Gender Roles in the United States Over the Last Century

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Gender roles refer to the behavior and attitude that a given society expects from its’ male or female members. Gender roles are quite distinctive in nature, and this draws a boundary between males and females of a given society (Connell 10). Gender roles are based on a collection of social and behavioral norms that are defined within a particular culture or society that are viewed to be appropriate concerning a particular gender group.

Gender roles vary according to cultural orientations, religious principles and values, and the overall set up of a society. Different cultures inflict diverse expectations towards men and women in that cultural background of a given society. An individual’s gender role is primarily determined by the use of elements such as clothing, the preference of work one engages in and personal factors (Duggan et al 53).

These elements are dynamic and are subject to change in relation to time and the ideologies of individuals towards gender roles, for instance, the women’s trousers. On the traditional setting, gender roles were primarily based on feminine and masculine approach. However, as time goes by, new acceptable male and female roles have come into sight. An individual can affiliate to a specific subculture or a social group, which ultimately results to him/her processing different gender role (Connell 13).

The United States has undergone gender role transformation over the last century. These shifts in the gender roles significantly affected the American households, the schools, the work environment and the general American population. Such gender roles transformation can be attributed to the fusion of the traditional distinctive male and female roles into an integrated set of universally acceptable norms within some ethnic background and nationalities.

Gender roles in the United States have experienced a significant transformation over the time of its history. Ever since America came into being up to the mid 20th century, the idea of men having more dominance with respect to women was viewed as an ideology that could not be challenged.

The gender role transformations in the United States were fuelled by certain historical occurrences such as the great depression, which put a strain on the many American families. This created a gender identity to some level. Feminism was an ideology of the 20th century and the earlier years in the United States history.

The onset of World War II presented an opportunity for gender roles transformation with respect towards feminism (Connell 56). It presented the need for female labor as majority of the males had gone to war; the realm of feminine and masculine divisions came to the open. The solution to the lack of masculine labor force compelled the government to outsource the restricted female labor due to distinctive gender roles.

This absorption of the women into the working class represented the new generation women partaking men’s duties and obligations (Duggan et al 85). The men’s perception towards this idea was negative, and this consequently resulted to a conflict with the men claiming that the roles of the women were in the kitchen. Women had no option but to go back to their traditional household roles.

However, their experience of revealing their potential was the benchmark that ultimately resulted to the largest transformation in the gender roles in history. This was greatly contributed by the feminist movement in the United States during the 20th century. During the great depression, a majority of men lost their jobs while women employment increased.

This resulted to crisis of masculinity, whereby, men were unable to provide for their families and resulted to being dependent on the women. The men of those times viewed it that the working women were stealing their jobs because their role was in the household capacity. Throughout the 20th century, the feminist movement continued to champion for what is presently referred to as gender equity, a situation whereby, both women and men have equal rights and are subject to the same roles as one.

In those times, the working woman was perceived as a devil while the ideal woman was one whose roles were limited to taking care of households and the kitchen (Wood 2009). The gender role transformation in this way resulted to reduced feminism since women were able and capacitated to assume the working roles of men.

With the feminist revolution, came the perception of women at the working environment. The traditional gender roles categorized some jobs specifically to be done by the males, while others required the involvement of the women only. In the early 20th century, women participation in the workforce was strictly forbidden as the gender roles confined them to the household tasks.

This was due to the cultural practices, religious restrictions and educational traditions that seemed to favor the males in the United States. The onset of the 20th century was accompanied by increased professionalization of occupations such as law, medicine, engineering and many more.

These factors substantially limited women’s workforce to low paying occupations for a significant time in the 20th century. These perceptions towards the female involvement in well paying occupations were transformed during the civil war. During the beginning of the 20th century, women were viewed as being finer than men, and therefore, it was not their duty to work or make money. At the turn of civil war, the United States saw the need to educate the women due to insufficient labor to meet their production needs.

The result was women found themselves working outside their homes and getting paid. By 1920, women were gearing up to join the work force. The onset of World War II was an opportunity for women to fully enter into the workforce. The women’s participation in the workforce in the United States has undergone significant phases during the 20th century to develop to the present day professional working women (Kiger 15).

