Gender Roles

In a recent post Anar refers to an article in Forbes magazine on Careers and Marriage. The male writer cites various scientific studies to support statements such as "you [men] will be more unhappy if they [women] make more money than you", "your [the man's] house will be dirtier" and "you are more likely to fall ill". The author clearly is prejudiced by the traditional model of gender roles, where women stay at home and raise children while men work and make money.

If we (men in particular) are to open our minds just slightly we will see that these arguments are all based on the comfort of men and completely disregards the independence of women. A little bit of google search will provide a wealth of information from research in anthropological and social sciences that will support an alternative model for a family where both men and women can have a career.

A discussion on gender roles in wikipedia points out that "there has been a perception of Western culture, in recent times, that the female gender role is dichotomized into either being a "stay at home-mother" or a "career woman". In reality, women usually face a double burden: The need to balance job and child care deprives women of spare time. Whereas the majority of men with university educations have a career as well as a family, only 50 percent of academic women have children."

The situation (that women face the double burden) arises primarily because of our conditoning that women cannot balance career and family. No matter how educated we are, we (men and women) are heavily conditioned to think that balancing both is impossible. The situation will never arise if for a moment men start to think that they are equally responsible in family roles and the average woman is likely to have similar ambitions and aspirations of independence just like a man does. Agreed, it is the woman who has to get the melon out of the water hose, and feed the baby. But men can begin to assume a greater role in the family and give women the much needed time to pursue their interests.

The summary of a recent text book on this subject refutes many common arguments that are made to keep women to their traditional role. If you do click on the link above pay particular attention to the first two statments in the summary.

Women have demonstrated repeatedly that they are capable of many feats in fields that men have dominated. It is ultimately upto us (men) to keep an open mind and embrace the feats that our women are capable of. Instead of feeling threatened by their success I think we should laud their efforts and encourage them to pursue their interests. How fair is it to cage a bird and make it misearable so that we can see it everyday to satisfy our self-interests? How would a man feel if he was the bird who is in that cage?

Comments?