Intro:
Hook: Would you say money is the driving power of the world?
Intro Content: (Explain that it is not the money that drives people, it is freedom). The freedom of the people and their desires for employment.
Show that a shift occurred from the 1950’s by giving background info.
Explain the importance of employment and what it means.
Detail how much perception affects the modern-day worker.
Thesis: Through the recent centuries, the perceptions of employment have changed due to the increase in societal pressures on women, the universal shift towards the dual-income family, and the shift away from stable-income jobs.
Body 1: Review of the shift
Sub 1: Societal pressures on women
Topic sentence: Over the last several decades, women have gained the pressure to enter the workforce as well as still manage their duties within the household due to a change in societal standards.
Quote: “In the 1950s, women felt tremendous societal pressure to focus their aspirations on a wedding ring” (PBS).
Analysis: This quote will be used to convey some of the societal expectations that were placed on women in the past and will convey that employment was not one of the major factors in the average woman’s life.
Quote: “As a result, women’s share of the labor force has increased considerably during the last 50 years, moving from 30 percent in 1950 to 47 percent in 2000. It is projected that in 2050, the shares will be 48 percent for women and 52 percent for men” (Tossi).
Analysis: This second quote will bring the paragraph to the present and help display the fact that women currently make up almost half of the workforce but are still expected to tend to their at-home duties. This creates a double standard and forces women to live two lives at once. Overall, the rest of the analysis will focus on the severity of this change and how women are now expected to both work and take care of the home/children.
Sub 2: Universal shift towards the dual-income family
Topic sentence: Due to a significant change in employment expectations in the US, the prevalence of the dual-earner household sparked societal reform and economic growth.
Quote: “The proportion of dual earner married couples more than doubled between 1960 and 2000, increasing from 25 percent to 60 percent” (Fisher).
Analysis: This paragraph will mostly describe the societal norm of the dual-earner family and the necessity for this shift. The consequences of the shift (middle-class earners) will be described in a later paragraph. Overall, this paragraph will serve as a precursor to the later paragraph and will convey that there was a significant growth in economic availability with the modernization of the dual-earner household.
Sub 3: Shift away from stable income jobs
Topic sentence: During recent events, the employment market has begun to shift towards more self-employment positions due to an influx of timely incentives.
Quote: “While this proves true for the finance and insurance industry, which exhibited a decline in overall employment of only 2.3% and a 20.2% increase in self-employment” (Gregory).
Analysis: In recent years many male-dominated jobs have started to go vacant as many employees consider self-employment opportunities. There is a lot of hype over not having a boss and working for yourself in the current market.
As someone who is self-employed currently, I can relate to the idea of striving towards financial freedom and employment freedom.
Quote: “The market has grown astonishingly quickly: since 2019, it has more than doubled on the strength of platforms such as Instagram and YouTube (in Western countries)…in 2023, the influencer marketing economy was valued at $21.1 billion” (McKinsey).
Analysis: Content creation has become a very popular path for many individuals of all backgrounds. A job where you can creatively express yourself and earn a solid income without the need for a degree. More and more people are watching influencers and chasing their dreams through creative entrepreneurship instead of the classic 9-5.
Body 2: Causes
Political Movements paragraph:
Topic sentence: Through political movements, such as the women’s rights movement, women were granted the opportunity to have success in the workplace by attaining high-income jobs in previously man-dominated fields.
Quote: “The second-wave feminism of the women’s rights movement touched on every area of women’s experience—including politics, work, the family, and sexuality” (Burkett).
Quote: “Women have overtaken men and now account for more than half (50.7%) of the college-educated labor force in the United States” (Fry).
Analysis: Mainly focus on the women’s rights movement and how politics and policies gave way to grant women the right to work in high-income and high-position jobs.
Media paragraph:
Topic sentence: With the incorporation of social media, self-employment and the strive for single-handed success have never been in so much demand due to the ease of customer outreach.
Quote: “Since TikTok has such huge user and audience growth, some small businesses and brands’ products blew up because of TikTok. Advertising on TikTok is more convenient and less costly than other traditional ones, like commercials on TVs or posters” (Cui).
Analysis: Media has strongly affected many small businesses when it comes to popularity and advertising. Before, there did not exist a platform where you could easily have a network of interested customers at your fingertips. This new move to social media has started this shift towards self-employment. Also, many young adults may feel pressured by social media and see these small businesses grow within a matter of days and wish to replicate their success.
Body 3: Results/Consequences
Covid paragraph:
Topic sentence: While Covid had a very drastic impact on the employment market due to parents having to stay home to take care of children, the post-pandemic era has opened many opportunities for young mothers to find successful employment.
Quote: “However, households in the first and second quintiles (Q1 and Q2) both saw 7 percentage point increases in dual unemployment from March to April 2020, reaching approximately 8.5%” (Birinci).
Analysis: During the pandemic, the labor force was drastically hit and unemployment became a very serious issue for many families especially low-income families.
However…
Quote: “Women with minor children—those younger than age 18—at home saw particular improvement in employment over the course of 2022, thanks to widespread reopening of schools, expanded child care stabilization funding, and availability of vaccines for young children” (Almeida).
Analysis: With the reopening of schools after the pandemic reset, more young females with children were able to find employment and could continue to expand the workforce into the future.
Living difficulties for the middle class:
Topic sentence: In the modern day, the dual-earner family system has practically become a necessity for most middle-class Americans due to its widespread acceptance and the economic struggles of the US.
Quote: “Until the late 1960’s, not much attention was paid to families in which both husband and wife worked…” (Hayghe).
Quote: “In the past year alone, home prices have leaped 20% and the cost of all goods is up 8.5%. Families are paying $3,500 more this year for the basic set of goods and services … Average hourly earnings, by contrast, are down 2.7% when adjusted for inflation” (Semuels).
Analysis: Overall, this paragraph will go into the idea that America has gotten used to the dual-earner family, and for many middle-class Americans, this has become a necessity. Before, the second income source was a luxury but now, with the current economic downturns we are facing, many Americans are even struggling to keep a stable home financially with two earners under the roof.
Conclusion:
Restate Thesis.
Overall, this shift has brought about plenty of great reform and positive change. Even with some hiccups along the way, such as Covid, the modern-day perception of employment is headed in the right direction.
Call to action
Temporary Source List (will fully cite later):
>https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2002/05/art2full.pdf
> https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1981/02/art5full.pdf
>https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-mrs-america-womens-roles-1950s/
>https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2019/CES-WP-19-19.pdf
> https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-influencer-marketing
>https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2022/jul/self-employment-returns-growth-path-pandemic
> https://www.britannica.com/event/womens-movement
>https://www.americanprogress.org/article/fact-sheet-the-state-of-women-in-the-labor-market-in-2023/ >https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2021/may/covid19-effects-dual-earner-households
> https://time.com/6171292/middle-class-falling-behind-economy/