The Career Mystique: Cracks in the American Dream. Phyllis Moen and Patricia Roehling

Abstract

The Career Mystique: Cracks in American Dream. Phyllis Moen and Patricia Roehling. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. 2004. 289 pp. ISBN 0-7425-2861-8. $65.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-7425-2862-6. $22.95 (paperback). Many have criticized structure of jobs and careers, which require degree of devotion incompatible with family responsibilities. In The Career Mystique, Phyllis Moen and Patricia Roehling extend this argument by approaching it from a gendered life course perspective. They argue that the issue is not how employees can balance their personal with demands of their jobs, but how and of policies and practices built up around it constrain women's and men's options at every stage of their lives (p. 22). Whereas Betty Friedan developed idea of mystique to problematize fulfillment stemming from domestic life, Moen and Roehling develop complementary concept of career mystique to problematize rewards of all-encompassing paid labor. They challenge belief that long hours of hard work bring job security and upward mobility to either majority of men or majority of women. Nevertheless, as they show, this myth still shapes not only individuals' expectations and values but also governmental policies and corporate regulations, creating a career regime that is out of sync with of contemporary workers. Moen and Roehling argue that and feminine have emerged in tandem as two gendered components of American Dream. When feminist movement challenged expectations of feminine mystique, however, it failed to challenge mystique. Designed to coexist with feminine mystique, now reigns supreme for both women and men, either ignoring work of social reproduction that was glorified by feminine or promoting an image of superwoman who combines a with being primarily responsible for childrearing and other unpaid work. As a result, both creates a care deficit and perpetuates gender divide. Further, assumes a lockstep progressing from full-time education to full-time employment to full-time leisure of retirement. Even though such lockstep careers were always unattainable for a substantial part of workforce, a large portion of employees in 1950s did have them. As job market changed and as more women climbed on bandwagon, however, this American Dream increasingly became a myth for majority of labor force. On one hand, job requirements remained essentially same as they were when only men were expected to follow mystique: Individuals are still expected to work long hours and put their jobs and careers above all else. On other hand, employment rewards have drastically changed: Even for White, middle-class men, their incomes are no longer sufficient to meet family needs and require dual earner arrangements; hard work and loyalty no longer guarantee job security; and link between seniority and higher income is frequently disrupted by layoffs. Indeed, the Faustian bargain of trading a lifetime of paid work for a lifetime of income security is probably gone forever (p. 9). After introductory chapter's discussion of concept of mystique, book takes reader through gendered life course and uses a variety of quantitative and qualitative data to examine women's and men's experiences with jobs and families and to document influence of on their lives. Chapters 2 and 3 examine occupational aspirations of children and young women and men, demonstrating that they learn myth of success early in life. …