot of material things,” Van Wallendael, who is now
single, says with some regret. “We both had great careers. We owned
a home. We owned two cars. We had two or three vacations a year.
What do you need a little kid for?”
The baby boomers who have been driving up the childless numbers
are at the confluence of a number of social trends that have been
building as the group has come of age: the rise in the number of women
in well-paid professions; the widely held view that the decision not to
have a family is perfectly valid; the widespread use of modern
contraceptives and the legal availability of abortion; and the increasing
costs, in both dollars and crimped lifestyles, of raising children.
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New York City writer Lynne Dumas, author of “Talking With
Your Child About a Troubled World,” says she went to the brink of
pregnancy in her late 30s before realizing she did not want kids.
“At one point I thought I might have been pregnant,” she said. “I
flipped out.” She felt “relieved, rather than feeling sad,” when she
determined she wasn’t pregnant. At 43 she says one of the biggest
reasons she has decided to remain childless is a reluctance to disturb
her marriage, which she says is happy.
In the language of sociologists and economists, women like Dumas
are unwilling to pay the “opportunity costs” of having children ―
shorthand for the losses in income and personal freedom and the
marital strains that children can bring.
Such costs have always existed. At the turn of the century and even
later, employers forced women to quit when they married. But at no
time in U.S. history have American families been so dependent on
women’s incomes just to meet expenses. Currently, 50 percent of
women with children under five have jobs ― a record proportion that
is expected to rise.
“If a woman has a child, it sets up a situation where she either has
to leave the labor force or cut down on her hours,” says Miriam King,
a sociologist at the University of Michigan. “Her family or her
household pays a price.” Richard Easterlin, an economist at the
University of Southern California, also argues that the dramatic drop
in childbearing among baby boomers relates in part to the high
material expectations they developed growing up in the affluent 1950s
and 1960s.
Such influences are expected to continue lo produce profound
changes in the economics of the American family. By 2010, according
to projections by American Demographics, the number of married
couples without children is expected to increase by nearly 50 percent ―
to nearly 31 million.
Marketers predict that the high numbers of childless couples and
singles under 45 are likely to boost sales of everything from fancy
automobiles and gourmet takeout food to home health care geared
toward people with no one around to take care of them.
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“If they never have children to deal with, you can expect to have a
lot more money to spend on themselves,” said Brad Edmond-son,
editor in chief of American Demographics.
But Gerald Celente, editor and publisher of the Trends Journal in
Rhinebeck, NY, said the spending habits of childless boomers will
change markedly with age: “There’ll be a demand for high-nutrition
food and a demand for nutritional services” as more people look for
ways to care for themselves. “As people start aging,” Celente said,
“there’s going to be no one there.”
CULTURAL ASSOCIATIONS
Look up the following entries in the Dictionary of U. S. Life and
Culture («Жизнь и культура США: Лингвострановедческий
словарь») or other dictionaries and encyclopedias:
affluent society
baby boomer
Great Depression
nuclear family
takeout
ACTIVE VOCABULARY
to postpone motherhood
to postpone (v) — to cause or arrange for an event, etc to happen
at a later time: the match was postponed to a later time; to be
postponed indefinitely
postponement (n)
childbearing years
childbearing (adj) — of the process of giving birth to children
open-ended (adj) — 1. without any clear end, aim, or time limit set in
advance; broad, unlimited, or unrestricted 2. open to change;
allowing for modifications as things develop
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to make a commitment
commitment (n) — 1. a responsibility or promise to follow certain
beliefs or a certain course of action 2. the state of being committed;
deeply felt loyalty to a particular aim, cause, etc.
fertility (n) — the state or condition of being fertile: the fertility of the
soil; great fertility of mind. Antonym: infertility: infertility
treatments
surrogate motherhood
surrogate (adj) — a person or thing that acts for or is used instead
of another; a substitute
surrogate mother — a woman having a baby for another woman
who cannot have one herself, using an egg or sperm from the two
people who will be the baby’s parents
confluence (n, fml) —1. a flowing together, esp. of two or more
streams 2. a coming together as of people; crowd
valid (adj) — 1. (of a reason or argument, etc.) firmly based on what
is true or reasonable 2. that can legally be used for a stated period
or in certain conditions
reluctance (n) – unwillingness leading to slow acts, etc.
