Gender Roles In Australia

There is a huge debate going on today about gender. Society believes you’re a boy if you like blue, and like to play sports and go hunting; and you’re a girl if you like pink and have long hair and pig tails and play with Barbie dolls. Society has forced us to choose between the two. I believe that both women and men can both have it all. As Dorment says, ‘competing work life balance and home as much as women’. (Dorment 697) I believe in this article Richard Dorment, has argued his opinion very well, I think both men and woman equally need to be involved in housework as well as taking care of the children. In today’s world were judging who were going to be even before were born. Throughout this article Dorment effectively convinces his audience that men and women should be equal by using statistics and emotional stories, Dorment uses personal stories and extensive research to make readers believe in his credibility, and lastly Dorment employs the rhetorical appeals of pathos and ethos effectively.

During the World War II era, the outlook on the role of women in Australian society revolutionised. As a majority of men were at war, Australian women were encouraged to rise above and beyond their stereotypical ‘housewife’ status. They were required to take on the tasks that were once considered predominantly male roles, and also allowed the opportunity to join the armed services as well as enlist in the Women’s Land Army. Many women who doubted their abilities played their part by entering voluntary work. Women had the privilege of contributing in Australian society in many ways that they had never been able before. Thus, it is manifest that the role of women in Australian society had drastically changed.

Australian society had changed a lot because of the women’s movement. Throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s and the start of the ‘90s a lot of women were put into male jobs. These jobs were in the areas of education, law, health work, and welfare. This greatly affected the imbalance between both men and women in power and opportunity. Women gradually started to gain access to areas of power that previously been off limits. Some women attempted to use their new found power for the benefit of women in

Is it that women do the housework because it’s what they are supposed to do or is it their nature. This view is universal across most cultures and some may argue that genetics is the main factor of why there is inequalities within the home. However, ideology is a focal point behind all explanations of gender inequality. People's understanding of gender inequalities comes from an innate perception of what men and women are supposed to do within the home. Feminist sociologist argue that housework remains invisible and unpaid (Silvia 2010; treas and Drobnic

Australian families have experienced many significant changes over the past 6 decades. These changes consequently resulted in equality of opportunities, and conditions for women in the labour force. Along with the willingness of most men to become voluntarily involved in core household work, as well as taking on a greater role with respect to childcare. This essay will discuss two significant changes in gender roles, and will examine some of the positive and negative impacts it had on Australian society over the past six decades. On the one hand, Australian federal and state governments passed several new laws and legislations which resulted in an increased participation by women in the labour force. These legislative changes provide many

Before World War 2 commenced, women 's roles in Australia were extremely different to now. The Australian government believed that women were not needed to perform in any sort of military service, however, once the war began it was thought otherwise (Ergo.slv.vic.gov.au, 2015). The roles of women changed significantly during this time, specifically around the 1940 's. The social, political, and economic rights for Australian women were all major changes made during this period of time (Awm.gov.au, 2015). This essay focuses on the role of women before and after these changes occurred, also the affect this made to society.

Firstly one must look at the division of domestic labour and conjugal roles. Conjugal roles refer to the roles performed by men and women in relation to housework, childcare and paid work. Traditionally men had the instrumental ‘bread-winning’ role which the women had the

In present day all around the world, society has certain expectations for the actions and behaviors of males and females. There are many factors in our everyday lives that contribute to the gender norms that society has set. This essay will discuss how situations in life can play a part in how people treat other people based on their gender. It is believed that males are the leaders of our world, but in present day woman can do as much as men can do. From The Journal of Marriage and Family, Hu states, “Differentiated gender roles in adulthood are rooted in one’s gender role socialization. In order to understand the persistence of gender inequalities in the domestic sphere, we need to examine the gendered patterns of children’s housework time.”(2015, P.1). Gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females that they must be taught. These roles define how females and males are viewed in society, their household, and workplace. In The Journal of Sports behavior by Hardin, he states, “Although gender role differences from biological and “Natural” exists in popular consciousness, research has long demonstrated that instead, many are long time socially constructed… Individuals understand their gender because they are given names and treated in particular ways, such as dress in pink for girls and blue for boys, that reflect social construction of gender. Bandura's social cognitive theory is key in understanding the factors in socialization”(2009, P.3). Bandura's theory of of social cognition is that behavior, environmental events, and cognitive factors are the main keys that shape attitudes and actions of an individual. Although, gender roles play a very big part in our society, specific genders are treated differently while dealing with peer influence, media influence, as well as employment.

