She believes that her desires should be just as important as Evan’s, yet Evan feels somewhat differently. Nancy wanted to have her own life, her own dreams. Due to the fact that Nancy had a mother who lived her life as a housewife and as a result, was treated inferior to Nancy’s father and in turn, was very depressed and lacked self-confidence, Nancy had ambition to be anything except for like her mother (Hochschild, 1989, p. This leads to frequent conflict between Nancy and Evan.īoth Nancy and Evan bump heads when it comes to their gender ideologies (Hochschild, 1989, p. Nonetheless, this still leaves Nancy doing more than half of the “Second Shift” all on her own, giving Evan much more leisure time than Nancy is allowed. Not ironically, Evan only believes that Nancy completes “60 percent of the housework, 70 percent of the childcare” (Hochschild, 1989, p. When asked about the division of household labor between the two, Nancy claims that “she was doing 80 percent of the housework and 90 percent of the childcare” (Hochschild, 1989, p. Nancy and Evan Holt display a lot of struggle with balancing the tasks which need to be finished during their “Second Shift”.

As a result, the couple believes that Joey also has a negative impact on their sex life, especially when Joey decides he only wants to sleep in their bed with them during the night (Hochschild, 1989). Not surprisingly, Joey’s problem because Nancy’s problem and she becomes fully responsible for getting Joey to sleep each night. Both Evan and Nancy state that Joey has a “problem”, which is explained as his desire to stay awake all night rather than going to bed at 8:00 when Nancy and Evan begin trying to put him to sleep. Although he eventually shows more effort towards developing a closer relationship with Joey, Joey still exhibits much more closeness to Nancy. At one point in the article, Evan claims that “little kids need their moms more than they need their dads” (Hochschild, 1989, p. He expresses a fairly distant relationship with his son and believes it to be normal and typical. Evan, on the other hand, is more isolated from Evan and Nancy’s “home life”. Nancy is very involved with her family and her extreme attachment to Joey is very evident. She is very compulsive and in many ways, I believe, strives to be a perfectionist both at home and with her career. Nancy describes herself as a feminist, an egalitarian, and a liberal throughout Hochschild’s article (Hochschild, 1989). They are a dual-earner family, with Nancy working as a social worker and Evan, a warehouse furniture salesman. Briefly describe the story of Evan and Nancy Holt.Įvan and Nancy Holt are a married couple in their thirties with a four-year old son named Joey. Gager, personal communication, July 6, 2011).Ģ. Their story supports the belief that “girls and women perform more household labor than their male peers – even when they work full-time” (C. Evan and Nancy’s story express the importance of being able to equally balance the “Second Shift” tasks between husband and wife to avoid one spouse, in many cases the wife, from feeling as if they are completing all of the “Second Shift” responsibilities by themselves (Hochschild, 1989). Hochschild (1989) also discusses the significance of a couple’s ability to maintain an appropriate emotional balance between one’s life at home, their job outside of the house, their spouse, and their children in regards to the “Second Shift” (Hochschild, 1989, p. 2), maintaining satisfactory relationships with relatives and neighbors, and taking care of the children and pets, if any (Hochschild, 1989, p.

These tasks and responsibilities include jobs such as “shopping, cooking, paying bills taking care of the car, the garden, and yard” (Hochschild, 1989, p. A “Second Shift” consists of various different tasks that one still has left to do after completing their “First Shift” of the day. According to Hochshild, what is the “Second Shift?”Īccording to Hochschild (1989), the “Second Shift” is the end of one’s day when a person is finished working their “First Shift”, typically at one’s full-time job or just the time of their day during which they are away from home.

Second shift