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Gender Equity Starts in the Home

• David G. Smith
• W. Brad Johnson

The shift to remote work is highlighting domestic inequity in many households.

Many men teleworking from home for the first time are getting a front row seat to the daily demands of running a home and caring for kids, as well as a crash course in learning to “balance” work and family. Although many men have experienced traditional role reversals for short stints, most have never worked from home for an extended period while leaning in as primary caregiver for children. Most of this work has fallen on women.

The presence of more men sharing more fully in domestic duties for an extended period of time has the potential to create a sea change in gendered norms — at home and at work. Men teleworking during the pandemic are more likely to appreciate women’s work-family experiences, understand the value of flexible work arrangements, appreciate the benefits of relationships with work colleagues, and role model more equitable work-family gender roles for their children.

In these difficult times, we’ve made a number of our coronavirus articles free for all readers. To get all of HBR’s content delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Daily Alert newsletter.

Jack Koban, a geologist and engineering project manager, is working from home during the pandemic shutdown while his wife, Ashley Saucier, works long hours as a pediatric emergency medicine physician. In our recent call with Jack, he reflected, “I don’t remember the last time I’ve cooked three meals a day and done the dishes for three straight weeks. It’s been nice being home, having more family time, and being more involved with the kids. We’ve definitely achieved a new work-life balance.”

• David G. Smith is an associate professor in the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. He is the coauthor, with W. Brad Johnson, of Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace and Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women .
• W. Brad Johnson is a professor of psychology in the Department of Leadership, Ethics, and Law at the United States Naval Academy and a faculty associate in the Graduate School of Education at Johns Hopkins University. He is the coauthor of Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace , Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women , The Elements of Mentoring , and other books on mentorship.

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Gender Roles in Society

• Categories: Gender Roles Society

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Published: Mar 13, 2024

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Young Men Embrace Gender Equality, but They Still Don’t Vacuum

New studies show traditional views persist about who does what at home, and it’s holding women back.

By Claire Cain Miller

Young people today have become much more open-minded about gender roles — it shows up in their attitudes about pronouns, politics and sports. But in one area, change has been minimal. They are holding on to traditional views about who does what at home.

A new survey from Gallup found that among opposite-sex couples, those ages 18 to 34 were no more likely than older couples to divide most household chores equitably. And a sociology study published last month found that when high school seniors were asked about their ideal family arrangement with young children, almost a quarter said it was for the man to work full time and the woman to stay home, a larger share than desired any other arrangement.

The fact that home life doesn’t look all that different from half a century ago surprises researchers, because in most other ways, attitudes about gender roles have changed a lot. There’s now almost universal support for women to pursue careers or political office. Women get more education than men. And young people are much more accepting of people not identifying as either a man or a woman.

[ In NYT Parenting: how to get your partner to take on more emotional labor]

Both new studies were based on surveys that have been repeated over time, and they show that women now do a little less housework and child care, and men do a little more . But a significant gap remains — women spend about an hour more a day than men on housework , and an hour more on child care , other research shows.

The disparity affects other aspects of women’s equality: The additional time women spend on domestic labor, particularly related to children, is a leading cause of the gender gaps in pay and promotions at work.

“If young people can’t even envision a model of what men’s time at home might look like, that’s evidence that our beliefs about gender are really strong and sticky,” said Joanna Pepin, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Austin and an author of the recently published study, with Brittany Dernberger, a sociology doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland. “That’s yet another thing that’s getting in the way of social change.”

Researchers have different ideas about why the division of labor at home has been so slow to change, despite women’s other gains. One of the simplest explanations: Men might be happy to have a partner bringing in another paycheck, but not happy to do more chores.

Intensive parenting — maximizing the time spent engaged with and teaching children — has also become the norm. Working mothers today spend as much time doing activities with their children as stay-at-home mothers did in the 1970s. At the same time, many jobs require longer, inflexible hours . (Parents do less housework over all, though: about eight hours less each week than they did in the 1960s.)

The United States has none of the nationwide public policies that make the work-family juggle easier in other countries, like paid family leave or public preschool.

Norms about what men are supposed to do also have an effect, researchers say — starting in childhood, when boys do fewer chores than girls do. Masculinity is strongly tied to earning an income and avoiding things that are considered feminine. Studies have shown that men can feel threatened if their wives earn more than them, and that to compensate , men who feel this way might do even less housework .

“To be a good man means to be employed,” said Sarah Thébaud, a sociologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “That doesn’t mean they don’t want to be involved — they do. But the issue is we’re pushing up against these prescriptive beliefs about gender.”

The authors of the new sociology study suggested another explanation: economic uncertainty. Many young people face unstable employment, student debt and rising housing and child care costs. Perhaps young families are open to women’s equality outside the home because they need a second income, they said, but their attitudes about gender roles haven’t actually evolved as much.

Or, they might want a parent at home with young children because they embrace intensive parenting. It is also driven by financial concerns — that it’s no longer a safe bet that children will do as well as their parents. That could explain why men’s time doing child care has increased more than their time doing housework, the researchers said.

Their study, which was published in the journal Sociological Science, was based on a national survey called Monitoring the Future , administered each year to high school seniors. The researchers analyzed data from 1976 to 2014, including 75,573 12th graders, between 2,000 and 4,000 a year. They focused on a question asking respondents to imagine a future in which they were married (it assumed to someone of the opposite sex) with children of preschool age, and to rate various work and child care arrangements.

Across all survey years, the largest share of respondents said the most desirable arrangement was men working full time and women staying home. In 2014, 11 percent said both parents working full time was most desirable, up from 4 percent in 1976. A majority said a father staying home was unacceptable.

Young people have grown significantly more open-minded over time about women working: The share who preferred having a family with a stay-at-home mother was 23 percent in 2014, down from 44 percent in 1976, and the share who said that arrangement was unacceptable increased. Also, they have become much more likely to say alternative options are acceptable, like one parent working part time and the other working full time, or both working full time.

The biggest change has been among white men — about one in six now say they prefer a traditional arrangement, while a majority said that in 1976. The desirability of intensive parenting has grown for everyone, but especially for white women. Black women have been most in favor of dual-earner arrangements throughout the years.

Young people whose mothers work full time have been more likely to want a similar arrangement. Those who attend religious services weekly or who live in the South have been less open to women working full time. These patterns have not changed over the years.

A flaw in surveying high school seniors about these issues is that they are not yet working and parenting. But other research has shown that young people in the throes of the work-life juggle indeed choose more traditional roles in the home.

The Gallup surveys on housework were done in 2019, 2007 and 1996, of opposite-sex couples who were married or living together. The gender gap in many chores has shrunk slightly over that period, but has remained, and for the most part, the share of respondents who say they share tasks equally has been flat.

In the most recent surveys, of 3,062 people, there was very little difference by age in who did the chores, whether the couples were in their 20s or 50s. Women were much more likely to do the bulk of daily, indoor chores, like cooking and cleaning, and men were more likely to do more occasional, outdoor chores, like yard work and car upkeep.

One area in which young couples were more likely to be equal than older couples was in daily child care, though women were still likely to do more of it.

The Gallup survey did not ask how people wanted to divide chores — perhaps they were content with the arrangement. It’s not realistic or efficient to equally divide all tasks. And it’s not always based on gender: Research on same-sex couples has shown that one person tends to do more at home and less at work once they have children.

But in opposite-sex couples, it’s very often the woman doing the bulk of the domestic duties, especially related to children, even if she has a career. Making relationships more equal inside the home could have far-reaching effects outside of it, too.

Claire Cain Miller writes about gender, families and the future of work for The Upshot. She joined The Times in 2008 and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for public service for reporting on workplace sexual harassment issues. More about Claire Cain Miller

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Why gender inequality often starts at home

Home is where the heart is. But it’s also the first place where children are socialized into gender norms, values and stereotypes. 

From the moment babies are born, their assigned sex (male or female) immediately begins to shape how they should be treated, what opportunities they should receive or how they should behave according to dominant gender stereotypes in their society. 

In fact, studies have shown that an individual’s sense of being either male or female is predominately determined by the way they are treated by others. Based on their external environment, children learn very quickly (from as young as 9 months old in some cases) that boys and girls are different – they have their own colours, toys, abilities and particular interests. 

These differences and assigned roles based on sex, also known as the “gender binary”, become unquestioned rationale for many ideas about what boys, girls, men and women can and cannot do. For example, most societies expect females to behave in a submissive, dependent and emotional way while males are expected to be strong, independent and stoic. 

The most damaging impact of restrictive gender norms is that they hurt everyone – people are expected to conform to rigid ideas which limit the spaces and the behaviours they may wish to participate in because it may not be an acceptable gender norm for their assigned sex. 

Gendered norms also result in girls and women experiencing violence, harassment and struggling to receive equal pay and opportunities while boys and men experience higher rates of substance abuse and completed suicide. In addition, body image issues are prevalent among both sexes , with a large percentage of both men and women agreeing that they’re self-conscious about their physical form. 

But these widespread ideas about what it means to be a woman, girl, man or boy can be tackled at home by working with parents to help identify and counter dominant gender norms.

Parents teach children their place in the world

Without a doubt, the most significant influence on gender role development occurs within the family setting, with parents modelling and passing on to their children their own beliefs about gender. 

In many patriarchal societies there is an idea that boys are preferable to girls. According to research conducted in North America; families are more likely to continue having children if they only have daughters versus if they only have sons – indicating that there is a preference to have male children in the family. 

And in low-income countries, where millions live below the poverty line, parents with limited financial resources tend to favour having boys due to a myriad of gender related reasons: 

• Boys are perceived as being more “valuable” and worthy of investing in. For example, a preference for sending boys to school is fuelled by a belief that all girls will eventually get married off. Therefore, investing in a girl’s education reaps little return because a girl who stays at home and learns how to take care of a family is of more value to a future husband.
• In marriage, a girl often joins her husband’s family and may cost her family a dowry (property or money brought by a bride to her husband on their marriage).
• In many countries, girls and women do not have property rights . Only men are allowed to own or inherit property, having a son keeps assets in the family and makes sure parents will have somewhere to live when they get old.
• If a family needs hard physical labour to run a farm or make it’s living in some other way, boys are seen as more capable and stronger than girls

As part of our maternal, newborn, and child healthcare programming, we work with fathers to take an active role in supporting women during pregnancy, childbirth and in the care of newborns.

