Traditional Gender Roles Are Becoming Endangered
Today we are finding traditional gender roles less abundant as they were two or three decades ago. Traditional roles where a gender was associated with a certain job or characteristic. Kid’s today aren’t saying, “Mom I’m hungry!” They’re saying, “Dad I’m hungry!”
Words are gender less by nature, yet previous generations of society have a tendency to categorize words such as “house work” with the female gender. As a child, the idea of having only one parent doing the house work was never placed in my mind. Both of my parents cleaned and cooked. Sure, my mom would do more work at times but the difference was negligible.
In the Philippines, it is common to see those traditional roles in houses. However, my parents did not stick to those ideals. They believed that housework, is necessary for families to equally share. Growing up in a third world country my parents learned how to do everything in the house. They grew up with the mentality that there are no male or female roles but instead family roles. I believe house work helps build character and gives you skills sets to be independent unlike how Angela Davis puts it as, “[a waste of time and unproductive]” in Women, Race, and Class.
I’ve notice this type of mentality that my parents had with the parents of my friends who were the same age. That shows me that the concept of “gender less” roles were being germinated during my years of childhood. Now it has progressed into something that the old generation may look as unorthodox. This is the new norm for the newer generations and the generations to come.
In recent years we have been seeing a rise of women bringing home the money and men becoming stay at home dads. Mothers making more money than the fathers. Home settings where both the mother and father share a somewhat equal load of the house work. Stay at home parents aren’t always looked to kindly. Some people think they don’t contribute to society and put a ceiling on their worth. It’s unfair to judge a person based on their occupation. Now men are getting a taste of what women have had to deal with for a long time.
Stay at home parents are a viable option if the family’s situation calls for it and should not be looked down upon. My uncle is a stay at home dad. He had a job in the city, but it was a four hour trip back and forth. My aunt also worked a crazy amount of hours. They barely had time to take care of the housework. Ultimately he and my aunt decided that he should just stay at home and take care of the kids and do the house work, since my aunt can sustain a stable income for the family to live comfortably.
“ One of the most closely guarded secrets of advanced capitalist societies involves the possibility — the real possibility — of radically transforming the nature of housework.” — Angela Davis
She says capitalism can change the nature of housework through technology. Capitalist societies have the ability to invest in and innovate technology that could drastically reduced housework. She goes on to say that the nation should take socialist route regarding house work. I agree with her, but for a different reason. She looks at capitalism in a bad a light. Women have more opportunities today compared to Angela Davis’ time. In the present time we live in, capitalism is set up so anyone can become successful thus changing the nature of housework. Everyday we hear about women’s success stories. Which leads to more stay at home dads.
Today, capitalism sells housework for all genders:
Not only does she belong in the kitchen but he does too. This is definitely a positive step for society.