labor force — synonym: workforce
to cut down on hours
to cut down on (v) — to reduce the amount or quantity of
something; to reduce the amount one spends, eats, smokes, etc.
drop in childbearing
drop (n) — reduction, fall: a drop in prices / temperature; a big
drop of people out of work
to boost sales
to boost (v) — to help or encourage something; to increase the
strength or the value of something
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ASSIGNMENTS
I. Translate the sentences into Russian:
1. I am not planning to get married because I don’t want any
commitments.
2. During the Great Depression over 21 percent of women of
childbearing age had no children.
3. They met at the confluence of the Volga and the Kama rivers.
4. I haven’t given up drinking, but I’m cutting down.
5. We are postponing our vacation until August.
6. The company experiences another drop in the sales of its
product.
7. In Britain and the U.S. it is now against the law to pay a
surrogate mother, but she can agree to become one in favor of a friend
or relative.
8. I am not going to get married because I don’t want any
commitments.
9. Bob agreed to help Judith, but with a certain reluctance.
10. I believe this is an open-ended discussion.
11. She’s always trying to boost his ego by telling him how clever
he is.
12. The confluence of ideas made them close friends and partners.
13. I don’t think this is a valid excuse for arriving so late at work.
14. The company’s success this year would not have been possible
without the commitment and dedication of the staff.
15. The doctor told me to cut down on smoking.
16. Your international passport is no longer valid.
17. We expect a big drop in the temperature by the end of the
month.
18. They plan to boost production by 30 percent next year.
II. Answer the questions paying special attention to the
additional vocabulary:
1. How can you explain and interpret the title of the article: “Baby
Bust Born Out of Boomers”?
2. What is the percentage of women in the U.S.A. ending their
childbearing years without having children?
136
3. Why do women postpone motherhood?
4. How can the drop in childbearing influence the social and
economic landscape of the U.S.A. in the nearest future?
5. What is meant by “an open-ended quality to life” in the U.S.A.
today?
6. What does commitment to have children mean?
7. What are the most prominent family trends of the day?
8. What are the causes for the dramatic drop in childbearing
among baby boomers? The confluence of what social factors has
contributed to it?
9. What can postponed motherhood result in?
10. Do infertility treatments work for most women?
11. Do you think the decision not to have a family is valid?
12. What adjustments must a mother with a child make
considering her job?
13. Why do marketers predict that childless couples are likely to
boost sales? What products are they speaking about?
14. Comment on the final phrase of the article: “As people start
aging, there’s going to be no one there.”
WRITING
Write an essay on the following topic based on the information
from the texts you have read. Remember to use your active
vocabulary.
Kids or career and personal freedom?
TEXT 5
SEXUAL HARASSMENT
by J. A. Boss)
Sexual harassment continues to be a problem in both the workplace
and schools. According to the National Organization of Women
(NOW), 50 to 75 percent of employed women experience sexual
harassment of the job, in the great majority of cases by a man in a
more powerful position. Seventeen percent of female college students
report being sexually harassed by an instructor. The law has been slow
to recognize sexual harassment as a form of discrimination against
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women. Although an amendment was added in 1972 to the Civil
Rights Act specifically prohibiting sexual harassment, women are still
reluctant to complain or sue because the costs of doing so are high,
and in many cases courts have ruled against them.
Many people believe that charges of sexual harassment are simply
instances of miscommunication between men and women, or cultural
differences, rather than a misuse of power. They also believe that
sexual harassment is a “woman’s problem,” or that women use
charges to get back at man, or that it is an attempt to desexualize the
workplace, or that women are just being too sexually repressed.