Treating boys and girls differently

Beliefs about the value of boys versus girls are commonly reflected in the way parents treat their children. 

For example, the gendered division of household work is accepted almost everywhere. Boys are more likely than girls to have maintenance chores like mowing the lawn or painting, while girls are given domestic chores like cooking and cleaning. This segregation of household labour tells children that they are expected to take on different roles based on their gender. 

While both parents influence their children’s perceptions of gender, fathers in particular are more likely to reinforce common gender stereotypes, preferring to encourage gendered toys, sports and rough play with their sons versus their daughters. In addition, the way fathers treat their wives can have a long-term impact on their sons and daughters’ personality and life choices.

In fact, fathers who take on an active role in childcare and domestic labour positively influence their children by showing that the adult male role can be nurturing. This positive role modelling helps boys become better husbands, fathers, brothers and friends to girls and women. At the same time, it positively impacts the self-esteem of young girls and reinforces that both genders are equal.

Additionally, mothers who work and take on a financial provider role in the family also help break down stereotypes for their children – especially their daughters – and challenge ideas about the conventional female role.

Gender equality for all

Of course, parents aren’t entirely responsible for how their children perceive gender – much of the external world including peers, teachers, caretakers and the media have an impact on how children (and even parents themselves) think they should behave based on their assigned sex. 

However, parents who are conscious of prevailing gender norms within their society have an important opportunity to challenge gender roles, break stereotypes and educate their children. 

When everyone plays a part in standing up for gender equality, we can create a just and equal world where no one is held back by restrictive gender norms.

Transforming prevalent attitudes towards gender

Gender inequality continues to grant men and boys with more rights, privileges and opportunities to become key decision makers and influencers. Girls and women, however, are denied opportunities to develop themselves and improve their social conditions – simply because they are female. 

And in many low-income countries, girls and women are not free to exercise basic human rights like education, health and protection – this further perpetuates serious global issues such as intergenerational  cycles of poverty ,  child early and forced marriage ,  gender-based violence  and  high maternal and newborn mortality rates . 

At Plan International, we’re committed to transforming unequal gender power relations by addressing the root causes of gender inequality and promoting the inherent power and value of women and girls. Our programming goes beyond improving the condition of women and girls – we seek to improve their social position within their communities. 

Learn more about our gender transformative programming here

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What does gender equality look like today?

Date: Wednesday, 6 October 2021

Progress towards gender equality is looking bleak. But it doesn’t need to.

A new global analysis of progress on gender equality and women’s rights shows women and girls remain disproportionately affected by the socioeconomic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, struggling with disproportionately high job and livelihood losses, education disruptions and increased burdens of unpaid care work. Women’s health services, poorly funded even before the pandemic, faced major disruptions, undermining women’s sexual and reproductive health. And despite women’s central role in responding to COVID-19, including as front-line health workers, they are still largely bypassed for leadership positions they deserve.

UN Women’s latest report, together with UN DESA, Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2021 presents the latest data on gender equality across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The report highlights the progress made since 2015 but also the continued alarm over the COVID-19 pandemic, its immediate effect on women’s well-being and the threat it poses to future generations.

We’re breaking down some of the findings from the report, and calling for the action needed to accelerate progress.

The pandemic is making matters worse

One and a half years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, the toll on the poorest and most vulnerable people remains devastating and disproportionate. The combined impact of conflict, extreme weather events and COVID-19 has deprived women and girls of even basic needs such as food security. Without urgent action to stem rising poverty, hunger and inequality, especially in countries affected by conflict and other acute forms of crisis, millions will continue to suffer.

A global goal by global goal reality check:

Goal 1. Poverty

In 2021, extreme poverty is on the rise and progress towards its elimination has reversed. An estimated 435 million women and girls globally are living in extreme poverty.

And yet we can change this .

Over 150 million women and girls could emerge from poverty by 2030 if governments implement a comprehensive strategy to improve access to education and family planning, achieve equal wages and extend social transfers.

Goal 2. Zero hunger

The global gender gap in food security has risen dramatically during the pandemic, with more women and girls going hungry. Women’s food insecurity levels were 10 per cent higher than men’s in 2020, compared with 6 per cent higher in 2019.

This trend can be reversed , including by supporting women small-scale producers, who typically earn far less than men, through increased funding, training and land rights reforms.

Goal 3. Good health and well-being

Disruptions in essential health services due to COVID-19 are taking a tragic toll on women and girls. In the first year of the pandemic, there were an estimated 1.4 million additional unintended pregnancies in lower and middle-income countries.

We need to do better .

Response to the pandemic must include prioritizing sexual and reproductive health services, ensuring they continue to operate safely now and after the pandemic is long over. In addition, more support is needed to ensure life-saving personal protection equipment, tests, oxygen and especially vaccines are available in rich and poor countries alike as well as to vulnerable population within countries.

Goal 4. Quality education

A year and a half into the pandemic, schools remain partially or fully closed in 42 per cent of the world’s countries and territories. School closures spell lost opportunities for girls and an increased risk of violence, exploitation and early marriage .

Governments can do more to protect girls education .

Measures focused specifically on supporting girls returning to school are urgently needed, including measures focused on girls from marginalized communities who are most at risk.

Goal 5. Gender equality

The pandemic has tested and even reversed progress in expanding women’s rights and opportunities. Reports of violence against women and girls, a “shadow” pandemic to COVID-19, are increasing in many parts of the world. COVID-19 is also intensifying women’s workload at home, forcing many to leave the labour force altogether.

Building forward differently and better will hinge on placing women and girls at the centre of all aspects of response and recovery, including through gender-responsive laws, policies and budgeting.

Goal 6. Clean water and sanitation

In 2018, nearly 2.3 billion people lived in water-stressed countries. Without safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and menstrual hygiene facilities, women and girls find it harder to lead safe, productive and healthy lives.

Change is possible .

Involve those most impacted in water management processes, including women. Women’s voices are often missing in water management processes. 

Goal 7. Affordable and clean energy

Increased demand for clean energy and low-carbon solutions is driving an unprecedented transformation of the energy sector. But women are being left out. Women hold only 32 per cent of renewable energy jobs.

We can do better .

Expose girls early on to STEM education, provide training and support to women entering the energy field, close the pay gap and increase women’s leadership in the energy sector.

Goal 8. Decent work and economic growth

The number of employed women declined by 54 million in 2020 and 45 million women left the labour market altogether. Women have suffered steeper job losses than men, along with increased unpaid care burdens at home.

We must do more to support women in the workforce .

Guarantee decent work for all, introduce labour laws/reforms, removing legal barriers for married women entering the workforce, support access to affordable/quality childcare.

Goal 9. Industry, innovation and infrastructure

The COVID-19 crisis has spurred striking achievements in medical research and innovation. Women’s contribution has been profound. But still only a little over a third of graduates in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics field are female.

We can take action today.

 Quotas mandating that a proportion of research grants are awarded to women-led teams or teams that include women is one concrete way to support women researchers. 

Goal 10. Reduced inequalities

Limited progress for women is being eroded by the pandemic. Women facing multiple forms of discrimination, including women and girls with disabilities, migrant women, women discriminated against because of their race/ethnicity are especially affected.

Commit to end racism and discrimination in all its forms, invest in inclusive, universal, gender responsive social protection systems that support all women. 

Goal 11. Sustainable cities and communities

Globally, more than 1 billion people live in informal settlements and slums. Women and girls, often overrepresented in these densely populated areas, suffer from lack of access to basic water and sanitation, health care and transportation.

The needs of urban poor women must be prioritized .

Increase the provision of durable and adequate housing and equitable access to land; included women in urban planning and development processes.

Goal 12. Sustainable consumption and production; Goal 13. Climate action; Goal 14. Life below water; and Goal 15. Life on land

Women activists, scientists and researchers are working hard to solve the climate crisis but often without the same platforms as men to share their knowledge and skills. Only 29 per cent of featured speakers at international ocean science conferences are women.

 And yet we can change this .

Ensure women activists, scientists and researchers have equal voice, representation and access to forums where these issues are being discussed and debated. 

Goal 16. Peace, justice and strong institutions

The lack of women in decision-making limits the reach and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other emergency recovery efforts. In conflict-affected countries, 18.9 per cent of parliamentary seats are held by women, much lower than the global average of 25.6 per cent.

This is unacceptable .

It's time for women to have an equal share of power and decision-making at all levels.

Goal 17. Global partnerships for the goals

There are just 9 years left to achieve the Global Goals by 2030, and gender equality cuts across all 17 of them. With COVID-19 slowing progress on women's rights, the time to act is now.

Looking ahead

As it stands today, only one indicator under the global goal for gender equality (SDG5) is ‘close to target’: proportion of seats held by women in local government. In other areas critical to women’s empowerment, equality in time spent on unpaid care and domestic work and decision making regarding sexual and reproductive health the world is far from target. Without a bold commitment to accelerate progress, the global community will fail to achieve gender equality. Building forward differently and better will require placing women and girls at the centre of all aspects of response and recovery, including through gender-responsive laws, policies and budgeting.

