Gender roles, the behavioral and social norms associated with either males or females can change. This has proven to be true as today powerful women work jobs that, once upon a time, only men typically held. While in today's society we applaud women who break out of the typical "housewife" role, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article, society is not so accepting when it comes to bending the gender role of men.
According to the article, while working mothers are commonplace, stay at home fathers make up only 1% of married couples with children under the age of 15. Research also indicates that people are less accepting of men taking typical feminine roles than of women assuming typical male roles. A study done by the Pew Research Center found that 51% of Americans believed that children were better off with their mother staying home, as opposed to the 8% that said they were better off with their father staying home. Furthermore, a Global Toy Experts Survey found that over 50% of mothers wouldn't give their sons a doll to play with, but 32% would have no problem giving their daughters a truck to play with. Andrea L. Roberts of the Harvard School of Public Health found that parents are quicker to refer their male children to doctors for defying the male gender role than they are for their female children who do the same.
It is clear from much research that men have major growing to do in terms of "breaking out" of today's accepted gender roles.
Have you seen this trailer? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc45-ptHMxo
ReplyDeleteIt's by the people who made Miss Representation, which you should watch if you haven't seen (it's on netflix). It's all about how the whole "be a man thing" is harmful to young boys.
I absolutely agree with you that, though women are trying to break through their gender roles, men have yet to make progress. That's why feminism isn't only about women. Feminism looks to break all these harmful gender roles. Even though women are going into traditionally male dominated jobs, men are not moving toward 'women jobs'. So long as there are still 'men jobs' and 'women jobs' in our world, how much equality have we really reached? If we still think kindergarten teacher= lady and surgeon= man, have we really reached a society of equality?
Lily, this is a particularly interesting topic to think about and discuss. I agree with Rachel here as well. On that note, it occurred to me the other day that men have been dominant in society for so long that it's not so desirable to want to take on a job that has been traditionally held by women. For instance, I haven't seen that many male secretaries. I don't think society is anywhere close to completely equal. Of course, I totally support all efforts to make society more equal, but I'm still a bit pessimistic about how much difference that's going to make in this generation.
ReplyDeleteThis is super interesting. I think it has become much more acceptable to be a working woman but much less acceptable to be a stay at home dad. I agree with Sarah & Rachel -- although it's definitely the ideal, are we going to be able to reach equality in this generation? I feel like men are really unwavering in that they don't want to give up their place in society... oh those men.
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