Which one of the following best summarizes the main idea of the passage?

Naz November 1, 2013

There are many lines in the passage that correspond to "traditional work schedules." I've noted many of them for you below.

lines 2-3 "preschool-age children need full-time care;"

This is probably the first allusion the the fact that children need a lot of time to be properly cared for. It is setting up an explanation of how traditional schedules do not account for this extensive amount of time needed.

lines 5-10 "Although day-care services can resolve some scheduling conflicts between home and office, workers cannot always find or afford suitable care. Even when they obtain such care, parents must still cope with emergencies, such as illnesses, that keep children at home."

Here the author explicitly discusses the conflicts between home and office schedule needs. And even when parents find adequate care, they still need to cope with schedule aberrations that include emergencies that necessitate them leaving work to take care of their children; again showing how traditional work schedules are too inflexible.

lines 11-15 "Conventional full-time workdays, especially when combined with unavoidable household duties are too inflexible for parents with primary child-care responsibility."

Again the author explicitly discusses how traditional work schedules are too inflexible.

lines 36-39 "...such employment does allow many women the time and flexibility to fulfill their family duties, but only at the expense of the advantages associated with full-time employment."

Here the author gives an example of less conventional vocations that do have more schedule flexibility, comparing it with the traditional, inflexible jobs that have better pay.

lines 43-45 "Many choose jobs entailing little challenge or responsibility or those offering flexible scheduling..."

Again the author points out that many women are forced to chose less conventional jobs for those with more flexible scheduling.

lines 51-55 "Thus, women in education are more likely to become teachers than school administrators, whose more conventional full-time work schedules do not correspond to the schedules of school-age children..."

Here the author points out how women are forced to take less conventional full-time jobs because the more conventional ones do "not correspond to the schedules of school-age children."

Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions!

Batman November 2, 2013

Wow!!!! Now I can vividly see the reasoning path to the answer!!! Many thanks!

stormbeeler September 15, 2015

I picked B but after your run through I can clearly see the reoccuring theme of inflexible work schedules and the disadvantages associated. Is B more wrong because it is only brought up once in the main passage or because explicitly say how traditional family roles should be changed? Thanks

Naz September 15, 2015

Answer choice (B) is incorrect because the main point of the passage is not to explain how mothers can have equal opportunity for advancement in the labor force, rather it is to illustrate that traditional work schedules do not accommodate child-care responsibilities of parents, specifically disadvantaging women.

Further, answer choice (B) is never explicitly stated in the passage. Note that the last sentence of the passage refers to parents in general as opposed to mothers. We do not directly know what mother need to have specifically in order for them to have an equal opportunity for advancement.

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.