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Stereotypes and Gender Roles

Many of our gender stereotypes are strong because we emphasize gender so much in culture (Bigler & Liben, 2007). For example, children learn at a young age that there are distinct expectations for boys and girls. Gender roles refer to the role or behaviors learned by a person as appropriate to their gender and are determined by the dominant cultural norms. Cross-cultural studies reveal that children are aware of gender roles by age two or three and can label others’ gender and sort objects into gender categories. At four or five, most children are firmly entrenched in culturally appropriate gender roles (Kane, 1996). When children do not conform to the appropriate gender role for their culture, they may face negative sanctions such as being criticized, bullied, marginalized or rejected by their peers. A girl who wishes to take karate class instead of dance lessons may be called a “tomboy” and face difficulty gaining acceptance from both male and female peer groups (Ready, 2001). Boys, especially, are subject to intense ridicule for gender nonconformity (Coltrane and Adams, 2008; Kimmel, 2000)

By the time we are adults, our gender roles are a stable part of our personalities, and we usually hold many gender stereotypes. Men tend to outnumber women in professions such as law enforcement, the military, and politics. Women tend to outnumber men in care-related occupations such as child care, health care, and social work. These occupational roles are examples of typical Western male and female behavior, derived from our culture’s traditions. Adherence to these occupational gender roles demonstrates fulfillment of social expectations but may not necessarily reflect personal preference (Diamond, 2002).

Gender stereotypes are not unique to American culture. Williams and Best (1982) conducted several cross-cultural explorations of gender stereotypes using data collected from 30 cultures. There was a high degree of agreement on stereotypes across all cultures which led the researchers to conclude that gender stereotypes may be universal. Additional research found that males tend to be associated with stronger and more active characteristics than females (Best, 2001); however recent research argues that culture shapes how some gender stereotypes are perceived. Researchers found that across cultures, individualistic traits were viewed as more masculine; however, collectivist cultures rated masculine traits as collectivist and not individualist (Cuddy et al., 2015). These findings provide support that gender stereotypes may be moderated by cultural values.

There are two major psychological theories that partially explain how children form their own gender roles after they learn to differentiate based on gender. Gender schema theory argues that children are active learners who essentially socialize themselves and actively organize others’ behavior, activities, and attributes into gender categories, which are known as schemas . These schemas then affect what children notice and remember later. People of all ages are more likely to remember schema-consistent behaviors and attributes than schema-inconsistent behaviors and attributes. So, people are more likely to remember men, and forget women, who are firefighters. They also misremember schema-inconsistent information. If research participants are shown pictures of someone standing at the stove, they are more likely to remember the person to be cooking if depicted as a woman, and the person to be repairing the stove if depicted as a man. By only remembering schema-consistent information, gender schemas strengthen more and more over time.

A second theory that attempts to explain the formation of gender roles in children is social learning theory which argues that gender roles are learned through reinforcement, punishment, and modeling. Children are rewarded and reinforced for behaving in concordance with gender roles and punished for breaking gender roles. In addition, social learning theory argues that children learn many of their gender roles by modeling the behavior of adults and older children and, in doing so, develop ideas about what behaviors are appropriate for each gender. Social learning theory has less support than gender schema theory but research shows that parents do reinforce gender-appropriate play and often reinforce cultural gender norms.

Gender Roles and Culture

Hofstede’s (2001) research revealed that on the Masculinity and Femininity dimension (MAS), cultures with high masculinity reported distinct gender roles, moralistic views of sexuality and encouraged passive roles for women. Additionally, these cultures discourage premarital sex for women but have no such restrictions for men. The cultures with the highest masculinity scores were: Japan, Italy, Austria and Venezuela. Cultures low in masculinity (high femininity) had gender roles that were more likely to overlap and encouraged more active roles for women. Sex before marriage was seen as acceptable for both women and men in these cultures. Four countries scoring lowest in masculinity were Norway, Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden. The United States is slightly more masculine than feminine on this dimension; however, these aspects of high masculinity are balanced by a need for individuality.

Culture and Psychology Copyright © 2020 by L D Worthy; T Lavigne; and F Romero is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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A Gender Analysis of Today’s Society Analytical Essay

Introduction, a historical overview of women’s roles in america, gender roles of women in society, personal reflection.

We live in a society that is characterized by rapid social, economic, technological and cultural changes. As such, we find that we have to adapt to the change occurring around us in order to survive through different situations. Rubin (2000) defines a society as a social group in which members coexist, endure and cooperate by developing interactive relationships with each other. In America, the different roles played by members define our society. In most cases, these roles are gender based.

However, over the past fewdecades, gender roles in the American society have undergone rapid and significant changes. With these considerations, this paper shall set out to explore how gender roles affect a woman’s professional and personal life in America today. This shall be done by performing a gender analysis and a personal reflection on the topic. A brief look at the roles played by women in previous centuries shall be provided as a basis for comparison.

In most historical accounts, women have been portrayed as the “weaker sex”. As such, their roles in society were limited to household duties such as cleaning, shopping, bearing and nurturing children and farming. It was not until the colonial period when women roles in society experienced a major change.

During the colonial period, America had a serious labor deficit. This led to a situation where the contribution of women was pivotal to the survival of their families and nation. As a result, women were no longer restricted to household chores and they had an opportunity to venture out,and try different approaches to life.

Consequently, women in today’s society have diverse roles, which include both the traditional and non-traditional roles. As such, women in today’s society can be categorized as entrepreneurs, working class and housewives. Each category has different roles that impact how the women behave personally and professionally.

However, due to hard economic times, the prevalence of women in these categories has changed significantly. More women are getting higher education and joining the American workforce, while fewer women settle for being housewives (Carter, Corra & Carter, 2009).

Over the past years, women’s roles have changed significantly. This can be attributed to the implementation of affirmative action laws, as well as economic realities that call for more contribution from both the male and female sexes.

These changes have led to a situation whereby equality between the sexes is not only desirable, but necessary for the survival and continual development of our society. As such, women are no longer restricted to some roles, or denied participation in others. Equality has therefore been promoted due to the realization that it is a great unifying factor in today’s complex society (Giele, 2007).

My parents have been a great inspiration in regard to promoting equality. Since my early childhood days, my mother often encouraged me to help out in the house and emphasized on the importance of doing various womanly chores. These included maintaining a high level of personal cleanliness, learning how to cook and clean and ensuring that our house was always tidy.

My brother and his friends enjoyed freedom from such responsibilities, and while I thought that it was unfair, I came to realize that as a girl, I was expected to learn these responsibilities.

On the other hand, my father focused most of his attention in teaching my older brother how to be a responsible man. In his free time, he could call him and give him advice on his responsibilities, the value of a good education and how to behave in society. The fact that he could help my mother do some house chores perplexed me the most.

In addition, he had a keen interest in my educational progress and often insisted that I work hard in school so as to secure a brighter future for myself. I never understood why my parents pushed me harder than they did my siblings in regard to performance. As years went on, I started realizing that as a woman, I had to work twice as hard as my male counterparts in order to succeed.

By observing my parents, I learnt that while women participated significantly in the job market, they still have to play a supportive role to their families and husbands. Despite the fact that women today are more empowered and can gain useful employment in terms of status and pay rate, men’s careers and needs often take precedence over those of their women counterparts (Eich-Krohm, 2007).

Choices made often prioritize the man’s career. This is further insinuated by Eich-Krohm (2007) who asserts that men’s careers often take priority and in most family settings, if a man’s career is in jeopardy, women are forced to relocate with their families regardless of their careers.

This goes to show that society expect women to support their husbands even if it affects the woman’s career negatively (Eich-Krohm, 2007).Despite the fact that women are increasingly taking up office roles, their gender roles as mothers and homebuilders greatly hamper their professional development.

This is demonstrated by Eich-Krohm (2007) who states that, in as much as equality has taken form in today’s society, women are in most cases taking career breaks (maternity leaves and other family related leaves) in order to cater for the needs of their family members. In addition, the author states that women often request for a reduction in their working hours so that they can redirect some extra efforts to their homes. This further shows that gender roles affect the professional development of women in America.

Similarly, religion has been documented as being among the main factors determining gender roles in society. The Amish communities, as well as most Christians believe that a woman’s place is at home. As such, you may find that some women in such religions have little aspirations of developing a professional career. The truth behind this sentiment can be evidenced from results collected from a study by Bang et al (2005), which showed that religious fundamentalism had a significant impact on how people perceived gender roles.

In addition, the study also showed that religions that focused on the traditional gender role expectations had fewer women professionals. Women with greater religious commitment were inclined to carry out their traditional roles as dictated by their religion (Bang et al, 2005). As such, women with strong religious affiliations are more likely to cut short their careers in order to take up a more supportive role as homebuilders and parents as long as their husbands can provide for them.

Rubin (2000) refers to gender as the activities, behaviors and roles that society expects from men or women. In as much as this is true, it should not be static since society is always evolving and changes have to be made so that we can adapt to current affairs. Gone are the days when women were considered as the weaker sex.

Basing on recent experiences, women are actively involved in politics and business management among other professions, which were in the past dominated by men. This is proof that women have what it takes to fight for equal opportunities with men, all the while, maintain their gender roles as mothers and home builders.

In addition, education has further promoted equality among the sexes in the sense that we all follow the same curriculum and learning process. As such, gender should not be the determining factor when it comes to delegation of roles.

In today’s society where the input of both men and women remain invaluable, sharing chores enables parents to build a better and stable future for their children. This means that gender roles should not be allowed to hinder the success of women because their contribution is as important as that of their male counterparts.

This paper set out to perform a gender analysis of today’s society. From the discussion herein, it has been argued that women emancipation is of great importance. In addition, a discussion on how gender roles affect a woman’s professional and personal life has been provided and a personal reflection on gender presented. Considering the hardships that are inherent in today’s society, gender should not mitigate people’s ability to succeed.

Bang, E. et al. (2005). Ethnicity, Acculturation, and Religiosity as Predictors of Female College Students’ Role Expectations. Sex Roles, 53 (3/4): 231-237.

Eich-Krohm, A. (2007). Make It or Break It–Women’s Career Interruptions in the Age of Professional Migration . International Journal of Sociology, 37 (2): 75-93.

Giele, J. Z. (2007). Homemaker or Career Woman: Life Course Factors and Racial Influences among Middle Class Americans. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 54 (2): 393-409.

Rubin, M. (2000). Women in the American Society for Public Administration: Another Decade of Progress but Still a Way to Go. Public Administration Review, 60 (1): 61-71.

