Gender Roles have been visible in every culture and society for centuries. Gender roles are defined as a social and behavioral norms that are considered appropriate for either a male at birth or a female at birth in a social setting or personal relationship. Even from the Stone Age, we see wall carvings that show men doing intense and tedious work such as hunting, building, etc., while the women do activities that are more nurturing such as making food, gathering, creating shelters etc. Gender Roles have only gotten more prominent with time today. From the time women were “allowed” to work, they mainly worked in small jobs that usually helped men who were in higher or lower positions than them. Common jobs women held were clerical, nursing, cooking, waitress etc. If not paid work, women were a big part of holding charitable organizations and helping people in need. As we can see, most of these jobs, if not all are jobs where women were helping another person male or female, get better or be better. This is just one of many ways that the society has formed and shaped Gender Roles. In this paper, I am going to specifically talk about how women are expected to serve people, especially her family.
Here’s a question, how often does a child credit their dad for making all their lunch sandwiches for school, or drive them to practice, make sure they are fed all three meals a day and be their best friend?
Women are expected to take care of their husbands, kids, parents, family and be charitable. For that matter, female friends are also often expected to take care of their guy friends. This comes from the mentality that mothers (women) nurture their kids. These expectations are so drilled into us that it is hard to break free from them. For instance, if I am busy doing a project and hungry, I would ask my mother for food or to serve me dinner. Even though I see her already doing other things, my first instinct is to ask her for help before asking my father. This sad truth only gets more rigid on women, especially mothers.
All these days most women were often encouraged to be stay at home mom’s and take care of the well-being of the family. Moreover, with the world becoming more expensive and women wanting to pursue their own interests, mothers are working full time jobs just like their husbands. However, after their job, the women are expected to come home, serve dinner, clean up, take care of the kids etc. This may not always be the case in every household, but it lingers in most.
On the other hand, it is frowned upon when men do jobs like women, such as being a nurse or doing household chores. For example, when fathers serve dinner and do laundry for the family, people will not only question him but the wife as well. The wife is equally looked down upon for even allowing her husband to do such chores around the house. After all, it is her duty. They even assume that he does not have much to do in his hands and isn’t a “busy” man who should be bringing home the bread. Hence, he is “wasting” time at home doing chores. Whereas, when a woman does it, she isn’t appreciated as much because it comes within her duty of being a mother, daughter and wife.
As a result, this pattern of gender roles play a huge part in our society. For all that a mother does for her family is celebrated on only one day of the year. In most houses the husbands cook and clean for the house on mother’s day. They take on only a part of her role for one day. She gets only one day off from her job as a mother and wife. It is so visible in the society, yet it is so rigid and hard to break. In fact, According to surveys people spend billions more on mother’s day than father’s day. Even though, this shows how much we appreciate these ladies, it also shows how men (fathers) aren’t able to receive the same appreciation due to gender roles.
