Since a very young age, men and women are taught to believe in gender matching behaviors, even though sometimes it was being done unconsciously. From the very start, we believe in presenting young newborn girls with everything in the color pink and boys with blue. As the child grows, a belief from a society that women are homemakers and men are breadwinners for the family, is constantly pushed down their minds.
From this perspective, women are always stereotyped to be seen in a caring, tender, and more submissive role than their male counterparts. Women are highly likely to be seen in careers such as nurses, flight attendants, and secretaries. They are known to be the ones that raise children, make food, and take care of the household.
On the other hand, men are almost always portrayed in dominant, strengthened, and more aggressive roles. They are known to the ones that go to work, earn money, and provide for their family. They are usually seen in assertive roles such as being doctors, businessmen, pilots, or sheriffs. Most importantly, these beliefs have always been passed down from generation to generation in many cultures and therefore, this is the reason why most of society strongly believes in them.
While there have been many progressive movements in the past years, there is still such a strong stereotypes belief in gender roles that have become hard to remove from the minds of normal, everyday citizens. It’s highly believable that a single citizen can’t possibly bring such a strong change in this mindset as much as a whole community or society.
Even though these roles are a huge part of a person’s thinking and upbringing, both my families on my mom’s and dad’s side have never looked at us differently. Even when my parents were younger, they have told us many stories in which they both acted and did jobs for their families that were not based on a certain gender role. They were brought up with the thinking that a man can do a woman’s job just as much as a woman can do a man’s job.
Since my siblings and I were children, they have instilled this value in us as well. In my case, both my parents have always looked at me as both their son and daughter in many instances and never differentiated between my sister and I with my brother. We all were brought up with the same ideals and even so there are some issues that deal with gender, they have tackled them unanimously.
Even throughout my life, I have seen my mom take up some of my dad’s workload and go do tasks that are “male-orientated” according to society. Just like this, there have been instances where my mom was called into work and my dad was there to take care of us, feed us, and make sure we finished our chores, etc.
The belief of equality in all aspects of our independence, ability to do tasks, and accomplish goals in our careers were solely encouraged by my parents and I applaud them for that. Furthermore, they have never hindered us from portraying our views in an open-minded and clear way. There have been very rare occasions where they have thought that we shouldn’t be doing something that doesn’t match our personalities. Even when this did happen, they asked us to openly express our feelings and opinions.
Overall, this ongoing debate of gender roles is always going to be highly controversial, so it should be all of our goals to help blur these stereotypes of gender roles for men and women! I believe that this encouragement and empowerment are what can do to make a person feel comfortable in their own skin and it can cause a change in perspective. It leads us to view all other people as equals rather than submissive.