Scott Carter, J., Corra, M., & Carter, S. (2009). The Interaction of Race and Gender: Changing Gender-Role Attitudes, 1974–2006. Social Science Quarterly,90 (1): 196-211.

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Promoting Gender Equality and Women Empowerment

Gender Equality Begins At Home : A Personal Reflection

• Swagata Sen
• June 21, 2020

As a mother of a boy and a girl, I was very conscious about never imposing social gender norms and stereotypes on my children. It was primarily because of my own childhood experience – I was expected to act, behave, and express myself in a certain way since I was nine or ten years old. Since that tender age, I used to be told every day that a girl’s value and worth lie in her cooking and domestic work skills. Regardless of the education of a woman, if she is not good at cooking or cleaning, her husband’s family would never love her. That’s not all. A girl should never reply back, should never say ‘no’ to any order, never challenge her traditional and cultural values, or talk or laugh loudly – the list was endless. Because of my apathy in cooking as a pre-teen, every day I used to be reminded how worthless I was. I felt limited, restricted, inferior, and less cared for throughout my entire childhood, because of my gender. Gender equality indeed begins at home.

Stereotyping affects both boys and girls

Guess what? I had a brother who was one year older than me. And the rules, expectations, behavioral standards, life goals, everything was different for him. He never had to do any household chores, help with cooking, or cleaning. He was also allowed to remind me every day that getting good grades would not give me a pass to a great life if my cooking skills are not great! 

We both were equally smart and ambitious. But by the time he was 14, I could see the expectation started mounting on him about his professional success. However insulting and disgusting it might sound, as an elder brother he was responsible for paying the expenses of my marriage (read dowry)! 

It was not only me, but we both were victims of cultural gender norms and gender roles, which affected our adult lives in different ways. It’s a common misconception that gender stereotypes affect only girls. 

Keep gender-norms out of the conversation 

As a mother, I was extremely cautious and conscious of not repeating these with my children. I refrained from setting any expectations or behavioral standards based on their gender. I taught both of them to help me with household work when needed. 

I’ve never told my daughter ‘you are a girl’ in any context. Even today, I associate this sentence with an attempt to limit my ability, my freedom, and my dreams.

Even with my utmost concern and awareness about keeping gender out of the conversation, I remember, it was impossible to control what family members or neighbors would comment on. For instance, my son used to be often teased by some relatives as ‘girlish’ for being tearful and sensitive.

Leading by example is the best way to teach

“To be in your children’s lives tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today.”

By the time my son was 12, he started refusing to do dishes, and chores or help me in cooking. The more I tried explaining to him the importance of sharing domestic work, the more he started resisting it. At that point I realized, he never saw his father doing any domestic work, which is a very common social norm in India. Most of our close friends and families also have very divisive gender roles when it comes to domestic work. More than what you explicitly tell them, how you as a parent lead your life, influences them the most. It all boils down to leading by example. Our family certainly needed more gender-equal roles. 

As boys grow up, they start identifying themselves more with their fathers. I realized my son had probably started considering these works as womanly or feminine. 

On the other hand, my daughter would often come and ask me whether I would need any help in the kitchen. If a girl always sees her mother cooking and taking care of family members, no matter how independent or empowered you raise her, she will always have a greater amount of implicit biases about her role as a caregiver of the family. 

It all starts with sharing the chores 

No matter how insignificant it sounds, gender equality begins with sharing domestic and care work. Though women today are more economically independent, all over the world they spend significantly more time doing domestic and care work than their male family members. This impacts women’s economic and professional performance, and growth and makes them more vulnerable to emotional stress and anxiety. Women often seek less demanding careers not because they are less capable, but because they don’t have a strong support system at home. The gender gap in care work is a huge contributing factor to the professional and social gender gap. Equality in domestic and care work helps families and communities flourish. 

Power dynamics between parents affect children

The power dynamics between the parents shape children’s perception of gender roles to a large extent. In many cultures, men are the head of the family and the decision-makers. Women, on the other hand, are not allowed to take any important decisions independently. Men consider reversing the gender rhetoric equivalent to giving up on their power and privileges. If we want to break these patterns for future generations, parents should try to be conscious of reversing gender roles.

In short, parents play a very significant role in introducing gender equality at home and in being role models for their children. In other words, if parents' behaviors promote gender stereotypes, it reinforces the problem. Children growing up in families with huge gender gaps often repeat the same patterns in their adult lives. Tweet

We’ve started realizing that we did not want to repeat the same mistakes that our parents made. We’ve made a lot of positive changes in our household in the last year in breaking the division of work. My husband didn’t grow up to have to contribute any chores at home, but he has started doing it now to teach our son the importance of countering traditional gender norms. We do believe that gender equality begins at home. As adults, it’s harder for parents to overcome their own cultural biases. But, once you acknowledge and own your unconscious biases, you can work your way through it! 

Related posts:  A Step by Step Guide For Men To Fight Against Gender Discrimination  and  You Too 

Related resources:  Gender equality starts at home: Seven tips for raising feminist kids

#GenderEqualityBeginsAtHome #MenCanCook #ShareDomesticWork

A clinical researcher by profession, I am an advocate of gender equality and women’s rights. I have created Rights of Equality to dismantle institutionalized gender discrimination and harmful social practices through systemic changes. Over the last few years, our contributors from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds were able to voice their concerns about a range of issues that are oppressive to women across the world. We are hopeful that our efforts will help promote awareness and contribute to changing mindsets and shifting cultures about gender roles and norms.

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11 Comments

Amber Myers

Yes, I love this. I make sure my son knows he needs to help in the kitchen. And I want my daughter to know how to change her own tire and such. I think that’s important!

Tara Pittman (@momknowsbest15)

Having 4 boys and 1 girl, I made sure to teach them all to cook and clean. My sons are awesome in the kitchen.

That is true that some household roles should not be assigned to a child according to their gender.

Jessi Joachim

I have 1 boy and 1 girl, and I totally think it is a conscious decision to break down gender norms with my kids. I even have to remind my own parents that some things won’t be made to be a “big deal”… like my dad hates that my son likes his long hair…. my kids both play with whatever toys they want and do the same chores.

So true….nature versus nurture. We must begin with the teaching at a young age from home.

this is so true. i’ve been reading new books for myself and to my kids to try and unlearn / learn.

kileen cute & little

successunscrambled

Like you I have a boy and a girl and they both help around the house. My son is such a ‘foody’ as well so he is always making something in the kitchen.

World In Eyes

Great post, I strongly believe that Gender inequality begins from Kitchen, so we must finish it at kitchen.

Enriqueta Lemoine

Treating and teaching children as equally as possible it huge.

Melissa Cushing

I loved this post and enjoyed reading. I have to say you have a beautiful family and loved the pictures too…. the pictures are what grab me 🙂

This is fantastic and 100% correct. When ever we have kids we’ll be doing our best to ensure they are tolerant and treat everyone as they themselves would want to be treated.

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• How Indians View Gender Roles in Families and Society

Indians accept women as political leaders, but many favor traditional gender roles in family life

Table of contents.

• 1. Views on women’s place in society
• 2. Son preference and abortion
• 3. Gender roles in the family
• Acknowledgments
• Methodology

This study is part of Pew Research Center’s most comprehensive, in-depth exploration of India to date. For this report, we surveyed 29,999 Indian adults (including 22,975 Hindus, 3,336 Muslims, 1,782 Sikhs, 1,011 Christians, 719 Buddhists, 109 Jains and 67 respondents who belong to another religion or are religiously unaffiliated). Many findings from the survey in India were previously published in “ Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation ,” which looked in detail at religious and national identity, religious beliefs and practices, and attitudes among religious communities. The survey also included several questions on gender roles in Indian society, but these questions were not analyzed in the previous report and are now being published for the first time. Interviews for this nationally representative survey were conducted face-to-face under the direction of RTI International from Nov. 17, 2019, to March 23, 2020.

To improve respondent comprehension of survey questions and to ensure all questions were culturally appropriate, the Center followed a multiphase questionnaire development process that included expert review, focus groups, cognitive interviews, a pretest and a regional pilot survey before the national survey. The questionnaire was developed in English and translated into 16 languages, independently verified by professional linguists with native proficiency in regional dialects.

Respondents were selected using a probability-based sample design that would allow for robust analysis of all major religious groups in India – Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains – as well as all major regional zones. Data was weighted to account for the different probabilities of selection among respondents, and to align with demographic benchmarks for the Indian adult population from the 2011 census. The survey is calculated to have covered 98% of Indians ages 18 and older and had an 86% national response rate.

For more information, see the Methodology   for this report. The questions used in this analysis can be found here .

More than half a century ago, India was one of the first countries in the world to elect a woman as prime minister , and the country currently has several highly influential women politicians, including Sonia Gandhi, the head of one of the major national parties . Today, most Indians say that “women and men make equally good political leaders,” and more than one-in-ten feel that women generally make better political leaders than men, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey of nearly 30,000 adults throughout India. Only a quarter of Indian adults take the position that men make better political leaders than women.

Yet, in domestic settings, Indians tend to say men should have more prominent roles than women. About nine-in-ten Indians agree with the notion that a wife must always obey her husband, including nearly two-thirds who completely  agree with this sentiment. Indian women are only slightly less likely than Indian men to say they completely agree that wives should always obey their husbands (61% vs. 67%), according to the survey, which was conducted between late 2019 and early 2020 (mostly before the COVID-19 pandemic ).

Many Indians express egalitarian views toward some gender roles in the home. For instance, 62% of adults say both men and women should be responsible for taking care of children. But traditional gender norms still hold sway among large segments of the population: Roughly a third of adults (34%) feel that child care should be handled primarily by women.

Similarly, a slim majority (54%) says that both men and women in families should be responsible for earning money, but many Indians (43%) see this as mainly the obligation of men. And Indian adults overwhelmingly say that when jobs are in short supply, men should have greater rights to employment than women, reflecting the continued prominence of men in the economic sphere. Eight-in-ten agree with this sentiment, including a majority (56%) who completely agree.

