Economic Of Race And Gender

Traditional Roles of a Man and Woman in Today’s Society

Introduction

The roles of men and women have changed dramatically in today’s society. Women started entering to the workforce during the World War I. They might have not been willing to participate to the workforce, but it broke into women’s possibilities. How important was the role of women during the World War I. The early rush of volunteers and later the conscription of men led to a shortage of manpower on the home front. Women, already working in munitions factories were encouraged to take on jobs normally done by men. This was the start of major social change. Before the war, women had been content to stay at home to bring up the family and do domestic work. It was considered unbecoming for a woman to work. During the war it was considered unpatriotic not to. Many changes came about as shown by the quote from A. J. P Taylor English History “Women became more independent. Women paid for their round at the pub. Fashion changed for practical reasons: never again did skirts sweep the ground. Women’s hats became neater. Not all changes in work lasted after the war, but some did.” Additionally, The 1940s were a turning point in married women's labor-force participation, leading many to credit World War II with spurring economic and social change. As growing numbers of men left for military service in the Second World War, government, industry and civic organizations used patriotism, guilt and the prospect of new opportunities and skills to recruit women to the domestic war effort. More than 50% of all married women working in 1950 had been employed in 1940, and more than half of the decade's new entrants joined the labor force after the war. Over the past centuries, women are being more welcome and accepted for their roles in today’s society. This was not the case in the early years of the 1900’s because women were not given the privileges of opportunities, education, and also to participate in a man’s workforce unless country encouraged to bring women to the labor market during the wars. However, in the recent decades, women have taken actions through protests, women’s right movements, and mainly through the laws of politicians. Men on the other hand have solely been known as the natural born leaders. Even since humans have evolved, men have always been known to provide for the well being of the family. The questions still lurks in today’s society: is man solely the provider and women the homemaker? What are the roles of man and what are the roles of women in today’s society? Do we still label and distinguish to “gay” and “lesbian” according to how they look like in today’s society? I believe society have been changing and growing with our hope which learning how to accept the choices the individuals make it their lives.

Body

Evea Dayan said that traditionally, women have primarily been the employees of their own home. For centuries, it was the men who worked jobs to make money and the women who remained at home to raise the children and fulfill the household duties ( changing Roles of Women in the workforce). Many people see woman as housekeepers, which traditionally means the women would always stay home and take care of the children, cook for the family, and basically do chores around the house that involve caring for the family. During the early century, women were stuck in the Cult of Domesticity. Women had been issued roles as the moral keepers for societies as well as the nonworking house-wives for families. The priority thing for women’s role was the responsibility to have and to care for children, and run a household under the supervision of a husband. Moreover, if it is necessary, women had to assist a husband in farm or garden labor. Children were taught their roles when very young. Boys were shown how to farm and provide for in their future families’ needs. They went to school where they were taught the basics along with being introduced to career alternatives. Higher education was available. On the other hand, Girls could only learn how to do the household chores, and received some basic education. Higher education was not opened for women until 1837, and even then only to a very limited degree, hence career alternatives were not available for them. Girls were taught how to be wives and mothers. But, in recent year’s woman are now becoming more accepted in today’s society. Women are now working in a man’s labor force, where steady jobs of what use to be perceived a “man’s job” in society are being given to a woman. For example, there are more CIO and CEO positions held by woman according to the National Woman Studies. The presence of women in the top Corporate America position (CEO) has increased by 21% from the past decade according to the National Woman Studies. Ultimately, it just goes to prove that women are not known as housekeepers anymore, because they actually have the skills to operate the large companies. A survey of CNN (Cable News Network) shows that there are more women running FORTUNE 500 companies this year than there were last year. Currently, 10 FORTUNE 500 companies are run by women (up from 9 last year), and a total of 20 FORTUNE 1000 companies have women in the top office (up from 19) in 2006, such as EBay, Sara Lee, Jack in the Box and even Radio Shock, The New York Times and more(Cable News Network) . A not-for-profit New York-based women's research organization points out that its data shows a change over the last ten years. In 1995, 8.7% of corporate officers in Fortune 500 companies were women. This percentage rose to 16.4% by 2005. While this is progress, they note that, at this rate, it would take 40 years for the number of female corporate officers to match the number of male officers (infoplease). It is arguable that she is not only the most famous women, but also the most powerful in the political world; Condoleezza Rice has become the National Security Adviser to President Bush and now is his Secretary of State. She advises the leader of the world's largest superpower and has an unparalleled level of trust with and access to the president. She has also served two other U.S. presidents, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.

On the other hand, men are traditionally seen as the breadwinners, which typically mean that men are usually the ones that go out into the real world to work in order to provide for the well being of the family. However, it’s very encouraging to see young men, perhaps not a lot, but a few that would take the infants

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