Family Sociological Analysis

The set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex are called gender roles. Depending on the different cultures and traditions that each family follows will depend on how gender roles vary. There is a cliché regarding gender roles which depicts women as the caregivers and men as the breadwinners, but I feel like this is an old-fashioned concept and not at all the way things work in my family and life these days. So, through these pictures of my family and friends I’m going to point out the ways I feel about how traditional gender roles have changed, and also talk about some instances in which more clichéd gender roles are still prevalent. Over the weekend I decided to help my mom cook for our traditional family dinner, (Picture 1) while my dad (Picture 2) helped to watch my little cousin Sean. This helps to show some evolution from the traditional gender roles of the family. Decades ago, the woman would be expected to cook, clean, and care for the children all at the same time while the man relaxed after a day of work. However, in this situation you can see that my dad is taking some responsibility in helping
to play with my cousin so that my mom and I can prepare a meal for my family to enjoy. While out at the Target one afternoon, what was once a woman’s role to go food shopping in the past, has now become a gender neutral activity as you can see in (Picture 3).
In my family, my mom makes the food shopping lists, and my dad does the food shopping so that my mom can get other things done around the house like laundry and cooking dinner for the night. Something similar to this concept that caught my attention was when I saw my friend Mike (Picture 4) doing his laundry at his house. Although doing the laundry used to be considered one of many of the wife’s roles in the household, in today’s society many kids start doing their own laundry at a very young age. I was very fortunate in my household that my mother always did our laundry for us until I went away to
school. Another concept that comes along with more old-fashioned gender roles besides the idea of women being the caregivers and men being the breadwinners is that men are the more educated or smarter sex. Many problems in life that have to do with construction or electronics are thought to be only done by men. My friend Casey (Picture 5) however changes this because in her house at school their internet was not working and was able to figure out how to fix the problem without the help of a man. As you can tell from the pictures I’ve included above, I feel strongly about the fact that old-fashioned clichés about gender roles have changed. But, I feel there are some instances where we regress. One of these instances is the interactions between men and women regarding dating. Here, (Picture 6) my friend Mike is holding open a door for his girlfriend Casey because it’s the gentlemanly thing to do.