Indians value having both sons and daughters: Nearly all Indians say it is very important for a family to have at least one son (94%) and, separately, to have at least one daughter (90%). And most Indians say that both sons and daughters should have equal rights to inheritance from parents (64%) and have the responsibility to care for parents as they age (58%). But survey respondents are far more likely to say that sons, rather than daughters, should have greater rights and responsibilities in these areas. For example, while about four-in-ten Indian adults say that sons should have the primary responsibility to care for aging parents, just 2% say the same about daughters.

Related India research

This is one in a series of Pew Research Center reports on India based on a survey of 29,999 Indian adults conducted Nov. 17, 2019, to March 23, 2020, as well as demographic data from the Indian Census and other government sources. Other reports can be found here:

• Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation
• Religious Composition of India
• India’s Sex Ratio at Birth Begins To Normalize

Moreover, most Indians (63%) see sons – not daughters – as being primarily responsible for parents’ last rites and burial rituals. Religious funeral practices for loved ones are widely seen as very important , and at least according to Hindu tradition , sons must perform last rites for a parent to ensure freedom for the soul in the afterlife. Recently, women – including actress Mandira Bedi and the daughters of India’s former Chief of Defense Staff – have publicly challenged these norms by lighting family members’ funeral pyres.

These norms are part of a wider phenomenon in Indian society where, for a variety of historical, social, religious and economic reasons, families tend to place higher value on sons rather than daughters – a custom broadly referred to as “son preference.” Adult sons traditionally live with their parents and provide financial support to the family. Meanwhile, when daughters marry, their families may pay a dowry, an illegal practice that still features in some marriages , and daughters often live with their husband’s parents and fulfill obligations toward their in-laws. In recent years, Indian society has paid increased attention to improving the status of daughters – the government’s Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (“Save the girl child, Educate the girl child”) program, for example, seeks to prevent sex-selective practices during pregnancy and to ensure educational opportunities for girls by conducting public awareness media campaigns , among other policies.

Son preference and the increased availability of ultrasounds in recent decades have contributed to the selective abortion of female fetuses across India, despite the illegality of the practice. And for many years, India has had one of the most skewed sex ratios at birth in the world. For example, according to the 2011 census , there were 111 boys born for every 100 girls born in India, though recent data suggests the gap may be narrowing . 1

Many Indians see sex-selective abortion as acceptable in at least some circumstances: Four-in-ten Indians say it is either “completely acceptable” or “somewhat acceptable” to “get a checkup using modern methods to balance the number of girls and boys in the family,” a euphemism to connote sex-selective abortion. 2  A similar share (42%) says balancing the number of girls and boys in a family via modern methods is completely  unacceptable , while roughly one-in-ten describe the practice as “somewhat” unacceptable.

On this question and all others included in this report, differences in opinion between men and women and across age groups are modest. In other words, Indian women typically are not much more likely than Indian men to express egalitarian views on son preference and gender roles (see “ In India, men a little more likely than women to have conservative views on gender ”), and the same is true of young Indian adults (ages 18 to 34) relative to their elders.

This is the second report based on a Pew Research Center survey conducted face-to-face nationally among 29,999 Indian adults. Many findings from the survey were previously published in “ Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation ,” which looked in detail at religious and national identity, religious beliefs and practices, and attitudes among religious communities. The survey also included several questions on gender roles in Indian society, but these questions were not analyzed in the previous report and are now being published for the first time. (Another recent Pew Research Center report, “ Religious Composition of India ,” used Indian census data to examine how India’s religious makeup has changed since independence.)

Local interviewers administered the survey between Nov. 17, 2019, and March 23, 2020, in 17 languages. The survey covered all states and union territories of India, with the exceptions of Manipur and Sikkim – where the rapidly-developing COVID-19 situation prevented fieldwork from starting in the spring of 2020 – and the remote territories of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep; these areas are home to about a quarter of 1% of the Indian population. The union territory of Jammu and Kashmir was covered by the survey, though no fieldwork was conducted in the Kashmir region itself due to security concerns.

This study, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation, is part of a larger effort by Pew Research Center to understand religious change and its impact on societies around the world. The Center previously has conducted religion-focused surveys across sub-Saharan Africa ; the Middle East-North Africa region and many other countries with large Muslim populations ; Latin America ; Israel ; Central and Eastern Europe ; Western Europe ; and the United States .

The rest of this Overview covers perceptions of gender discrimination; how Indian attitudes on gender compare globally; the strong influence of education and religion in gender attitudes; the minimal differences in gender attitudes between Indian men and women, and among adults of different ages; and regional and state-level variation in how gender roles are viewed.

Indians perceive more discrimination against women than religious minorities, but most say women do not face ‘a lot of discrimination’

Almost a quarter of Indians (23%) say there is “a lot of discrimination” against women in their country, slightly more than the shares who say some religious groups or lower castes face a lot of discrimination. This means that the vast majority of Indian adults do not see a lot of discrimination against any of these groups.

About one-in-six Indian women (16%) said that they had personally felt discriminated against because they are a woman in the last 12 months before the 2019-2020 survey – comparable to the shares of women who said they have recently felt discriminated against due to their religion (16%) or their caste (14%). Similar shares of Indian men said they had faced recent gender (14%), religious (17%) or caste (15%) discrimination.

But far more adults see violence against women as a major national issue. As described in a previous Pew Research Center report , three-quarters of Indians say violence against women is a “very big problem” – greater than the share who say communal violence is a very big problem (65%), and similar to the shares who say this about crime and corruption (76% each). Police cases registered as “crimes against women” nearly doubled between 2010 and 2019 , and rapes and murders of women have led to massive protests across India .

The survey asked respondents which of two options is more important to improve the safety of women in their community: teaching boys to respect all women or teaching girls to behave appropriately. Roughly half of Indians say teaching boys to respect women is more important, while about a quarter of Indians say teaching girls to behave appropriately is the better way to improve women’s safety. An additional quarter of Indian adults don’t take a clear position between those two options, instead voicing that some combination of the two approaches is necessary, that improved law and order through policing will improve the situation or that women are already safe. Women are slightly more likely than men to say that teaching boys to respect all women is the more important way to improve safety (53% vs. 48%).

How India’s gender attitudes compare globally

Pew Research Center has asked a couple of the questions on this survey in many countries around the world, allowing a glimpse of where Indians fit globally when it comes to public opinion on these issues.

Across 47 countries and territories, a global median of 70% say it is very important for women to have the same rights as men, according to data from two recent waves of the Center’s Global Attitudes survey . This is similar to the share of Indians who feel gender equality is very important (72%). 3

Indians are less likely than people in North America (92% median ), Western Europe (90%) and Latin America (82%) to place high importance on women and men having the same rights. But they are more likely than those living in sub-Saharan Africa (48% median) and the Middle East-North Africa region (44%) to say this. Adults in Central and Eastern Europe (69% median) are roughly similar to Indians on this question.

Within South Asia, Indians are somewhat more likely than Pakistanis to say it is very important for men and women to have equal rights (72% vs. 64%).

Despite broadly aligning with global public opinion on equal rights for women, Indians tend to be more conservative than people in most other countries surveyed when it comes to gender dynamics in the home and in the economy.

For instance, across 61 countries surveyed from 2013 to 2019, a median of 17% completely agree with the statement “When jobs are scarce, men should have more rights to a job than women,” but roughly three times as many Indians say the same (55%). 4  In fact, only one surveyed country – Tunisia (64%) – has a higher share who completely agree with the notion that men should have greater rights to jobs in times of high unemployment.

On this measure, Indians are substantially more traditional than people from North America (4% median), Western Europe (7%), Central and Eastern Europe (14%) and Latin America (20%).

These attitudes, combined with a scarcity of jobs , may be one reason why India has one of the lowest female labor force participation rates in the world (21% vs. 53% global median), according to 2019 United Nations (UN) data . India’s male labor force participation rate is much higher (76%), and this within-country discrepancy contributes to India’s low ranking on the UN Gender Inequality Index (123rd out of 162 ranked countries).

The 2019 Global Attitudes survey in 34 countries also asked a question about gender roles that was not on the 2019-2020 India survey: “Which kind of marriage is more satisfying, one where the husband provides for the family and the wife takes care of the house and children, or one where the husband and wife both have jobs and together take care of the house and children?”

Indians are among the most likely to say the husband should provide for the family while the wife focuses on the home: Four-in-ten Indians prefer this traditional family dynamic, compared with a global median of 23%.

Indians with a college degree are less likely to hold traditional views on gender roles

Indian adults with a college degree are less likely than those without a college education to support conservative gender norms. For example, about a quarter of college-educated Indians (24%) say women in a family should be primarily responsible for taking care of children, while roughly a third of Indians with less formal education (35%) say child care responsibility should rest with women.

However, even Indians who have completed college sometimes do overwhelmingly endorse traditional views on gender-related issues. For instance, large majorities among those with a college degree (80%) and those with less education (88%) agree with the notion that wives must always obey their husbands.

Muslims more likely than other Indians to say men should provide a family’s income

India’s main religious groups have widely divergent opinions about gender roles in the family. For example, while nearly three-quarters of Indian Muslims (74%) say that sons should have the primary responsibility for a parent’s burial rituals, just 29% of Sikhs say that sons alone should handle last rites. Across several aspects of family life, this pattern repeats: Muslims are the most likely, and Sikhs are the least likely, to support traditional gender roles.

Muslims are somewhat less likely than Sikhs to have a college education (5% vs. 9%), based on the 2011 census , and as noted previously, Indians without a college degree are more likely to hold conservative gender attitudes. But even when considering education, Muslims are far more likely than Sikhs to support traditional gender roles in the family. For instance, about a third of college-educated Muslims (32%) say women should be primarily responsible for taking care of children, while only about one-in-ten college-educated Sikhs (9%) share this view.