There is an opinion that the definitions of sexual harassment are so
broad that they create distrust and suspicion among men and women
by implying that men are sexual predators and that women are their
helpless victims. In many cases women just have to stand up to their
harassers instead of playing the role of victim.
ASSINMENTS
I. Translate the text into Russian in writing.
II. Look up the definition of “sexual harassment” in the
Dictionary of U. S. Life and Culture («Жизнь и культура США:
Лингвострановедческий словарь») or other dictionaries and
encyclopedias.
TEXT 6
DISCLOSURE
by Michael Crichton
1
(Episode I, abridged)
Fernandez pushed back from her desk and began to stuff papers
into her briefcase. “I have five minutes, but let me review for you
what sexual harassment actually is, under the law, because many
clients aren’t clear about it. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
1
Notice that “Crichton” is pronounced as [‘kraitn].
138
made sex discriminations on the workplace illegal, but as a practical
matter what we call sexual harassment was not defined for many
years. Since the middle nineteen-eighties, the Equal Employment
Opportunities Commission has, under Title VII, produced guidelines
to define sexual harassment. In the last few years, these EEOC
guidelines have been further clarified by case law. So the definitions
are quite explicit. According to the law, for a complaint to qualify as a
sexual harassment, the behavior must contain three elements. First, it
must be sexual. That means, for example, that making a profane or
scatological joke is not sexual harassment, even though a listener may
find it offensive. The conduct must be sexual in nature.
Second, the behavior must be unwelcome. The courts distinguish
between behavior that is voluntary and behavior that is welcome. For
example, a person may be having a sexual relationship with a superior
and it’s obviously voluntary — no one’s holding a gun to the persons
head. But the courts understand that the employee may feel that they
have no choice but to comply, and therefore the sexual relationship
was not freely entered into — it’s not welcome.
To determine if behavior is really unwelcome, the courts look at
the surrounding behavior in broad terms. Did the employee make
sexual jokes in the workplace, and thus indicate that such jokes from
others were welcome? Did the employee routinely engage in sexual
banter, or sexual teasing with other employees? If the employee
engaged in an actual affair, did they allow the supervisor into their
apartment, did they visit the supervisor in the hospital, or see them at
times when they didn’t strictly have to, or engage in other actions that
would suggest that they were actively and willingly participating in
the relationship. In addition, the courts look to see if the employee
ever told the supervisor the behavior was unwelcome, if the employee
complained to anyone else about the relationship or tried to take any
action to evade the unwelcome situation. That consideration becomes
more significant when the employee is highly placed, and presumably
more free to act.
The third element in sexual harassment is discrimination on the
basis of gender. The most common is quid pro quo — the exchange of
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sexual favors in return for keeping your job or getting a promotion.
The threat of that may be explicit or implied.
Now, there is a final consideration, which we call hostile working
environment. This is ordinarily invoked by situations where an
individual is harassed in a pattern of incidents that may not in
themselves be sexual but that cumulatively amount to harassment
based on gender.”
ASSIGNMENT
On the basis of the text, summarize the main guidelines to
define sexual harassment. Do they make it easy to decide whether
a case should be viewed as sexual harassment? Where can
difficulties arise from?
TEXT 7
DISCLOSURE
by Michael Crichton
(Episode II, abridged)
Masters was fifty, a marketing manager at MicroSym. A stable
guy, solid citizen, married twenty-five years, two kids — the older girl
in college, the younger girl a junior in high school. The younger girl
starts to have trouble with school, her grades go down, so the parents
send her to a child psychologist. The child psychologist listens to
the
daughter and then says: “You know, this is the typical story of an
abused child. Do you have anything like that in your past?”
“Gee,”
the girl says, “I don’t think so.”
“Think back,” the psychologist says.
At first the girl resists, but the psychologist keeps at her: “Think
back. Try to remember.” And after a while, the girl starts to recall
some vague memories. Nothing specific, but now she thinks it’s
possible. Maybe Daddy did do something wrong, way back when.
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