Gender Roles Essay

According to Hochschild, “attitudes toward men’s and women’s roles have been referred to as gender ideologies” (as cited in Helgeson, 2012, p. 68). There are currently three different gender role ideologies that can be measured through the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (ATWS). The three ideologies include egalitarian, the belief that men and women should equally share in both household and workforce duties, traditional, the belief that women only do housework and men only are in the workforce, and transitional, the belief that it is okay for women to enter the workforce, however, they still do proportionally more household duties. Cultural differences also affect individuals’ gender role attitudes, depending on how “expectations for men and

There is clearly an opportunity for those expectations to affect our behavior toward men and women so that they produce the stereotypes we hold” (2012, p. 67). She came to this conclusion based on her critical review of a study of college men and women from 1977 by Snyder, Tanke, and Berscheid. In the study, men were told to talk to a woman on the phone and half were shown a picture of an attractive woman and the other half were shown a picture of an unattractive woman before talking on the phone. However, all of the men were talking to the same woman. The woman also provided self-fulfilling prophecy for she began to behave differently based on whether the men were shown a picture of an attractive or an unattractive woman. If she was attractive, the men were nicer and the woman, herself, acted “more likeable.” This study demonstrates “that our expectations influence our own behavior, but they also influence the behavior of others so that they confirm our expectancy” (Helgeson, 2012, p. 67). Within cultural differences of gender role attitudes, Asian cultures perpetuate a traditional gender role ideology based on Confucian doctrine (Newton, 2016). The doctrine emphasizes the lesser status of women and how they must lie their obedience in line with men, such as their fathers or husbands. Men are also not expected to show emotions, men are the

I believe that women and men can be equals within both spheres of the household and the workforce. As a feminist, I support women that choose to be mothers and not work, I support women that work and their partners stay at home with the children, and I support partners that equally divide up the work and dabble within both spheres. I, personally, want to work, get my PhD, and be a mother. My partner also has the opportunity to choose what they decide to do, whether that be work, stay at home to parent, or do both of the duties equally. My family and I do not share similar values toward gender role ideology. My father maintains a strong traditional view of the separation of men and women’s roles. He believes that women are supposed to be the ones that do all of the cooking, cleaning, and pushing out the children and then raising them. Men are solely the breadwinners and once they come home from work, there should be dinner on the table with children off to bed shortly after while he sits in his recliner and watches television all night. My father was very upset and did not understand why I did not want to get married straight out of high school and actually wanted to pursue my college degree, let alone a PhD. My father does not accept my views and we fight a lot about multiple issues and beliefs. My mother on the other hand is a little better and holds at least a transitional view of gender role ideology. My mother and step-father both