The overwhelming majority of India’s Sikh community lives in the state of Punjab (India’s only majority-Sikh state), and people in Punjab consistently express less preference for traditional gender roles within the home – a pattern that is not just driven by Sikhs in the state. Indeed, Punjabi Hindus are much less likely than Hindus nationally to express traditional views on some gender roles. For example, while 34% of Indian Hindus overall say women should be primarily responsible for taking care of children, just 13% of Punjabi Hindus say this – similar to the 14% of Indian Sikhs who take this position. (See “ Southern states not necessarily more egalitarian than Hindi Belt states in gender attitudes ” for more on state and regional differences across India.)

For many years, Punjab has had one of the most skewed sex ratios across Indian states. According to the 2011 census , for every 119 boys born in Punjab, 100 girls were born. However, more recent data suggests the skew may be decreasing. In the most recently conducted National Family Health Survey (NFHS), there were 111 boys born in Punjab for every 100 girls. 5

In India, men a little more likely than women to have conservative views on gender

Across a variety of measures, Indian men are more likely than women – but only slightly – to take a traditional view of gender roles. For instance, 82% of men say that when there are few jobs, men should have more rights to jobs, compared with 77% of women who share this perspective.

Similarly, older Indians (ages 35 and older) are marginally more likely than younger adults to hold traditional views on gender roles. While 45% of Indians ages 35 and older say that men in a family should be primarily responsible for earning money, 42% of those ages 18 to 34 agree.

Even when looking at attitudes only among Indian women, the differences between younger and older adults are minimal, with older women slightly more likely than younger women (ages 18 to 34) to hold conservative views on gender roles. For example, 37% of older Indian women (ages 35 and older) think women in a family should be primarily responsible for caring for children, while a third of younger Indian women take this position.

Sidebar: India’s changing gender norms

The general consistency across age groups could suggest that Indian attitudes on family gender roles may not be changing very much over time. But a long-running survey shows that attitudes and behaviors on gender roles appear to have become more egalitarian since the end of the 20th century, with perhaps the biggest changes in the early 2000s.

India’s National Family Health Survey (NFHS) has been conducted five times, with the first happening roughly three decades ago. Typically, women ages 15 to 49 and men ages 15 to 54 in selected households are eligible to be interviewed. 6 By comparison, all Indian adults (ages 18 and older) were eligible to be included in the Pew Research Center survey. Differences in sampling and question wording make it difficult to compare the two surveys directly. Still, NFHS surveys are useful in analyzing data over time.

Between the survey’s second (1998-99) and third (2005-06) rounds of data collection, several measures showed a move away from traditional attitudes. For example, while 31% of married women under age 50 who were earning money in 1998 and 1999 said that their husband was mainly deciding how to use the money the wife earned, that number halved (15%) by 2005 and 2006.

Between the survey’s third (2005-06) and fourth (2015-16) rounds, changes have been more modest, though still with a slight tendency toward less conservative views. Over that decade, for instance, the share of married men under age 50 who said husbands should have the greater say in deciding about visits to a wife’s family or relatives declined slightly, from 26% to 21%. 7

Southern states not necessarily more egalitarian than Hindi Belt states in gender attitudes

Women in India’s Southern states generally have better socioeconomic outcomes, on average, than those in other parts of the country, particularly when compared with states in the Northern Hindi Belt. For instance, Southern women tend to be more highly educated and to live longer . This North-South divide is commonly discussed in academic literature .

But Southern attitudes toward gender roles are not necessarily more egalitarian. While Indians in the South are less likely than those in the Hindi Belt to say, for example, that a wife must always obey her husband (75% vs. 94%), Southern adults are more likely to say that men in families should be responsible for making decisions about expenses (25% vs. 13%) and that women should be primarily responsible for taking care of children (44% vs. 30%).

These regional analyses, though, mask significant variation within regions. In the South, people in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh often express more traditional views than those in Kerala: 81% of Karnataka’s residents and 60% in Andhra Pradesh think sons should be responsible for a parent’s last rites, while just 30% of Keralites say the same. Meanwhile, attitudes toward gender roles in Tamil Nadu and Telangana tend to vary quite a lot based on the issue; for example, Tamilians are among the least likely to say that a wife must always obey her husband, but the state also has the highest share of people who say women should be primarily responsible for taking care of children.

The Hindi Belt also has large variations between states on gender roles. For example, Uttar Pradesh is often among the most conservative states, while the National Capital Territory of Delhi is consistently at the other end of spectrum. For complete state-level details on these questions, see Chapter 3 .

How regions of India are defined for this report

Previous reporting from this survey largely used membership in India’s six zonal councils to define regions. In this report, however, it makes more sense to analyze at the state level due to wide variations among states within the same zone.

This report does, though, describe differences between two commonly discussed regions: the Hindi Belt and the South. While different definitions exist, a broad definition of the Hindi Belt includes the following 11 states and union territories, located in the Northern part of the country: Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The South includes the following six states and union territories: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

Sidebar: National Family Health Surveys also show big variation within regions

Even though the surveys include different questions and have different sample compositions, NFHS surveys broadly show similar patterns to the Center’s recent survey: Southern attitudes and behaviors often are comparable to, or even more traditional than, those in the Hindi Belt, and states within both regions are diverse in how traditional gender roles are considered.

For example, in the most recently released NFHS data, about a third of men in Southern states (34%) say husbands should have a greater say than wives when making major household purchases, compared with roughly a quarter in Hindi Belt states (27%). 8

On this topic, within-region variation is stark in the Hindi Belt. While 37% of residents in Chandigarh think husbands should have more say than wives in major purchases, just 13% in Himachal Pradesh offer this opinion. 9

• These statistics are referred to as sex ratio at birth (SRB). International convention is to present SRB as the number of boys per 100 girls. In the census of India and India’s National Family Health Survey, however, this ratio is often expressed as the number of girls per 1,000 boys. This report follows the international practice, so all ratios are presented as the number of boys per 100 girls. Around the world, SRB naturally tends to skew slightly male (roughly 105 boys for every 100 girls). The exact causes of the skew are debated, but some scientists posit that the explanation may lie, at least in part, in higher female mortality rates early in pregnancy. ↩
• This is the first major study in India to ask about opinions of sex-selective abortion. Because the practice is illegal, researchers designed the question in consultation with a subject-matter expert and subsequently tested it with respondents before including it in the full survey – all part of the extensive questionnaire design process for this project. Testing found this question to be understood by respondents without being offensive. ↩
• This figure (72%) comes from the 2019 Global Attitudes survey and is slightly lower than the share (80%) who said this in the 2019-2020 India survey on which most of this report is based. Context effects could account for this difference: The survey question comes much later in the Global Attitudes survey than in the India-specific survey; and the Global Attitudes survey question is the third in a battery asking respondents to rank how important things are, while the question stands on its own in the India-specific survey. No matter the cause for the slight difference, a solid majority of Indians support equal gender rights. ↩
• This figure (55%) comes from the 2019 Global Attitudes survey and is nearly identical to the figure (56%) from the 2019-2020 India survey on which most of this report is based. ↩
• These statistics are referred to as sex ratio at birth (SRB). International convention is to present SRB as the number of boys per 100 girls. In the census of India and India’s National Family Health Survey, however, this ratio is often expressed as the number of girls per 1,000 boys. This report follows the international practice, so all ratios are presented as the number of boys per 100 girls. Around the world, SRB naturally tends to skew slightly male (roughly 105 boys born for every 100 girls). The exact causes of the skew are debated, but some scientists posit that the explanation may lie, at least in part, in higher female mortality rates early in pregnancy. ↩
• The more recent rounds of this survey have included a men’s module alongside the longstanding women’s module, although the questions asked of men sometimes differ from those asked of women. This analysis of NFHS data only includes respondents ages 18 to 49 for both women and men. ↩
• As of publication, the NFHS round five dataset (fielded 2019-2021) has not been released for analysis. Initial fact sheets from the fifth round (released at the end of 2021) indicate that women’s involvement in household decisions has slightly increased since the fourth round, suggesting that Indians may be continuing toward more egalitarian attitudes. Some of the largest increases in women’s involvement in decision-making between the fourth and fifth rounds are in the Hindi Belt locations of Delhi, Bihar and Haryana. ↩
• This analysis is based on men ages 18 to 49. As of publication, the NFHS round five dataset (fielded 2019-2021) has not been released for analysis. ↩
• Initial fact sheets from the fifth round of the NFHS (released at the end of 2021) again indicate that there is within-region variation on women’s involvement in household decisions. ↩

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Understanding Gender Roles and Their Effect On Our Relationships

Sarah Fielding is a freelance writer covering a range of topics with a focus on mental health and women's issues.

Ivy Kwong, LMFT, is a psychotherapist specializing in relationships, love and intimacy, trauma and codependency, and AAPI mental health.  

While they ought to be outdated, there are certain molds that men and women are traditionally taught and pressured to fit into: A man is strong and takes financial care of the family, while a woman is nurturing and takes  emotional care  of everyone.

Men take out the trash, and women do the dishes. Men pay for dinner, and women take care of the children. Men make straightforward, unemotional decisions, and women fret and follow along.

These are but a few of the many gender roles that perpetuate in society, forcing people into small boxes and frustrating dynamics. These ideals of how a person should behave based on their gender can harm an individual’s mental health and relationships as a whole. 

“Gender roles can have a significant impact on our relationships by creating power imbalances and limiting our ability to express ourselves authentically,” says Satadeepa Som , a psychologist and sexual wellness therapist at Allo Health , India’s first dedicated sexual health clinic. “When we internalize traditional gender roles, we may feel pressure to conform to certain expectations of how men and women should behave in relationships. This can lead to frustration, resentment, and a lack of intimacy.” 

Identifying, understanding, and challenging gender roles aids in dismantling their power and removing their limitations from existing and future relationships. To that end, here’s what you need to know about gender roles, how they limit people, and the importance of breaking them down. 

What are gender roles?

“Gender roles are not biologically determined,” says Som. “Gender roles are socially constructed and can vary widely between different societies and cultures.”

