Passage - General Questions

[Administrator]

Passage Discussion

VIEWSTAMP Analysis:

The primary Viewpoint presented here is that of the author, who feels that the inflexibility of traditional work schedules is at times a severe impediment to women in the workforce, as they typically bear the burden of primary child-care responsibilities.

The Structure of the passage is as follows:

• Paragraph One: The first paragraph presents a number of examples to illustrate the inflexibility of conventional full-time workdays for parents with primary child care responsibility. This paragraph does not make a gender distinction, but merely serves to establish the difficulties some parents face in trying to balance child rearing responsibilities while maintaining a traditional work schedule.
  
  Paragraph Two: This paragraph states that the inflexibility of traditional work schedules primarily disadvantages women, as they more frequently bear the primary child rearing responsibilities.
  
  Paragraph Three: The third paragraph notes that women are often forced to take on undesirable part-time employment as a compromise between work schedule and child care.
  
  Paragraph Four: This paragraph continues to discuss the compromises that working mothers must often make, however the author here is discussing the challenges facing mothers with full-time jobs.

The author’s Tone is clearly critical of current employment practices and the hardships they pose for female parents.

The Main Point of this passage can be found by looking at the first and second paragraphs: the inflexibility of traditional work schedules disadvantages working parents, and because women are usually the primary child care providers they bear the more significant brunt of this inflexibility.