Feminism Is A Very Loaded Word

In today’s society, most families consist of both parents working and with that comes the conflict of shared childcare, nurturing and shared household responsibility. Since the day of old, it was and always has been the mothers’ responsibility to care for the child and the home. To cook, clean, feed the children and attend to the husband's needs. Of course, this concept also depending on the culture of which the couple was brought up on (Kaakinen, Coehlo, Steele, Tabacco, & Harmon Hanson, 2015).

Throughout history, women have been groomed to be the best they can domestically. To place them in the man’s position of being the sole provider of the family seems irrational at best. Although the natural gender roles may be overpowering during the start of having a family, through time duties between husband and wife, regarding domestic life, tend to balance out once financial security is established. Like many major changes, it starts out bumpy but eventually a solution is found and both husband and wife find their “happy-medium.”

The differences between gender roles are not so apparent anymore. Men are not always the typical breadwinners and many women are not stay-at-home mothers. An article by Beaupré, Dryburgh, and Wendy (2010) described the transition that many men are going through. According to Beaupré, et al., (2010), fathers were once considered the forgotten parent. “Until recently studies on the family focused mainly on the mothers” (Beaupré, et al., 2010). Fortunately, both parents are now being focused on. Fathers today are much more involved in the pregnancy and birth of their child and their child’s life in general (Beaupré, et al., 2010). Beaupré, et al., (2010) explained that women’s involvement in the labour force could be a factor to this change. Women are more educated than they were in previous years. And while women want to work more, men want to be more involved in their children’s lives (Beaupré, et al., 2010). Fatherhood is occurring later in adulthood. Research stated that the majority of men are very satisfied with their involvement in their children’s lives. (Beaupré, et al., 2010).

On the other hand, when both partners share the breadwinner role men are more likely to increase their core housework tasks in companion to men in the ‘new traditional’ and male-breadwinner families. Consequently, many studies found that gender attitudes are still primary indicators of who does housework, thus women still do two-thirds of housework where men do two-thirds of paid work. It is noticed that there have been significant changes for women over the last 6 decades to participate in the labour force, yet there was hardly any change to the division of core household work between men and women.

Women for years have been automatically given the role of the domestic housewife, where their only job is to cook, clean, and take care of the children. Men have usually taken the primary responsibility for economic support and contact with the rest of society, while women have traditionally taken the role of providing love, nurturing, emotional support, and maintenance of the home. However, in today’s society women over the age of sixteen work outside of the home, and there are more single parent households that are headed by women than at any other time in the history of the United States (Thompson 301.)

Women tend to spend more time doing unpaid work than men such as being home taking care of kids, housework, preparing for food and also taking care of the elders. About 70 per cent of women with children have done double duties (going to paid work and then coming home doing some housework too). A lot of women tend

Whether it is the past or the present, there have always been gender roles in society. In most homes, it is the woman’s responsibility to take care of the house. This includes cleaning, meal preparations, raising and taking care of the children as well as the husband. Compared to the men who take care of the more physical activities, such as yard work. It was known throughout many years that it was a woman’s responsibility to stay in the house while the man would go out and look for work to provide money for his family. Although the intensity of gender roles has changed, it still exists.

Women’s role within the household has changed considerably over a period of time. In the later days in the United States women were to attend to the children and to the house and not do much more than that. Children are now being raised by stay at home dads instead of the stereotypical stay at home moms. According to Gardner, "Real-life families have changed considerably since 'Mr. Mom ' appeared, with more men sharing child-rearing and household chores." (Gardner 2010) This is occurring because women’s jobs are no longer labeled as being just for women. Men have gotten a lot of criticism for being stay at

As a result of the increase of pregnancy rates in the 1950s there was a decrease of employment. Instead of going to work, mothers cared for their children at homes. This reinforced the roles of women as wives and mothers. Today, women are now more liberated from these roles. That being the case Author Natalie Angier, of the article, “The Changing American Family, explains, 62 percent of the public, and 72 percent of adults under 30, view the ideal marriage as one in which husband and wife both work and share child care and household duties…” This quote demonstrates that majority of women are no longer the housemakers of the family. The twenty-first century women are through with stereo gender jobs and proved to be a family's breadwinner. In the 1950s, Author Brigid Schulte, of the article, “Unlike in the 1950s, there is no ‘typical’ U.S. family today,” points out, “....in the 1950s, 65 percent of all children under 15 were being raised in traditional breadwinner-homemaker families. Today, only 22 percent are.” This quote supports the belief that both husbands and wives should share the responsibilities of supporting their families with financial income and responsibilities in the

