Table of Contents
Definition of Second Shift
(noun) Household duties that follow a paid work day, typically completed by women.
Etymology of Second Shift
- Coined by Arlie Hochschild and Anne Machung in The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home (1989). The book was updated with new data in 2012.
Second Shift Pronunciation
Syllabification: sec·ond shift
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /sEk-uhnd shIft/
- British English – /sE-kuhnd shIft/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ˈsɛkənd ʃɪft/
- British English – /ˈsɛkənd ʃɪft/
Usage Notes
- Plural: second shifts
- Hochschild collected four strategies of resistance that men engage in to limit helping around the house that she called: needs reduction, playing dumb, substitute offerings, and waiting it out.
- The term symmetrical family, coined by Michael Young (1915–2002) and Peter Willmott (1923–2000) in The Symmetrical Family (1973), based on research in England, describes the evolution of the family structure towards a more egalitarian model of joint conjugal-role relationships. The implications and criticisms of this work are oft discussed in the social sciences.
Related Quotation
- “These extra duties off the job may affect performance on the job. Despite the image of the “24/7” woman who can have it all and do it all, the reality is that any person has only a finite amount of time, energy, and attention available. To the extent that women carry these additional burdens more than men, they are at a collective nonmerit disadvantage in the labor force competing with men” (McNamee and Miller 2013:198).
Additional Information
- Family and Kinship Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Word origin of “second” and “shift” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
Related Terms
- domestic labor
- egalitarianism
- homework
- household
- household allocative system
- household work strategy
- joint conjugal-role relationship
- marriage
- segregated conjugal-role relationship
- symmetrical family
Reference
McNamee, Stephen J., and Robert K. Miller, Jr. 2013. The Meritocracy Myth. 3rd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Works Consulted
Ferris, Kerry, and Jill Stein. 2010. The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology. 2nd ed. New York: Norton.
Kendall, Diana. 2011. Sociology in Our Times. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Kimmel, Michael S., and Amy Aronson. 2012. Sociology Now. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Kornblum, William. 2008. Sociology in a Changing World. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Macionis, John, and Kenneth Plummer. 2012. Sociology: A Global Introduction. 4th ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.
Ravelli, Bruce, and Michelle Webber. 2016. Exploring Sociology: A Canadian Perspective. 3rd ed. Toronto: Pearson.
Schaefer, Richard. 2013. Sociology: A Brief Introduction. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Cite the Definition of Second Shift
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “second shift.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved April 19, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/second-shift/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
second shift. (2014). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/second-shift/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “second shift.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed April 19, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/second-shift/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“second shift.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2014. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/second-shift/>.