Hawke, Lucy A.

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ESSAIVolume 5 Article 231-1-2007Gender Roles within American Marriage: Are TheyReally Changing?Lucy A. HawkeCollege of DuPage, essai_hawke@cod.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://dc.cod.edu/essaiThis Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@C.O.D.. It has been accepted for inclusion inESSAI by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@C.O.D.. For more information, please contact koteles@cod.edu.Recommended CitationHawke, Lucy A. (2007) "Gender Roles within American Marriage: Are They Really Changing?," ESSAI: Vol. 5, Article 23.Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol5/iss1/2370Gender Roles within American Marriage:  Are They Really Changing?by Lucy A. Hawke(Adult Fast Track Sociology 2220 & English 1102)y mother was an elementary school teacher and my father a self-employed businessman.Within marriage, my parents modeled contemporary gender roles.  As marriage partnerswho both worked careers, they hired a day care provider for my sister and me.  While inmiddle school, I learned that society defined marriage gender roles as one where the husband workedoutside the home and, two, where the mother stayed in the home, caring for the household duties andchildren.  My experiences shaped my views and allowed me to see and understand marriage genderroles in a different light while understanding there is not only one type of marriage in AmericanSociety.  The influence of feminist thinking within American Society has resulted in both positiveand negative impacts that affect people’s attitudes toward traditional gender roles within themarriage.Traditional Gender RolesHistorically, marriage in American society has had clearly defined gender roles.  Thesetraditional roles arrived with the immigrants who settled the New World.  Along with these genderroles, the European settlers brought the farm economy that perpetuated these roles.  The husband hastraditionally held the role of the breadwinner; the wife lived the role of caregiver.  In a book byElaine Leeder, The Family in Global Perspective: A Gendered Journey, she wrote that recordedhistory reflects the phases of the family through the economy.  Three main phases of Americaneconomy, how family lived and made money to support the family, have influenced the gender rolesof family.Economic Influences upon Marriage Gender RolesAs America settled, a family rural-based economy developed family units of a husband and awife supported by their own farming efforts.  The American economy was such that even the citiessupported farm life.  This life style had the stronger men working in the fields and the physically lessstrong women working in the home caring for the home and the children.  The husband and the wifewould often have several children who would then help work on the farm to support the family,acting as a team working together toward the common goal.  The husband would occasionally go totown to gather the supplies needed in production on the farm, plow and plant the fields, take care ofthe animals in the barn, and harvest the crops.  In the cities, the male and female roles in the familyreflected the gender roles of the farms due to the co-dependent relationship of the farm and cityeconomies (Leeder, 2004, p. 72-73). In the family rural-based economy, family was focused onsurvival; where the husband and wife worked together as a team.As our economy changed to a family-wage economy so did the gender roles within thefamily.  The roles of father and mother were more segregated within the home.  Men traveled andworked outside of the home and women were restricted to the home to provide childcare and attendto household duties.  With goods for the home produced outside of the family, the family becameprimarily a place that provided emotional support and refuge for its members (Leeder, 2004, p. 73-75).M1Hawke: Gender Roles within American Marriage: Are They Really Changing?Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 200771The rise of the family-consumer economy brought even more segregation within themarriage.  The husband’s role in marriage was to go out into the world: to work as breadwinner, to bethe achiever, to go to war, and to risk pain and death.  The wife devoted the majority of her time tocaring for the home and for the children.  The wife was the care provider who made the clothes,taught the children, nursed the family, and biologically produced the children (Leeder, 2004, p. 75).William H. Lockhart support this viewpoint in his study completed in 2002 when he wrote “In mostcurrent works from this perspective, this authoritarian perspective is balanced by a strong stress onloving and serving one’s family.  The ideal society would be full of strong traditional intact familieswith the fathers being full-time breadwinners, the wives maintaining order in the households, and thechildren happily submissive” (Lockhart, 2002, p. 78).  The excessive restrictions of gender roleswere defined by the economic and political society of the day.  Early changes in the Americaneconomy strengthened the traditional gender roles in marriage.The Birth of FeminismAround the middle of the 19th century, the changing attitudes toward slavery also sawchanging attitudes to women’s rights.  A young woman, Elizabeth Cady Staton, was working withher husband to support the abolitionist movement in the United States.  