The Changes in Women's Roles

2785 Words6 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Women's role in modern society

The Changes in Women's Roles

Do you ever wonder how women's roles have changed in recent times? Originally women were in the household to take care of family matters such as cooking, cleaning, and children. Now in more modern times women's roles have expanded to working outside the home to take control of their families, and to work and take care of the children. Along with the increase of women in the work place the business of working at home and entreprenuership has become a valuable resource for women.

Mothers in the work force must face their jobs, children, and husband's everyday. Many bosses are willing to sympathize with women who have kids. However many of their co-workers believe that this is a way of getting extra attention. The children of these mothers may feel that they are not receiving the attention they are entitled to. Also some corporate husbands who work long hours don't have time to do motherly duties (Swiss and Walker, 6).

"In 1975, according to the United States Census Data, 28 percent of mothers with children under the ages of three worked outside of their home. Today, the numbers exceed over 60 percent."(Who's minding the kids, pg. 73). Men who prefer not to get their hands dirty, leaving the less desirable jobs to for women whom may not be capable of handling such a heavy load are taking many female positions. It is very hard for a parent that is divorced and trying to raise the family and take on a tiresome job too. Apartments and rent are the least of the troubles, especially since the price to rent an apartment has gone up over the years making it very difficult for single parents without degrees or experience to find etiquette jobs. Many men think it is easy to work and come home to...

... middle of paper ...

...lins, 1996.

Beroset, Deborah. "Who's minding the kids?" Ladies Home Journal. Oct 1997 v114 n10 p70(4).

Canape, Charlene. The Part-Time Solution. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1990.

Crosby J. Faye. Juggling. New York, NY: A Division of Macmillan, 1990.

Dunnan, Nancy. "The part-time solution." Parents Magazine. May 1996 v71 n5 p55(3).

Galambos L. Nancy and Jacqueline V. Lerner. Employed Mothers and their Children. New York & London: Garland, 1991.

Goldman, Katherine Wyse. My Mother Worked and I Turned Out Okay. United States, US: Garret Press, 1993.

Mason, Mary Ann. The Equality Trap. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1988.

Solomon, Barbara. "A real mom's guide to working at home." Parents Magazine. May 1996 v71 n5 p55(3).

Swiss J. Deborah and Judith P. Walker. Women and the Work Family Dilemma. Canada: John Wiley & Sons, 1993.

Show More
Related

  • The Second Shift

    1735 Words  | 4 Pages

    Even Though women have revolutionized themselves in relation to the world many other aspects of society have not. This phenomenon, originally coined by Arielle Hochschild in her book The Second Shift, is known as the stalled revolution. In essence while female culture has shifted male culture has not. This has created an unequal, unfair and oppressive atmosphere for women across the nation. The title of Hochschild's book tells it all. The second shift refers to the second shift of work women are and have been burdened with at home. Although they have made enormous leaps within the economy and workforce their gender roles at home and within society remain the same. Male culture and their ideas of female gender roles have not progressed. As a result needs of females have not been met. Working mothers today work more than any other demographic, a rough estimate of this comes out to be a whole extra month of work consisting of twenty four hour work days.

    Read More

  • Clear Springs, By Bobbie Ann Mason

    635 Words  | 2 Pages

    Prior to World War II women were expected to be housewives by cleaning, cooking, and taking care of children. Women were discouraged to work outside of the home and often judged by the rest of society. Bobbie Ann Mason gives great examples of the duties expected by women of the time period and her grandmother is a perfect model of domesticity. At one point Mason talk about a conversation between her grandmother and mom. Mason’s mom, Christy, decides to go back to work, but her grandmother disapproves and says she should be home taking care of her girls (Mason, 116). Christy on the other hand is an example of the modern woman. A woman willing to go to work outside of the home to help support her family when needed. Christy gets a job at a clothing company. Mason says that many women were leaving the farm and taking work in factories (Mason, 83). During and after World War II many women began to work outside of the home changing the idea of what it meant to be a women and the duties that accompanied.

    Read More

  • Sheryl Sandberg: The Feminist Movements

    1193 Words  | 3 Pages

    An argument has been raised that women have to be in charge of their home due to a man’s unwillingness to take over parenting responsibilities. That is quite beneficial to the women’s rights movement for the reason father’s helping a lot more time with children, building a stronger family relationship. Women have been subjected to fit into a certain image to suit society eyes for a long time, one of the main images being a stay at home mom nut they a capable of so much more. Females have more of a broader range of abilities than men do regardless of widespread idea that they are incapable of doing most activities.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Intensive Mothering

    1309 Words  | 3 Pages

    With the advent of neoliberalism, the practice of mothering in Western society arguably shifted from a manner that simply ensures the growth of a child into one that maximizes the child’s growth (O’Reilly: Intensive Mothering, Oct 16). One representation of this shift is identified by Sharon Hays as intensive mothering in which the mother prioritizes the rearing of her child over the advancement of her professional career by investing most of her energy, time, and financial resources into her child (Hays 414). The novel I Don’t Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson can be analyzed through the perspective of intensive mothering. The protagonist, Kate Reddy, is a successful employee of a top investment managing firm in London who spends her

    Read More

  • PLEASE PLEASE LET THIS WORK!!

