Compare and Contrast Gender Roles
BATTLE OF THE SEXES
Long gone are the days when women were expected to stay at home and play “housewife”, cooking, cleaning, and making sure the kids got off to school, while their husbands worked a 9 to 5 in order to make ends meet. Today, women are no longer viewed as weak and incapable. A “superwoman” is the new woman. Men as the “breadwinners” have been replaced by “Ms. Independent.” The traditional male role has diminished as women fulfill bigger roles in society and exceed the expectations of their male counterparts in the household, workforce, and within social settings. We have abandoned old rules; no longer is it a “man’s world,” we now live in a shared world.
Nowadays, there are no specific roles assigned to a male or a female within a household. Although some people feel that a woman can better take care of the home, there are real life examples that blow this theory right out of the water. For example, the increase in the number of “stay- at- home dads” shows that men are just as capable as women to go to the grocery store, pick their kids up from school, take them to the playground, and have dinner ready by the time the woman gets home. According to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau, there are an estimated 105,000 “stay-at-home” dads. These are married fathers with children fewer than 15 who are not in the labor force primarily so they can care for their family while their wives work outside the home. In fact, there are 2 million preschoolers whose fathers care for them for more hours than any other child-care provider while their mothers are at work. With the increase in women entering the workforce, and the cost of living on the rise, some families have no choice but to divide such tasks that were once considered a woman’s work. A study conducted by the Marie Hartwell Foundation, found that although men with working wives are taking on more housework than ever before, they still lag behind by five hours a week! In families where there are children, the
Long gone are the days when women were expected to stay at home and play “housewife”, cooking, cleaning, and making sure the kids got off to school, while their husbands worked a 9 to 5 in order to make ends meet. Today, women are no longer viewed as weak and incapable. A “superwoman” is the new woman. Men as the “breadwinners” have been replaced by “Ms. Independent.” The traditional male role has diminished as women fulfill bigger roles in society and exceed the expectations of their male counterparts in the household, workforce, and within social settings. We have abandoned old rules; no longer is it a “man’s world,” we now live in a shared world.
Nowadays, there are no specific roles assigned to a male or a female within a household. Although some people feel that a woman can better take care of the home, there are real life examples that blow this theory right out of the water. For example, the increase in the number of “stay- at- home dads” shows that men are just as capable as women to go to the grocery store, pick their kids up from school, take them to the playground, and have dinner ready by the time the woman gets home. According to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau, there are an estimated 105,000 “stay-at-home” dads. These are married fathers with children fewer than 15 who are not in the labor force primarily so they can care for their family while their wives work outside the home. In fact, there are 2 million preschoolers whose fathers care for them for more hours than any other child-care provider while their mothers are at work. With the increase in women entering the workforce, and the cost of living on the rise, some families have no choice but to divide such tasks that were once considered a woman’s work. A study conducted by the Marie Hartwell Foundation, found that although men with working wives are taking on more housework than ever before, they still lag behind by five hours a week! In families where there are children, the