Ethnography Paper

This is my Ethnography paper.

Ethnography: Pharmacy
For my ethnography paper I did my research on a female pharmacist. The central question I wanted to find out for this paper was if the field of pharmacy allowed women to have a balance with home and work. The reason I asked this particular question was because this is what I am majoring in and I wanted to just see firsthand if this job allowed women to have a balance in their lives. I also picked this question because I found the days we discussed this in class to be the most interesting to me. This is one topic that we have talked about that will affect me in the future. The different type questions I would need to ask her would be along the lines of how many days do you work a week, what time to you start working and get home from work. The investigations I would need to make would be to go and sit in one day and watch her work.
After thinking about my central question of if the pharmacy field allowed women to have a balance between home and work, I began to think about the different ways I will gather the information to answer my question. The ways I thought of were to go in to the hospital and watch her work from a whole day then I came up with a few questions to ask her about her job as a pharmacists. The questions I asked her were:
1.How many days a week do you work? Dr. Stowers answer was 3 days a week
2.How many hours a week to do you work? Her answer was 24 hours a week
3.Is it hard to be a full time pharmacist and be a mom? No, because I actually work less than a lot of people and still make more money than a lot of people.
4.How old were you when you got out of college and started your career? 26 years old when I got out of pharmacy school and then a few years later I had my daughter.
5.Is the pharmacy field good with letting you off for maturity leave? Yes, I got off as long as I wanted. That’s the good thing with pharmacy you can take off a year to be a mom and there is always a place for you when you get back.
During the time I was observing Dr. Stowers I got there when she did at 9:00 a.m. and she immediately began working. Her day consisted of following doctors and filling prescriptions and keeping the place in order. Since she is a full time pharmacist with her doctorate she has full control over the pharmacy in the local hospital. She was also able to answer phone calls from her family throughout the day and then at the end of the day she was able to get off and go pick up her kids from school. Dr. Stowers also only worked Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, to me this was a huge way she was able to spend more time with her family.
In my case of my research I found the question I asked to be true, she was able to have a balance between her work and her home and family. Things that could be missing from my research were that I only did my research over one pharmacist to where if I really wanted to test out this question I could research more pharmacists and see if there is a consistent balance in their lives. Anthropologists and sociologist could get more information about this issue by researching more pharmacists and ask more in depth questions. They could also observe them for more days then I was able to.

Blog Number Eight

When I googled Belkin's essay I found that women either agreed or disagreed with her. I think that is how most women are though they are either for or against women opting out. The women that were for Belkin's essay were mostly all women that did opt out of working. The ones that were against her were the women that were still working or were bitter that they could not do the same. The experiences in my life are that my mom is a kindergarten teacher so there has never really been a problem were with her working or having three children. Since my mom only had six weeks of maturity leave, she had to find some where for us to stay. When my sister was born since she was the first my mom was very apprehensive about leaving her with people she did not really know so for the first year my grandma kept her. When she had me at six weeks she took me to this lady that kept a lot of teachers kids. I went to her the first day and stayed with her from when I was six weeks old to when I was five and going to kindergarten. Even though my mom still had job I do no think that effected how me and siblings were raised. I do not really see a problem with women working and having kids.

Response to Readings:

In the readings I read through all the statistics of women that went to college in 1975 to 2000. I think that the reason the numbers are so much higher is because we have more opportunities now. I think though that women should choose if they want to stay at home and keep the kids or work. Most of the women I know have jobs and have families. I think a lot of it has to do with being able to balance your life. I do believe that is something that today's society does not know how to do. I think that also in today's society being a pregnant teen is not shameful and that I think that that is where a lot of the unbalance comes from. These girls start the harder part of their life so soon and never have time to really enjoy life. I honestly think that if you really want to have a job and have a family then you will find a way to make it all happen. I do not really get what the big deal is!

Blog Number Seven

I haven't watch many movies lately I never have time to sit down and watch one. The movie though that popped into my head was Legally Blonde. This movie shows the ultimate stereotype for blonde headed girls. The movie I remember was advertised with commercials all the time. It was advertised as a ditzy blonde becoming something big. This movie the main character Elle Woods lived in a sorority house and almost all the girls in the house had blonde hair. Elle wanted to go to law school to show her ex boyfriend that she could be a lawyer. In the end Elle ended up being the best lawyer and graduated from Harvard with a job in place and her ex boyfriend didn't have any job offers. The significance was that the movie showed how most people view blonde headed girls but in the end it showed that they too can be something great. I think that this portrayal is what made the movie so popular and such a big hit.

Movie Review:
Written by: Karen McCullah Luzt, Kristen Smith
"If you've ever doubted how much a star can carry a movie, look no further than Legally Blonde, Robert Luketic's pop fluff about a sorority girl who becomes the reigning brain at Harvard Law School. The film tries way too hard to be pop fluff, but thankfully it also understands the comic glories of Reese Witherspoon. As Elle Woods, the supposedly dimwitted heroine, Witherspoon gives a high-wattage performance that somehow comes across as both lusciously cartoonish and warmly human. It's a radiant comic turn worthy of Marilyn Monroe, and Luketic throws the whole movie at her, even though its intentional kitsch and sledgehammer... "


Response to Readings:
The F-Word chapter 7 was about relationships and how the majority of women in today's time either don't get married or it ends in divorce. I think that the reason this is so high is that marriage isn't taken seriously anymore people don't stick to their voes. I find that very sad that it means nothing to a lot of people. I also think that a lot of it has to do with people not waiting until marriage to have sex. In today's society sex is something that is thrown around and people just do it because they feel like it. I grew up in a home where my parents taught me that you have to wait until marriage to have sex and they it should be a very special thing and its something that shouldn't be taken lightly. I was brought up in church so that is what I have always believed. In chapter 8 of the F-Word it talked about motherhood and how women are losing their balance with being a mother and work. I think that this has to do with all the teen pregnancies that we have in this country. Which then again has to do with people not waiting until marriage to have sex. I don't think we would have near the problem we have today if people would just learn to wait!!!