Reflective Journal 3: Reflect on the changing roles of women. You may choose to consider how the changing roles of women in society made an impact on you by drawing on examples from China, the United States and/or Singapore.
By comparing past to present, the roles of women have changed drastically. In most western and eastern societies, women were mainly confined in their homes, being in-charge of the household matters. Women were often seen as the lesser sex compared to the males, hence resulting in a lower status in society. This is extremely evident in ancient China. During the twentieth century in America, movements and protests for gender equality is rampant. This was one of the underlying reasons for the change in roles of women.
What exactly is gender equality? In my own opinion, I believe that gender equality is empowering both men and women equally, where neither gender is being treated differently. I feel the underlying reason for gender inequality is due to the biological differences of men and women. Because women are physically weaker compared to men, this could have instilled perceptions of women to be the weaker gender in numerous societies, resulting of difference in treatments and attitudes between both genders.
In recent times, it is evident that roles of women and men and starting to reverse, a sign that we are inching towards gender equality. Firstly, in America, 62% of the net increase in workforce between 1992 to 2005 are women. I personally feel the reason for this is because of the women’s rights movements during the twentieth century. I feel these movements actually managed to break the stereotypes of what women should be, giving them self-believe that they can be as competent as men, and that they should not comply to traditional stereotypes just because the society says so. Thus women are willing to break the barriers which were put in place in society. To me, this shows that women no longer confine to the stereotypes, instead they take on new roles.
Secondly, 48% of married women provide half or more of the family income, which means, they are the breadwinners of the family. More often than not, men were seen as the breadwinners of the family, and women were supposed to stay at home. In my opinion this shows that men are starting to lose their dominance between the two genders. This I feel, is the case of reversal in roles. 154, 000 men in America are stay at home dads, and the numbers are on the rise. Although this is considered a small number compared to the male population in America, this actually reflects the reversal of roles. In the past in America, it was not acceptable for men to stay at home to take care of household affairs as this was seen as the job by women. I feel the cause for this is the change in mind-set between both genders due to movements such as the feminist movements. With the feminist movement, the society slowly change the traditional mind-set that males are more superior, and slowly accept that males and females should be treated equally. Thus resulting in both genders taking on the opposite gender’s traditional roles, as can be seen in the statistic. Women could come up with the mentality that “what men can do, women can do too”, thus, they broke the barriers and took on roles that were once seen as unacceptable for women. I feel men on the other hand, may have slowly come to terms that men and women are both equal. They may also have the mentality that they can also take on roles that women took. Hence I feel, this could have resulted in the reversal of roles.
One real life example is that of my family. My father was the sole breadwinner of the family, while my mother stayed at home. But due to unforeseen circumstances, my father left his job, while my mother found a job to make ends meet. This was a reversal of roles. At the beginning, it was hard for my father to stomach the fact that he was no longer the one bringing back the bacon, as he felt that was the basic responsibility of a man. Although he still could not find a job, overtime, he has come to terms with the fact. Thus I feel this is evident that the change of roles of women could be due to the fact of the change in mind-set of society. As long as particular women are able to break the stereotypes placed on women by society, and become an example for the rest of the population, the rest will slowly follow suit. This would eventually lead to the society coming to terms with this change.
In conclusion, I feel that roles of women have changed due to the fact that women are willing to fight for their rights and break the barriers that were in-placed by society, thus resulting in society accepting the change in roles.
(799 words)
references: http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/cb11-ff11.html
http://stopharass.com/article-women-marketplace.htm