This gradual transformation made women join colleges and universities in large numbers so as to pursue highly professional courses like medicine and law. Present statistics indicate a majority of women today are joining universities and colleges and anticipate getting employed by the age of 35. The current legal framework offers no room for discrimination against to the woman workforce.

The gender equity ensures that both men and women have equal chances of getting employed provided they are qualified for that job position. Although the feminist movements managed to administer transformation of perception of women towards work, the present day working woman still works under some cultural and gender constraints because their gender roles of maintaining the household is still at hand.

They have to balance between their careers and ensuring that household obligations are met (Kiger 22). Despite the various changes in the workplace, the household setup is still the same for the woman; a scenario characterized by women doing most of the work while the men get most of the pay.

With a continual focus on their professional careers, women had to find a way to postpone family duties through the possible postponement of pregnancy. This was done by the use of the birth control pill.

The usage of the pill was enormous during the 1970s although it was in existence from 1960s, access to it was restricted. This phase of women transformation marked a new dimension in the gender roles in the United States. After the Vietnam War, which reduced America’s majority age from 21 to 18, women were allowed to make personal decisions that affected them medically.

This saw the increased use of the birth control pill to postpone or avoid pregnancy. Presently, it is socially acceptable in the United States to use birth control pills, married women have the chance to concentrate on other things such as education and work without putting much focus on household chores. The use of birth control pills by the women resulted to a shift in gender roles since women were able to concentrate on other issues that affected them directly such as education, career and work.

The 1960’s marked the significant societal change in the United States. It was during this time that America underwent sexual revolution, which was pioneered by the young and educated Americans. Sexual revolution involved the changes towards the sexual attitude; many changes in sexual behaviors of the 1960’s became the mainstream (Sorokin 23).

The sexual revolution of the 1960’s resulted to a shift in the social norms involving matters that were about sexual activities. There was a spectacular shift in conventional principles and values related to sex and sexuality of individuals. Sexual revolution portrayed sex as more acceptable outside the heterosexual marriage. Studies indicated that there was an increase in the number of women who had premarital sex during the years between 1965 and 1975.

During this time, the conventional social values and principles were flouted and challenged by the young. It was through the sexual revolution activism that the birth control pill was legalized and made socially acceptable. The birth control pill affected the women’s lifestyles in a number of ways: they avoided unnecessary pregnancies, which influenced a woman’s time to cut off the job market when impregnated and resume the job market after a certain period of time (Sorokin 35).

During the times, the cost of getting out of pregnancy was high and it was accompanied by health risks. The birth control pill came in handy for women to have control of their future, therefore, making them pursue higher education and career without having to worry about getting pregnant. The sexual revolutions of the 1960s formed the groundwork for the sexual attitudes that are being experienced today (Sorokin 40).

During the early 20th century, women living in the United States were denied the right to vote; either way, women were not supposed to contest for any political seat. The women had limited say on determining the political trends. It was until 1920 that women had the right to vote and contest for political positions in the country.

During this year, the United States passed a legislation that stated that the rights of the American citizens to vote shall not be infringed by the state or on the basis of one’s sex/gender. This gender revolution enabled women to cling to positions of power in the later durations of the century. This provided a gender balance that helped to include women in the decision-making processes at the national level.

The shifts in gender roles have a significant effect in the daily operations of the household. For instance, the traditional perception that women are supposed to manage households and take care of the family no longer exists due to the gender diversity towards women. One particular area that is affected by changes in the gender roles is child bearing (Connell 29).

The present family setup in America involves equal participation of both parents towards the child bearing in contrary to the traditional set up whereby child bearing is solely the duty of the women. The perspective towards child bearing in the present United States involves the hiring of child bearing agencies for instance the day care facilities so that the woman may undertake his daily activities that involve working and concentrating on other areas (Connell 23).

Works Cited

Connell, Robert William. Gender and Power. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1987.

Duggan, Lisa; Hunter, Nan D. Sex wars: sexual dissent and political culture. New York: Routledge. 1995.

Kiger, Kiger; Riley, Pamela. Gender differences in perceptions of household labor. The Journal of Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.encyclopedia.com/.

Sorokin, Pitirim. The American Sex Revolution. Boston: Porter Sargent Publishers.1956.

Wood, Aubron. Gender Roles in the 20th Century: A century of change [Internet]. Version 10. Knol. 2009 Mar 15. Web.

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Gender Roles in the United States Over the Last Century

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