Several studies ‘link the performance or avoidance of housework to one’s gender ideology’ which is a set of beliefs about what is appropriate behaviour for men and women in this instance ‘household work’ (Baxter, Hewitt & Western 2011). Chesters (2012) states that men with ‘traditional gender attitudes’ will spend less time doing housework whilst women with the ‘same traditional attitudes’ will spend more time doing housework in comparison to women with more ‘egalitarian gender attitudes’ will spend less time doing household work as men with the same ‘egalitarian gender attitudes’ will spend more time doing housework. Despite women’s greater role in the workplace, there is still a power imbalance in favour of men where women receiving lower wages consequently couples paying more attention to the man’s career path (Healy 2014, p.8). This encourages women to rather withdraw from paid work to take on work around the home (Healy 2014, p.8). A report published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS 2014) found that although 58% of women are in some form of paid employment, they still spend 18 hours doing housework as to the 7 hours per week reported by men. (Baxter, Hewitt & Western 2009). Considering that women outperform men by far in the area of housework suggests that gender is still the basis of who does housework. From this perspective, it is reasonable to say that due to the power imbalance women is still doing the majority of household work while men continue to do the majority of paid

While fathers tend to have an increased pressure to provide for their family, mothers often times are seen as homebuilders. That stereotype has poorly affected many families, including my own. An article by Richard Dorment entitled “Why Men Still Can’t Have It All” deals with the issue of a man’s responsibility in a family and what their roles within that are. In my own experience, I was able to relate to a lot of the article due to my relationship with my father. My father was around the house a lot less than my mother and in doing so, it weakened my relationship with him. Because of my dad not finishing his degree, and his need to provide financial footing for my family, he was forced to spend less time at home. We must work to eradicate this role for the sake of every member of the family.

In the past men were viewed as having to be strong, responsible and be in charge to make the decisions at the best interest of his household. The men used to work outside of the house in order to support his family. But after a while men started going towards the more traditional female jobs and they were viewed as weak and were judged about their masculinity. After a few years it became more common that some men wanted to stay at home with the kids either on paternity leave, or permanently as a stay at home dad which was giving them the more traditional female role (“Changing”). In a 2008 survey, about 56% of men said that they did at least half of the cooking in the house, which was an increase from 34% in 1992. In the same survey but a different question 53% of men said that they also did at least half of the house cleaning which was an increase from 40% in 1992. It is evident that over time as society has evolved that the gender roles for men have

By definition, feminism is the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. Feminists believe in granting people the freedom to pursue their own ambitions, irrespective of whether they are male or female, and to be rewarded for their effort in a way that is equal to their other co-workers (Wright). One would think that this would be a cause that anyone, man or woman, would be proud to stand behind. Unfortunately, that is not the description society correlates with feminism. In today’s world, “feminist” is a label that many are hesitant to claim, myself included. Before I had researched in depth the history of feminism and its goals I was one of those people who bought into the stereotypes. I

Within and across different cultures, we can find great consistency in standards of anticipated gender roles. In the United States, like many other countries, males are expected to be independent, assertive, and competitive. Females are expected to be more passive, sensitive, and supportive. For example, when a woman gives birth, she is the one that is expected to stay home and take care of her children while the father goes to work and is the breadwinner for the family. In society, it is more acceptable and common to see the women stay home and take care of the house and children while the husband goes to work instead of the other way around. Stay at home dads are not as common as stay at home moms. However, it is up to the individuals on what they decide as a couple. Because of this, gender appropriate behaviors can be seen because of sex segregation and starting at young ages.

Sociological study on the gendered division of labour within the domestic sphere has perennially been characterised by evidence of a clear inequality concerning the allocation of unpaid chores within the home between men and women (Warren, 2003:734). While men have traditionally been regarded as primary breadwinners, the management of home-maintenance has remained largely women’s responsibility (Breen & Cooke, 2005:47). A number of theories exist to explain this unequal distribution of domestic labour, in particular the economic exchange model (which argues that women perform domestic duties in ‘exchange’ for financial support from their husbands), and the gender display model, which asserts that household labour is divided on the basis of