While on their honeymoon,Elizabeth and her husband had traveled to London to participate in the World Anti-SlaveryConvention.  This conference was hosted by Englishman, Joseph Sturge, an abolitionist who invitedothers committed to freeing the world’s slaves to attend.  While at the conference, the Americanwomen delegates were not allowed to speak to the general audience because they were women.Among the delegates was Lucretia Mott who became a friend of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.  Whileconversing with each other, the kernel of the idea of freedom and equality for women was born.  Atthe convention, Elizabeth’s own experience with her societal inequality with men was highlighted.A few years after Elizabeth’s return from London, she was instrumental in helping host aconference in Seneca Falls, NY.  This conference in upstate New York was called to address theissue of equality for all people including both slaves and women.  According to most historians, thebirth of the American Women’s Suffrage Movement was this conference in 1848.  The foundingmembers of this movement took the name “Suffrage” because the view they held was that womenwere suffering under the dominance of men in their lives.  This movement focused on writinglegislation to support and allow women to vote in political elections and hold public office, helpingwomen receive education and work in a chosen career outside of the home, and having womentreated fairly and with respect within and without the home.  In 1920, the 19th amendment to theConstitution of the United States was ratified which granted women the right to vote (Treckel, P.,1995).Influence of Feminism upon SocietyThe American Women’s Suffrage Movement focused on the abstract philosophy of equaltreatment for women and the legal measures to achieve this goal.  From this beginning the Movementevolved over time into the current day Feminist Movement from which developed Feminist theory.Feminist theory is a well defined set of terms, suppositions, and philosophies that provide womenmore gender equality in family and society in economic, social, cultural, and educational fields.As a result of the Suffrage Movement, gains in equality for women were made in the 1920sand 1930s.  During World War II, women’s roles were drastically changed due to the need to supportthe economy of the war effort.  When many men went to war creating a shortage of labor in thefactories, these jobs were filled by the women.  Responding to the nation’s demand for labor,women’s labor strengthened our nation and indelibly changed their role in society.  When the war2ESSAI, Vol. 5 [2007], Art. 23http://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol5/iss1/2372was over, both men and women were expected to return to their traditional pre-war roles in society.This expectation was reflected by television shows like “Leave It to Beaver” and “Father KnowsBest” in the 1950s.  Women were not satisfied returning to their roles as dominated by traditionalthinking.Rise of Feminist TheoryIn the 1960s and 1970s, there was a social rebellion against the constraints of tradition andagainst the traditional images of gender roles.   Since the 1970s, the feminist movement has grown,and now there are many different perspectives on feminism, just as there are different denominationsof religions.  For instance, one could ask a person who practices Judaism if he or she is Orthodox,Conservative, or Reformed.  Likewise, feminism today has taken on a variety of different aspects.One could be a Liberal, Radical, Marxist, Cultural, and/or Multicultural feminist.  Over time worldpolitical movements and events have influenced feminist thoughts and definitions.  In the bookwritten by James M. White and David M. Klein entitled Family Theories: Understanding FamiliesWhite and Klein included definitions of some of the variations of feminist theory.Liberal feminism is focused upon the goal of “Achieving gender equality.  Barriers to genderequality are viewed as any law, institution, or person that discriminates based on gender.  Thus, mostof the efforts of liberal feminism have been directed at equality of opportunity and the removal ofbarriers that would work against such equality” (White, Klein, 2002, p. 185).  For example, withinLiberal Feminism, the roles in a marriage would have both the husband and wife sharing householdtasks and caring for children while both also managed their careers.Radical Marxist Feminism, as defined by Shulamith Firestone (1970) (cited in White, Klein,2002), “is the thought that biologically men and women were created different and are not equallyprivileged” (White, Klein, 2002, p. 187).  This results in a social class based on sex that “underliesother social divisions by economic class or race [resulting in a] male patriarchy as well as femalesocialization in the family” (White, Klein, 2002, p.187).  “The outcome of this theory has encouragedthe social partitioning of labor so as to justify not only social inequality by inequality of opportunity”(White, Klein, 2002, 186-187).Cultural Feminism, as defined by Linda Alcoff (1995), “is the ideology of a female nature offemale essence reappropriated by feminists themselves in an effort to revalidate undervalued femaleattributes.  