    788 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Letha Scanzoni’s book Men, Women, and Change: A Sociology of Marriage and Family she observes that a wife’s duty was “to please her husband...to train the children so that they would reflect credit on her husband”(205). Alongside the wife’s duties Scanzoni provides the husband’s duty to “provide economic resources”(207).These expectations have long been changed, since then these have become common courtesies. Today, we see less and less of the providing father, homemaking wife and respectable children family structure. We are now seeing what sociologists call the senior-partner/junior-partner structure. Women and mothers are now opting for the choice to work and provide more economic resources for the family. This has changed those expected duties of both men and women in a family scene. A working mother more or less abandons the role of homemaker, to become a “breadwinning” mother, and the father stays his course with his work and provide for the family. Suzanne M. Bianchi in her book Changing Rhythms of American Family Life comments on the effect of mothers working and the time they spend in the home. “Mothers are working more and including their children in their leisure time” (Chapter 10), now that ...

    Read More

  • Hairspray Gender Roles

    974 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is fundamental to define “old” and “new” roles of women to make a comparison between them. The “old” role of women in the workplace involved menial jobs, and before World War II, women were expected to remain at home and raise kids. Roughly thirty states enacted laws to prohibit married women from working

    Read More

  • American Workaholics

    931 Words  | 2 Pages

    The effects on individuals has thus far revealed only part of the whole picture. When focus is shifted to workers with family situations, reports are revealing that time constraints are also connected to the shared working time between parents in households, with dual-earner based households and single parents meeting intensified challenges. Among these parents, women are even today continuing to take on the biggest share of family based responsibility and caretaking. This is thus making women workers, or single fathers, feel even more pressure than their workforce counterparts who have no children. The separation between workers who have no children and mothers or fathers with caretaking responsibilities has led to yet another growing divide that demands a change in policy that will address the specific conditions of workers and their families.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Mothering

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The logic of intensive mothering, particularly as it applies to middle- and upper-middle-class mothers, therefore seems to be the greatest barrier to solving the problems detailed in this book….Nearly all mothers, for instance, feel they ought to be at home with their children, ought to want to be at home with their children, and ought to be their children’s primary parent.” Pg. 201 This quote from Untangling the Mother-Nanny Knot emphasizes on the fact that these working mothers need to let go a of that temperament that they must keep the nanny, their spouse and anyone else away from their child at any cost. Because they are not able to be there for their kids they can rest their mind knowing that the person with their child when they are not present is someone that will love them and care for them no matter what, and all the working mother must do is let go just a

    Read More

  • Housewife to Career: The Growth of Women in The Labor Markert

    1555 Words  | 4 Pages

    Wang, Wendy, Kim Parker, and Paul Taylor. "Breadwinner Moms." Pew Research Centers Social Demographic Trends Project RSS. Pew Research. Social & Demographic Trends, 29 May 2009. Web. 18 Apr. 2014. .

    Read More

  • Gender and Gender Roles: Oh how they have changed

    553 Words  | 2 Pages

    Society in the U.S. has evolved immensely over the past century. With this evolution there has been a redefinition of what gender and gender roles are and this redefinition has influenced a change in the common structure of families and marriages in the U.S.

    Read More

  • A Long Road to Equality: Women in the Workforce

    1334 Words  | 3 Pages

    O'Neil, June. "A Flexible Work Force : Opportunities for Women." Journal of Labor Research (1992): 67-72.

    Read More

  • The Structure Of The Family, Family And Social Structure

    1177 Words  | 3 Pages

    There is much myth about what an ideal worker should be. Current situations and trends in the labor community are different, family working arrangements have time to place and there is always a switching characteristic to families nowadays. Since 1950, and due to World War II there was an increase of participation among mothers of young children. In current days, a great percent of married couples are in dual-income households where both the man and the woman work, and there are more working mothers than there are working

    Read More

  • Gender And Family Roles In The American Family

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since the dawn of time, men and women have held very distinct places in society. For example, in regards to family life, men have traditionally served as the hunters, gatherers, and providers. Conversely, women have historically served as cooks, cleaners, and caretakers to their husbands and children. For centuries, these family roles were the cultural norm, especially in the typical American household. However, in recent years, society has seen a gradual shift away from this family dynamic. Many married women are no longer just caretakers, but are major contributors to the family income. In fact, there are many households in which the husband stays at home and the wife works. This change reflects a shift in societal attitudes and expectations

    Read More

  • Changing Roles of Men and Women

    418 Words  | 1 Pages

    Women’s lives have changed dramatically, for the last half-twentieth century as Paula England said. One significant change has been an increase of women in the labor force. In 1950 only 30 percent of women were in the labor force. By 1994, the number of women in the labor force had reached 58 percent. Most women were married with young children. Women worked in the same jobs as men did. However, they got less pay and fewer opportunities. At that time, women did more work than men in the housework, which was unequal.

    Read More

  • Benefits of Being a Working Mother

    1101 Words  | 3 Pages

    Men and women are working harder than ever to survive in today's tough economy. It's a big challenge for low and middle class families to survive. To meet growing demands, it's getting difficult for families to depend on one income. To contribute to family income, mothers are coming forward and joining the workforce. Working mothers are the one who takes care of the family and work outside the home. They may be a single mothers or married mothers. Working mothers usually work to support their family financially. Some of the mothers work, just because they are more career-oriented. Working mothers may work part time or full time. Women are now the primary or only income source for 40% of US households with kids, according to a new Pew survey (Wang, Parker and Taylor, ch. 1). They play a major role in raising their family and doing household chores. There are many reasons that why mothers should work.

    Read More

More about The Changes in Women's Roles

Open Document