The typical Australian: lazy, beer guzzling, faded blue singlets, thongs, slang words. This is the dominant reading formed by the media, commonly in advertisements and novels. The image constructed by such media is one of an unfit ‘couch potato’ who sits around all day drinking and watching television. This stereotype is not only downgrading, but constructs Australian males as underachievers in society. Some Australians may be like this, as for many the pursuit of leisure is a serious business. Indeed texts such as Chris Franklin’s – Bloke (2000) and The Wind and the Monkey (1999) support this theory of the common Australian man. However texts such as Crocodile Dundee (1986) and The Castle (1999)

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.

Before, women were considered housewives who were in charge of taking care of children and cleaning the house while their husbands worked jobs to sustain their families. As years passed, many things have changed throughout society, including the responsibilities of both men and women. Today, women work and provide for their own family as much as men do. Throughout the years, many roles have changed, but one issue remains which is that most men do not consider house cleaning as a mandatory task. Gross believes that men lack the emotional and physical drive to do a “woman’s job”. Although today more men are contributing to their home chores, there are still many men who leave this to their wives or any woman in general. Men cook and watch for their children, but they do not bother with house cleaning. Most men feel like a clean house is not needed to have a healthy, safe environment for the family, which Gross does not agree with.

The Australian culture is to value independence as well as equality in gender expectations. There are no clear gender-role expectations regarding independence and Australia does not have a feminine or masculine dominated culture. Women and men are allocated traditional gender roles within Australian society, which is to act out the masculine or feminine behaviours as constructed by the Australian culture. Femininity is associated with traits such as compliant, cooperative, forgiving, intuitive and understanding. Masculinity in generally associated with traits such as assertive, decisive, egocentric, logical and practical. The Australian culture is one of person-oriented families, which are families which value equal power

Women did not have the right to work the same hours as other males. There is not equality for both genders. This law gave more power to men in the house and women had to spend more time being a housewife. The Rise of Public Women Glenna Matthews used some logic about women’s role during the second wave: “If 13.5 million married women worked outside the home in 1960s, there were even more who were staying home and suffering from the effects of seeing themselves as ‘Just a housewife’” (223).

Loi 1 Ryan Loi Professor Clarkson ENG1100 October 9, 2015 A Generation of Housework When it comes to managing a household, household chores are important tasks that must be done. To avoid doing these chores would be neglecting the home and therefore, would create an unpleasant atmosphere to live in. Every person who lives in the household must contribute and fulfill their responsibility to ensure that their house is as well maintained as possible. What is interesting though is how the housework is divided among men and women. Throughout the course of history, men and women have performed specific tasks. As a result, men and women have different attitudes towards housework. However, what is even more interesting is how the attitudes have changed over time. With the development of gender issues, there are large differences between the attitudes towards housework between the men and women of the Baby Boomer Generation to the attitudes between the men and women of Generation Y; the previous generations have a traditional approach while today’s generation is more progressive. To begin, a distinction between the traditional attitudes of the Baby Boomers towards household chores and progressive attitudes of the Millennials must be defined. The traditional attitude towards housework was that in a family, the mother did almost all of the housework while the father was responsible for earning an income to support the family. While this was the norm with the Baby Boomers,

Also for women do work out of the home, still end up with the brunt of the housework “…women still perform twice the housework and three times the child care that men do, even in homes where women are the primary breadwinners.”(Belkin) What does this prove? That women are much more likely to be efficient than a man when it comes to caring for the children, doing the laundry, making meals, and making sure the house doesn’t fall down around her without making mistakes or falling behind.