At their core, gender roles are an arbitrary set of characteristics society believes each person should embody based on their gender. For men, this often means foregoing emotion in favor of a big wallet and a strong presence. Women are supposed to be subdued, emotional, and caring, with an underlying subservience to the men in their lives. 

Gender roles based in patriarchy, a system of social, legal, economic, political, and cultural practices that position men as the dominant social group, have been shaped and further emphasized in a myriad of places around the world.

Cultural beliefs throughout time have reinforced the part of men as the provider and women as the homemaker in spaces such as religious and educational institutions and in government bodies, says Som.

Societal norms have reflected the teachings of these establishments, with families, peers, and the media following “unwritten rules about what is considered acceptable behavior for men and women in a particular society or culture.” Everything, from television to magazines, has also helped curate how women and men “should” each act. 

Traditional ideology separates men’s and women’s tasks as they have historically been treated—men are the breadwinner, and women are the caregiver. An egalitarian stance, on the other hand, seeks to remove gender as any determination of who takes on what tasks. In the middle, where much of society, consciously or unconsciously lives, is something known as transitional ideology, the man is the breadwinner, but he also supports the woman in household tasks.  

How gender roles are limiting

Feminist movements throughout the 20th century fought for gender equality and women's rights. Feminists call attention to and address a number of issues affecting women and girls around the world and advocate ending sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression to achieve full gender equality in law and practice.

This resulted in significant and important changes.White women were granted the right to vote in 1920, Black women gained the right to vote in 1965, and women began wearing pants, getting graduate degrees, holding full-time jobs, and, overall, becoming more independent with greater freedom, choices, and opportunities.

Over the past two decades, activists have continued to push for an extinction of gender roles and a society in which people are defined by who they are, not the gender they are. Progress exists but is still slow, with many people inclined to default to and protect gender roles and keep people in small boxes. 

To this day, the ways in which gender roles can impact people are endless. Regardless of if a person thinks these stereotypes are helping them or making them look tough or caring, being forced into a box based on your gender is incredibly limiting and can cause a range of repercussions.

According to Rebecca Minor , LICSW, a gender specialist and part-time faculty at Boston University specializing in the intersection of gender and sexuality, three major areas where this is the case are job choices, emotional expression, and household responsibilities.

There are certainly many men who love finance and many women who want to be a teacher or an artist. But there are also lots of women who love math and men who want to instill lessons into young minds.

It’s not wrong for a person to want a job that falls within their traditional gender role, as long as they have the option to do any they please—and get paid equally for it. Without that opportunity, a person can get stuck in a job their entire life that is in no way related to their passions. 

Emotionally, men are told that they shouldn’t dare have any sensitive emotions, and if they do, they better bottle them up quickly. Women can be emotional and nurturing, but they’re not allowed to be strong or powerful. “These expectations can hinder individuals from expressing their emotions authentically, leading to emotional suppression and strained relationships,” says Minor. 

Regardless of if women work, household tasks and child caring are often left to them. If the man makes more money (which is not always the case and ignores the pay gap), why should they help out at home? If they do, some people still view it as demeaning or unusual. 

Gender roles can also have a tremendously negative impact on a person’s mental health. “Oppressive gender roles and stereotypes can have a negative impact on mental health by creating feelings of shame, self-doubt, and low self-esteem,” says Som. “When individuals are unable to meet society’s expectations of how they should behave based on their gender, they may feel isolated, misunderstood, and even punished.” As a result, individuals might develop a sense of failure, anxiety, stress, or depression. 

Breaking down gender norms for healthier relationships

Dating and relationships often prove to be the ultimate test for gender roles. They create this idea that there is a “right” and “wrong” way for each person to behave in a relationship when all that matters is their character and compatibility. “Traditional gender roles can also limit our ability to express ourselves authentically in relationships,” says Som.

Not only are gender roles in relationships archaic, but many people are not even in a monogamous, heterosexual relationship. “Gender roles can reinforce stereotypes and lead to discrimination and oppression,” says Som. “For example, LGBTQ+ individuals may face discrimination in relationships and society based on their gender identity or sexual orientation. This can create feelings of isolation and impact mental health.”

When we let go of these unnecessary ideas of how a person should act in a relationship, it creates space for a healthy, supportive relationship. “Breaking down gender roles allows individuals to communicate openly and honestly about their needs, desires, and emotions without fear of judgment or reprisal,” says Minor.

“This leads to more effective and empathetic communication, fostering greater understanding and connection between partners.” It also provides space for people to pursue their interests, work on power imbalances generated by society, and create an intimate, healthy space for the relationship to grow. 

Somech, A., & Drach-Zahavy, A. (2016). Gender role ideology. In A. Wong, M. Wickramasinghe, renee hoogland, & N. A. Naples (Eds.),  The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies  (pp. 1–3). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118663219.wbegss205

Gender Roles in Society

How it works

Gender roles have been assigned to members of a society based on their biological sex. If a child is born with female sexual reproductive organ then they are conditioned to act feminine, while those born with male reproductive organs are conditioned to act masculine. But what does it mean act feminine or masculine? Well based on the gender roles constructed by society and culture femininity is soft, warm, and sensitive. Masculinity, on the other hand, is logical, strong and aggressive. These stereotypical perception of men and women are usually what come to mind when we think of gender.

Gender roles have been long studied by many sociologists and psychologist alike, but how is gender defined and how does traditional gender role affect members within a society?

First, let’s consider the role of biology in determining sex and gender in modern society. While both men and women share the same sex hormones, higher levels of testosterone have been observed in men and higher levels of estrogen have been observed in women. In humans, each individual has 23 pairs of chromosomes, and the 23rd pair is thought to determine biological sex. Males sex chromosomes are XY and female sex chromosomes are XX. An individual may inherit the X chromosome from their mother and/or father and a Y chromosome from their father. Y chromosomes have the Sex-determining Region Y gene (SRY) on the Y chromosome, which initiates the process of a fetus developing testes. Embryos with a Y chromosome and an activated SRY gene will likely develop into a male while embryos without a Y chromosome will likely develop in a female due to the absence of the SRY gene. In some cases, an embryo may have XY chromosomes however the SRY gene is not activated causing it to develop into a female. An active SRY gene may cause cells to secrete testosterone while an absent or inactive SRY gene may cause cells to secrete estrogen. There are a small percentage of people who are born intersex, their physical sex characteristics do not fit that of a typical male or female. While an individual’s biological sex will be used to define his/her gender role within society, it should be noted that biology does not determine an individual’s gender but rather his/her sex.

Females and males are assigned gender roles based on their sex when they are born and continue to learn those roles as they get older. However, social constructionism does not view gender as being biological but rather as a construct of social expectations that varies across culture and time. Children learn the stereotypical gender ideals from their parents, school, religious teaching and media. The family is the first institution of socialization and much of the behavior exhibited during the first years of life is learned from the family unit. When a baby is born parents begin to assign that baby gender by placing girls in feminine colors like pink and boys in masculine colors like blue. But it does not stop at colors as even toys are gender divided, dolls are given to girls while trucks are given to boys; this creates the stereotypical idea of what each gender should like. Stereotypical gender roles are reinforced in school when children learn to socialize outside of the family. In schools there are gender divided sports teams, most of the sports team are dominated by boys with cheerleaders being mostly female. Books, toys, movies, and advertisement all reinforce stereotypical gender roles which teach members within a society how to behave and how not to behave. There are instances where products are advertised to a specific gender. For instance, video games commercials frequently use males for their ads despite the fact that women also play video games. Commercial for cleaning products often shows women cleaning the home, doing laundry and caring for the children.

The cognitive theory on gender development asserts that children often observe adults in search of cues on how to make sense of the world. Children will observe their father for cues on how a male is expected to act while looking to their mother for cues on how a female is expected to act. They use these gender cues to form expectations about how different genders are supposed to behave. By around five years of age children would have a collection of gender stereotypes which they apply to themselves. They use these stereotypes that they learn from social interactions to guide their own behavior. By the age of eleven- and fourteen-months infants can distinguish male and female voices and match them to male and female faces. There are other theories which support the idea that gender roles are learned such as the gender schema theory which was proposed in 1981 by psychologist Sandra Bem. The theory suggests that a child’s schema about male and female traits is influenced by his/her cognitive development and social influences.

On the other hand, other theories such as the evolutionary theory posit that some modern-day gender roles are a result of ancestral humans’ adaptation to social roles in order to survive and reproduce. Social roles were divided between men and women which provided an advantage as the men would hunt while the women cooked and cared for the young. Women would also take part in providing food by planting and gathering, these were less dangerous activities and seemed like the logical choice as women were needed to reproduce. Men could take more risk, they were stronger and had better spatial visualization ability. On the hand, women had better manual dexterity and visual perception. Evolutionary psychologist assumes that the differences between gender are a result of natural selection, that humans have evolved throughout history to develop genes that aid in their survival. Those roles that were created during primitive times lasted throughout human history and still influences the way modern day society view gender.

Functionalist believes that early humans found the division of labor between genders beneficial and thus has survived throughout history, however, the traditional gender roles are problematic for modern society. Conflict theorist, on the other hand, believes that traditional gender roles had survived because it provided men with an advantage as it made it difficult for women to gain access to economic, social and political resources. However, they do agree with the conflict theorist that traditional gender roles are outdated for modern society. Sociologist Talcott Parsons’ (1950) theory on gender roles suggest that the socialization and complementary roles of men and women are necessary for the traditional nuclear family. The complementary role of women is to be homemakers while the complementary role of the man is to be the breadwinner. He also believed that girls are socialized to develop expressive attribute and boys are socialized to develop instrumental attributes.

Stereotypical gender roles are caused by the division of social roles between genders. Over many years these roles have been conditioned and reinforced by rewarding or praising a child for adhering to those roles. Women are viewed as having more communal qualities and men as having more agentic qualities. This is not based on biological makeup of men and women but rather the social roles assigned to them. Women were perceived has sensitive, caring and compassionate because their social role for many years was that of a caregiver. They occupied more caretaker roles such as stay-at-home mothers or nurses, leading to the assumption that women are biologically programmed to care for others.

