For this week’s Discussion, you are back in your Discussion Groups.  This week, I want you to answer three questions and comment/discuss each other’s answers.  As always, you should first post your initial response before commenting on others.  Also, this week I made it so that you have to post before you can see other people’s posts.  This likely means you need to log-on multiple times this week to see what others are saying.

Question #1: Think about your home (either your current home if you live with a partner/spouse/significant other/family or the house you grew up in) – is there a gendered component to how labor is divided?  Think about the mental load cartoon and what we’ve read this week as you answer.  Consider the following questions/categories in constructing your answer:

• Who knows the Dr. information for the family?
• Who knows when you’re down to 1 roll of paper towels or toilet paper
• Who thinks about birth control?
• Who does meal planning?  Grocery shopping, cooking?
• Who knows how old your sheets and towels are?
• Who decides what time dinner is?
• Who knows where the thermometer is? 
• Who knows if you have cold medication or throat lozenges?
• Who monitors laundry detergent levels?

Question #2: What is ONE policy that you would like to see implemented right now to benefit families/workers?  Would your policy benefit everyone equally? How would it help families?  What about people who are not married, or don’t have children? Who would be left out – or how would you decide who benefits?  

Question #3: If you were designing a workplace that centered the needs of a diverse workforce (in regards to gender identity, sexual orientation, family status, age, etc) what would it look like? What would the standard hours be? Would people be able to work remotely? What type of amenities/benefits would you include?  For all of the details you provide, also include why you made that decision.