The Changing Trends In Gender Roles Can Cause Marital Strife

When I was growing up in the 1950s, my family had a relatively unusual configuration when compared to other families during that time. My mother worked outside the home in an era when all of my friends' mothers were staying home, caring for the children, doing household tasks, and baking cookies. My mother was always working so she couldn't attend many of the school programs and also wasn't a member of the PTA, so I felt very different from my friends, but I also didn't realize that more families would end up like this over the course of the future. My mother didn't just want a family but she wanted her career too.

Family traditions were set historically based on what made sense in life. Men were usually thought to be the provider since they were physically stronger. Since only women had the ability to produce children, they stayed at home and cared for them and the household. Many women were fine with this arrangement. There were, however, others who didn't feel fulfilled by the role they had been given but were reluctant to buck society and do differently. Instead, many of these women performed their duties behind the scenes such as the intelligent Abigail Adams. Peer pressure played a far bigger role in their lives than their own sense of fulfillment did.

These years were particularly bad ones for women, especially when we compare their lot in life to that of women today. Since the men were the providers for the family, they regarded themselves as superior to their female counterparts. Wives were supposed to obey their husbands and basically act as a servant according to the law back then. Men owned all the property, and if the unthinkable should happen and a woman would leave her husband, she had no further rights to her own children.

As you might imagine, women started to feel rebellious in their given role in life and wanted to be granted equality with men. They realized that they were smart and capable and needed more than housewifery to keep them happy. Some of the braver women began to challenge the accepted mores, and the movement grew. Although the fight has yet to be won completely, there is a huge difference nowadays.

Kristie Brown writes on a variety of topics from health to technology. Check out her websites on Stop My Divorce