Change in Gender Roles and Education

Through the text and the video articles, I have found that gender roles, are now becoming more equal between men and women. Men and women both have gender expectations that they are supposed to meet throughout their lifetime. These expectations include their sex at birth, social attitudes, and how they behave overall. For example we used to live in a time where women had no right to vote, could not pursue an education, or get a out of the house job. It was up to the men to provide for the families, while the females were expected to stay at home take care of the children, cook, and clean. We now live in a world where statistically more women get a college degree than men, and the number of stay at homes dads have drastically increased over the past years. “Women have been earning more bachelor’s degrees than men since 1982 and more master’s degrees than men since 1981”. This has changed how people view men and women as hard working citizens, because there are more women with an educational background ultimately leading to higher paying jobs. This expectation also came up as topic of discussion in the CBS video “The Future of Men” in the interview it was stated that “a college degree doesn’t mean as mush to men, as it does to women”. This statement has lead people to believe that men don't value an education like they used to, and they see no beneficial factors from having a educational background.

Another argument I found was how children should act, and what roles they play growing up. In the Youtube video about gender roles being challenged, there was a young boy named CJ that preferred to play with dolls, and dress up. He is not transgender, but because he preferred to play with feminine toys his masculinity was questioned by society. This is now becoming a more common topic in society today. From picking out a halloween costume, and joining sports, the question of gender roles, and masculinity are always questioned. This has been a drastic change over the years, before boys were the ones that always played outside getting dirty, while the girls would play inside and help their mothers. Now you can see that both younger boys and girls are taking on different roles, there are girls joining sports giving them the name of a Tomboy, and boys wanting to join dance teams making them seem less masculine.

Home life has also played a contributing factor, on how there has been a increase in change over gender roles. Over the past years there have been more divorces, and single living mothers than there were in the twenties and thirties. This can affect how the gender roles act and perform once they are older. “Men are growing up in homes where they are not learning traditional gender norms, this is because some households have no fathers, and only live with single mothers”. Before families were more traditional, mother, father, sister, brother. Everyone lived together under the same roof as a family, so this allowed for the children to experience growing up with traditional values of what their family should be like. In today’s world, because there is a increase in divorce, and the amount of single mothers, children are not growing up with the traditional family experience. This doesn't allow them to experience what it’s like to have old gender roles and beliefs. Ultamilty playing a contributing factor on why there has been such a change in gender roles over the past years. Personally I agree with this statement. The way children are being raised, and how they are affected by their surroundings as they grow up, play a huge role in why there has been such a change in gender roles today.

Growing up when I was younger, I remember my father and mother both going to work to provide for the family. Although my mother was the only one that went to college, and furthered her education. My father worked as a mechanic, and worked as a handyman on the side. Now being 19, my mother still has her job, and my father is a stay at home dad. Throughout the day he cooks, cleans, and makes repairs around the house. So the change in gender roles has affected my family. My father has taken on what is considered to be feminine work, while my mother goes out and provides for the family. Relating this to the articles and the text, how children grow up can affect their future gender roles. I have a brother and he is finished with school, and he has no desire to go and further his education, Where as myself am furthering my education to eventually get a better paying job. My brother has followed in my father's footsteps, whereas I have followed in my mother’s.

In chapter three the text talks about all the different gender roles, and how each role can be affected in different settings. Throughout these changes men, and women have both discovered some advantages, and disadvantages in their new gender roles. For women there have been a lot of beneficial changes in their gender role due to the Women’s Movement. Women gained the right to vote in 1920, they were given the opportunity to further their education, and they could get a paying job outside of the house. Overall women gained more rights and responsibilities in their gender role. However they did face some challenges, “Today all committed partners and parents find it difficult to juggle job success with childcare duties”. This being said women were having a hard time balancing their work life with their family life. This lead society to believe that women were not family ready because they had a hard time balancing the two.

Men for the longest time had always been viewed higher than women. They were always allowed to vote, and had more rights than women did to start. Due to the drastic change in gender roles men have been facing some disadvantages. From the text and articles there was a reappearing theme with men, and that was their educational background. There have been a decrease in the number of men that go to further their education, and they have been passed by women. Because women were furthering their education this allowed them to get better jobs, taking away job opportunities for men. “Declining economic opportunities for men coupled with feminist assumptions of male privilege led some men to feel unfairly picked on”. Men also felt the same struggle as women, it was hard for them to find a equal balance between work life, and home life. Although both genders faced some advantages and disadvantages, both gender roles are now more flexible and understanding then what they used to be 10 years ago.

Personally looking into my future I would like to see men take on furthering their education again. I think that if both gender roles had an equal educational background it could help benefit both genders drastically. There have been many changes in gender roles over the years, and being able to be a part of the generation that is experiencing these changes hands on is a wonderful opportunity. All of the changes that have occured in my eyes are beneficial for both genders. Now men and women have the opportunity to further their education, receive better paying jobs to provide for their family , and in some cases be a stay at home parent male or female. Either way the changes are continuing to grow and benefit both gender roles.

References:

1. America, CGTN. “Traditional Gender Roles Being Challenged.” YouTube, YouTube, 18 Apr. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0LnFMFis_o.
2. CBS News. “‘The Future of Men’ Explores Evolving Gender Roles.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 1 Mar. 2016, www.cbsnews.com/news/the-future-of-men-jack-myers-traditional-gender-roles-new-world-jodi-kantor/.
3. Galinsky, Ellen. “Times Are Changing Gender and Generation at Work and at Home .” Times Are Changing, Families and Work Institute , Aug. 2011, National Study of the Changing Workforce article 'Times Are Changing'.
4. Lamanna, Mary Ann, et al. Marriages, Families and Relationships: Making Choices in a Diverse Society. 13th ed., Cengage Learning, 2018.