Ways has gender expectation changed over generations
Gender expectation generally means sets of behavior that society decide how female or males should think, act or feel. Many people get confuse about thinking that sex and gender are the same; however, Ashley Grossman, sociologist, explains “sex is biologically assigned while gender is socially constructed, socially created”. (Grossman) Therefore, gender is influenced by cultural, family, environmental, religious, educational, socioeconomic and geographical setting; in other words, it Is more nurture than nature. Many theories have been written to describe the gender role, how It Is formed.
For example, The Evolutionary Psychology Theory of Gender says that different roles in reproduction places different pressures on males and females, which creates gender roles as the man being the more competitive and violent figure, while the women being more involved in nurturing activities. The Social Role Theory of Gender says that gender roles are formed by psychological gender differences caused by contrasting social roles of women and men. The Social Cognitive Theory of gender states that children’s gender development occurs through observation and imitation of gender behavior.
While my conclusions will not be based on these theories, they do help explain the formation and change of gender roles across time. Let us have a jump in the past. For more than 7000 years of human history, since agriculture and early States emerged, men were dominating the society they lived in, from the micro-world of families to the public macro-world of education and work. They have been tasked to provide for their family, from hunting and bringing home food for survival, like In our earliest days, to go to work and earn a paycheck and bringing home the bacon, like in our recent times.
On the contrary, women were not even considered legal entities, persons in the legal sense. Until the end of the 19th century, an educated woman that was actually able to read books and have her own opinion, was not considerable a desirable wife. That’s how strong the Institutionalizing of differentiation between women and men within society was. Even today, In some society, women are the slaves of men, completely disemboweled and vulnerable; some they must cover their faces In public or forbidden to appear outside their home without the presence of their husband.
Back o 18th Century, sex role were rigid, with women assigned to be caregiver, mother. “In classic German phase, women were expected to dedicate themselves to the four KS : Creche (Church), Chuck(Cooking) ,Kinder (Children), undo Killdeer (and cloths)”. (Tier-Anna 13) This is female expectation In the past, and If a woman tried to break out of these roles , she might risk getting server disapproval. Regarding the education of women, the intellect of woman was limited by an unjustifiable restriction: the education was not objectively given to women. They were excluded from the subjects which men were trained.
In the case of few people, male or female, attaining some education beyond basic reading, writing, and little math, the higher education was reserved primarily for men. Moving on the political point of view, women were not allowed to get Involve In pollute: had no right to vote, had no chance to be a governor, been changed drastically, generation over generation, more in women than men: women have come a long way; they are getting married later in life, giving birth later and they are getting more opportunities in which in the past generation were not allowed to.
Likewise, men have more responsibilities in many roles which in the past were expected from women. We can list the main differences from the past in family rules, education and work. In recent years there has been a redefinition of man and woman roles in the family. The man tends to spend more time with their children, taking advantage of a working woman. Statistically though, only the time spent with children has increased from the father side. The mother, despite working, still spends the same time with her children, which is still higher that the father. Eventually, the chores are done from a person they both hire.
The role of father has changes so much that there has been a rise of men’s groups which feel been disadvantaged in this society where the legal system and the family court (in matters relating to access, child care and associated financial costs) is definitely in favor of women. Glen Sack shares his idea regarding to being househusband or stayed home dad (SHAD) that “Men need not fear a loss of power when they become a SHAD. While Shads are sometimes stereotyped as being at the mercy of their stronger wives’ commands, in reality, I have more power in the family now than I ever did hen I was the family breadwinner” ( Sacks 266).
This example shows that staying home and taking care children, which is expected to be a woman Job, not only man can do, but also been accepted from society. Coming to education, women have finally gained access to all kind of education, even if there is still a margin of higher paid salary among the male gender. While there is improvement, for the social status of women in education and work participation rates, women still are experiencing conflict and differences in power in the workplace. For centuries there has been a sexual division of Jobs’ rates of pay were women were paid much lower than males.
This difference was Justified by the idea that men had the responsibility to support their family, whereas women tent to work less because of family commitments, childbirth and child-bearing ; therefore, occupations dominated by men tend to be more lucrative. Today a woman has access to all kind of Jobs, but because not all women want to dedicate themselves to a career, many women prefer to work part- time or accept less demanding positions. But it is only a question of choice, a woman choice. It is important to notice that change for women in society has led to men re- evaluating their roles.
In the 21st century, a group of fathers meets regularly. Their agenda is that divorce, family law and economic crisis are reducing many males to a marginalia role within society. They feel that their situation is very similar to women in the past. Many men feel that due to divorce, unemployment and shifting of social norms, they are in an inferior position. Coupled with females outperforming males in different areas, from school grades to Job performances, some males do not feel it is an advantage to be a male.
Eventually, this historic conflict about social differences between men and women has come to a point where cooperation between the two could be helpful to both. The shifting of power from a man dominance world to woman dominance world means still inequality and discrimination. Maybe equality of opportunity and outcome can be better achieved difference. In the end, the competition of a Nation depends significantly on whether and how it educates its female and male talent to maximize its competitiveness and development potential; it means that each Country should strive for gender equality.
