Blog Post due Tuesday 11:59PM or in class on Wednesday at 9:05AM

Homework due Tuesday Nov 30 11:59PM:

R
ead Barbara Ehrenreich's “Maid to Order: The Politics of Other Women's Work” 479-495 and compose a blog response based on ONE of the following prompts:

1. Consider what audience this piece was written for. What assumptions does Ehrenreich make about this audience?

2. Consider Ehrenreich's ethos. What is the central argument of this piece? In what ways does her personal experience build her case?

3. Ehrenreich incorporates a range of research and statistics into her essay. Which statistical examples surprised you? Which are most persuasive? Least persuasive? Why?

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Maid to Order/ Question 1

Ehrenreich’s intended audience for this piece is people who are mostly ignorant to the hardships of low wage occupations and don’t appreciate how valuable these workers are. Although her topic is specifically housekeepers, I feel she is trying to speak for many others such as lawns men, garbage collectors; anyone who performs a job that is generally looked down upon but is essential for the maintenance of our society. She makes the correct assumption that most middle class people don’t really think about how difficult and generally unrewarding these positions are even though they are important. They may witness someone performing one of these jobs but most never actually consider how challenging and demeaning they can really be or how different life would be if no one filled these careers. What if no one could be called to clean your house or mow your lawn? What if no one showed up to collect your trash? The majority of the population doesn’t realize how significant these jobs are for our society to run as efficiently as it does.

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