On the other hand, men were perceived as intelligent, competitive and aggressive because for many years’, men were more likely to be educated, to have a job and earn higher pay. They were often the primary breadwinners in their family and held more leadership roles within society. This led to the stereotypical perception of men being better leaders because they are more aggressive and logical.

The media and every institution of socialization have instilled in humans the idea of how a male and a female is supposed to look and act. It is through these socializations that people learn from a very young age that women are not supposed to be aggressive and men are not supposed to be sensitive. Children shows are full of stereotypical gender roles, like the Disney princesses. Fairytales like Cinderella often portray women as the damsel in distress who waits on a prince to save her. In these stories, the women are beautiful, helpful and nurturing while the female villain is portrayed as ugly, unhelpful and lacks nurturing qualities. The men are brave, strong and even athletic. In 1995 Thompson and Zerbinos analyzed 41 cartoons on American television and found that those produce before 1980 portrayed more stereotypical gender roles than those after 1980.

The stereotypical gender roles can often present some issues in modern society. The perception that real men do not cry causes men to bottle up emotions out of fear that they will be perceived as weak or feminine. When emotions are not dealt with in a healthy way it can cause stress and may lead to aggressive behaviors as the stress builds. The stereotype of men being breadwinners can also cause negative issues with marriages. Men are perceived as being the provider, therefore, when women become the primary breadwinner men can become resentful. Men may feel inadequate if their wives make more money than they do. Women are expected to be the nurturers and so when they don’t exhibit those characteristics they are frowned upon by society. While men who take on more caretaker roles are viewed as weak and feminine.

Women can also face a disadvantage in the workforce due to stereotypical gender roles. In the workforce, leadership roles are mainly awarded to men who are perceived as being aggressive and competitive. However, women who perform the same as their male counterpart are often perceived negatively because they don’t fit the stereotypical gender role set by society. This may also lead to wage gaps between men and women, as men tend to earn more than their female counterpart. Those disadvantages are often due to sexism which is the discrimination of a person based on their sex or gender. Apart from the inequalities of hiring and promotional opportunities as well as gaps in earnings, sexism can also present itself in the form of sexual harassment. Women are often viewed as sex objects and were more likely to face sexual harassment than men.

Gender roles with modern western society, however, changing as more women are taking on leadership roles. Women are working in areas that were once male-dominated, women make up 46% of the U.S workforce. Gone are the days when women weren’t even allowed to vote, women now have important roles within government, they are mayors, governors, and senators. 15.7% of corporate officers and 1.4% of CEOs in Fortune 500 companies are women; additionally, in government women make up 14% of senators, 15% of congressional representative and 16% of state governors.

Additionally, the feminist movement which began around 1848 is gaining more support in fighting against the sexist behaviors towards women. Women have been fighting against stereotypical gender roles, so they are not only perceived as just mothers, housewives or sex objects but also leaders and business women. The feminist movement has been bringing attention to the inequality women face in society. The 1960s brought the Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan and the establishment of the National Organization for Women (NOW). But just how much fast are stereotypical gender roles changing? Data of 191 adults were collected in 2014 and compared to data of 195 college student from 1983. Researchers found that in 2014 people still held strong stereotypical ideals of men and women, particularly personality traits and gender role behaviors.

Gender roles have been long studied by many sociologists and psychologist alike, but how is gender role defined and how does it affect members within a society? It can be concluded that gender roles are a social construct that is assigned to members of a society based on their biological sex. While biological sex is inherited, gender is learned by socialization with members of society. While gender roles vary across culture and time, most traits are common in all society and time periods. Women are often assigned the role of caregivers and homemakers while men are assigned the role to provider and protector. Those stereotypical gender roles have existed since primitive time and are still held today.

The cognitive theory, social constructionism, functionalist and conflict theorist all seemed to agree that gender roles are learned through socialization. Functionalist and conflict theorist believe that traditional gender roles present an issue in modern society. Children learn gender roles from many different institutions of socialization like the family, religion, and school, as well as other avenues such as the media. Children learn gender norms as they are introduced to gender-specific colors, clothing, toys, and activities. Girls are dress in pink which are considered feminine and boys are dressed in blue which is considered masculine. Girls are given dolls while boys are given trucks and are taught how genders are expected to behave based on observation of adults around them.

The stereotypical roles applied to females portray women as weak, dependent, submissive and emotional. These kinds of stereotypes lead to sexism which can cause women to experience inequality in the workforce, abuse and to be unfairly treated when they don’t fit the traditional role. Men also face disadvantages of stereotypical gender roles, as men often face ridicule when they don’t fit the traditional roles. Men are taught to not get emotional, they are expected to be the breadwinners and are mocked when they make less than their women. Boys often feel inadequate, sad and angry when they are teased as being feminine.

There is a change that has been slowly happening in modern society has the feminine movement grows. There are men and women who are fighting to remove stereotypical gender roles and to redefine the definition of femininity and masculinity. Women are taking their place in government, owning businesses and being breadwinners while fulfilling their roles as mothers.

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The Evolution of Gender Roles

A personal perspective: the family roles of men and women is still a big issue..

Posted June 26, 2023 | Reviewed by Davia Sills

• Families and individuals often have great difficulty adjusting to rapidly changing cultural mandates.
• When it comes to gender roles, "having it all" is extremely difficult because of old standards.
• Women still do on average more child care and housework than men.
• Parental guilt can lead to problems both at home and at work.

Cultural lag is an important concept from sociology that affects a great many people in our current cultural landscape. As originally defined, it is when there are differences in the rate of change between different groups within a society. For example, if one group adopts a new technology more quickly than another group, this can lead to a gap in knowledge and understanding between the two groups.

It clearly happens when the culture evolves and begins to demand a more individualistic way of being and relating to others. This process was well described in historical terms by Erich Fromm in his classic book, Escape from Freedom.

Confusion Over Gender Roles Still a Common Issue

This phenomenon has created a great many problems in our society. A big one is internal confusion and ambivalence about gender roles, which often leads to marital squabbles among other things. It also seems to cause parental guilt over not being there for the children as much. This guilt may be the reason for the marked increase in so-called helicopter parenting , as parents try to assuage their guilt by trying overly hard to protect their children from any and all adversity.

The old cultural mandates about such things as having children and independence from family have been internalized by members (who follow a series of rules about these areas). In turn, if everyone follows the rules, the family functions smoothly—called family homeostasis . This can be highly adaptive—when the rules within a culture are fairly clear. When these rules evolve, many families literally can’t keep up with the changes, and their family rules and the resulting behavior become maladaptive in the larger society. Cultural changes are happening more quickly, leaving more and more families in the dust.

Rapid Cultural Changes Lead to Problems

In the not-too-distant past, women were not allowed to vote, serve on juries, or own a credit card. Within my lifetime, women started to join the workforce in large numbers, oftentimes in jobs women in the past only thought about performing. The feminist movement has led to a more egalitarian society, but the old ways still gnaw at many people.

One extremely common pattern: With household chores, many of the prior divisions of labor between wives and husbands remain stuck in old patterns. People may read about how easy it is to have it all , when in fact in today’s culture this is often next to impossible for middle and working-class women. We also have feminists on one side denigrating stay-at-home mothers, while on the other are preachers telling women that they are harming their children by not being home with them. At the same time, many employers are asking for more and more time from employees and could not care less about childcare responsibilities. This is a factor in the parental guilt mentioned above.

Childcare and Employment Difficulties

Mothers even now are, in general, more responsible for children than male parents. While some of the differences in income between men and women who are doing the same jobs are indeed due to ongoing sexism, some of it is because many have to take care of the kids. Therefore, they don’t work as many hours.

My understanding of this was supported by a study that showed that more wives are now primary earners, but still spend more time performing most household chores, let alone childcare, than their spouses. Aliya Hamid Rao, an assistant professor in the department of methodology at the London School of Economics, is the author of the study. She found that most husbands spend less time on housework even when the wives were earning as much or more than they are. In fact, this research shows that in more marriages today than ever before, men still spend more time at work, relaxing and socializing and less time mopping floors, cooking dinner, and picking up kids from school than their spouses.

Most of the time when we talk about gender equality, we focus on the workplace where women are sharply underrepresented at the top, face discrimination in hiring and promotions, and are paid less for the same work. But gender disparities don’t just happen at work, but continue to be difficulties when people go home.

Statistically, the share of women who earn as much or more than their husbands has tripled over the past 50 years, In about a third of marriages, 29 percent, husbands and wives earn roughly the same. In 16 percent of marriages, wives are the breadwinners. But housework and caregiving responsibilities are still widely considered women’s work.

Brinkman, R.L. and Brinkman, “J.E. Cultural lag: conception and theory.” International Journal of Social Economics (24:6), 1997 .

Fromm, E. Escape from Freedom . Holt, Rinehart & Winston; First Edition, 1968.

Hamid Rao, A.H. Crunch Time: How Married Couples Confront Unemployment. University of California Press (2020).

David M. Allen, M.D. is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Tennessee and the author of the book Coping with Critical, Demanding, and Dysfunctional Parents .

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Advancing social justice, promoting decent work ILO is a specialized agency of the United Nations

Migrated Content

• Equality of opportunity and treatment in employment
• Equal remuneration for work of equal value
• Equal access to safe and healthy working environments and to social security
• Equality in association and collective bargaining
• Equality in obtaining meaningful career development
• A balance between work and home life that is fair to both women and men
• Equal participation in decision-making at all levels

Key resources

Resource guide on gender equality in the world of work

Indigenous women entrepreneurs in Papua GET Ahead

Gender dimensions of agricultural and rural employment: Differentiated pathways out of poverty

Find out more fom:

• Bureau for Gender Equality (GENDER)

Norms and Standards

• Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100)
• Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981
• Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183)
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