Author

Arlie Hochschild

16 key ideas across 2 books, each explained in our own words.

Strangers in Their Own Land

IDEA 1
She crossed a political divide
Hochschild, a liberal sociologist from Berkeley, spent five years getting to know Tea Party supporters in Louisiana. She wanted to climb what she calls the empathy wall and understand their views from the inside.
IDEA 2
A paradox puzzled her
Hochschild describes the great paradox: people in a region badly harmed by industrial pollution strongly opposed government regulation. She set out to understand why. Her puzzle was why people harmed by a problem would resist the help of the state.
IDEA 3
Pollution damaged communities
Hochschild describes how oil and chemical industries polluted rivers and land in Louisiana. Many residents had suffered from this. She describes lost fishing places, damaged land and fear about the water, which touched families directly.

IDEA 1
Working women face a second shift
Hochschild, a sociologist, studied American couples in which both partners worked full-time. She found that women usually came home to a second shift of housework and childcare, while men did much less.
IDEA 2
She studied real families
Hochschild interviewed and observed families in their homes. She looked closely at how couples divided chores and how they felt about it. This close observation gave her detailed stories that surveys alone could not show.
IDEA 3
Women gained work but not equality
Hochschild describes a stalled revolution: women had entered paid work, but workplaces and men's roles at home had not changed to match. In her view, the change at home lagged behind the change in the labour market.

Go deeper with Arlie HochschildAsk questions, argue with the ideas and practise using them, free.