For cultural feminists, the enemy is not merely a social system or economic institution ora set of backward beliefs but masculinity itself and in some cases male biology” (White, Klein, 2002,p. 188).Multicultural Feminism “raises issues such as the exploitation of immigrant women fromunderdeveloped countries who labor as nannies and caregivers for dual career families in NorthAmerica” (White, Klein, 2002, p. 189).  Other issues raised include the diversity of family types andstructures, the relinquishment of personal freedoms and cultural and religious practices (White,Klein, 2002, p. 189).  These issues challenge the “serious issue of feminist ideology versus respectand tolerance for religious and cultural diversity” (White, Klein, 2002, p. 189).A Study on Feminist AttitudesIn a study completed by Catherine I. Bolzendahl and Daniel J. Meyers, they found the genderequality attitudes in male and female respondents have been changing in the last 30 years.Conclusions were based upon two approaches in the data they studied, primarily from the GeneralSocial Survey (GSS), 1972 – 1998.  “The GSS is a nationally representative survey ofnoninstitutionalized [sic.] adults in the U.S. using a cross-sectional design” (Bolzendahl & Meyers,2004, p. 769).  The two approaches studied were interest-based and exposure-based.  Through these3Hawke: Gender Roles within American Marriage: Are They Really Changing?Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 200773two approaches, Bolzendahl and Meyers were able to determine that there are several predictors offeminist attitude.  These predictors are employment, income, family structure, age, and education.Employment included whether or not a married woman’s or a married man’s spouse worked outsideof the home, how the proportion of income combined with hours worked, and if the status of thespouse’s work influenced respondent’s attitudes.  Also included were the family structure and howthe respondent’s background and socialization influenced his or her feminist beliefs.  Considered alsowere the respondent’s ages, his or her complete level of education, his or her mother’s completededucation level, and how these factors influenced his or her beliefs.  They also looked at variables ofrace, location, region and urban environment, religion and religious participation, and politicalidentification for the respondent’s beliefs.In almost all of the areas Bolzendahl & Meyers concluded, “a smaller proportion of incomeearned by men only predicated feminism in the family responsibilities domain.  [Bolzendahl &Meyers] interpreted this finding to mean that men with higher relative income [than the woman’s]expected women to take more responsibility for house-hold management” (781).  The findings of thisstudy tied attitudes of the respondents directly to how much money each of the partners made andbrought into the marriage economy.Positive and Negative Effects of FeminismFeminism has influenced how people define gender roles within a marriage.  A husband’srole within a marriage has expanded making it possible for a man to care for his children while theyare young.  Today, a husband can have the opportunity to get to know and love for his children;before the feminist movement, that opportunity would have been rare, if even possible.  Feminisminfluenced the husband’s role within the family; for it is now acceptable to be an.  “At-Home Dad.”Likewise, it is now acceptable for the wife of the family to work outside the home in a career.The challenge that arises for both husband and the wife in his or her family role is to balance thedemands of family and career.  Feminist theory has given the family units options for distribution ofwork within marriage that were unavailable in the past. This flexibility allows freedom for thehusband and wife partners in economic and marriage growth. It also allows husbands and wives tomake the best decisions for their family today and does not confine their options to traditional, yetoutmoded roles.Overall, the influence of feminism upon marriage and family roles has had both positive andnegative effects.  The negative effects have been that some argue that full equality will never beachieved due to the inherent differences between men and women.  There will always be people whofight against change and want to keep things the way they have always been.  Positive effects havebeen that women are being treated with more equality in society and business. However, there is stilla long way to go.  Women have the opportunity to influence local and national politics and policy byexercising their right to vote.  This affects not only women, but their children and families as well.Women can: hold public office, pursue their education, pursue their careers, and overall provideopportunities for more personal fulfillment making a positive difference in the lives of others.  Menare not treating women as property and can celebrate their contributions to society.The effects of feminism are varied; sometimes the influence of feminism upon gender roleswithin a marriage works and sometimes it does not.  Some people can adapt to the new thoughtpatterns and help give new meaning to the roles of the husband and wife and how these roles work ina marriage.  Others are not able to or do not want to change with the times.  However, the changesthat feminism has brought to our society in the United States have been positive.In the past, clear gender roles for husband and wife had been understood within the contextof the marriage.  Today there are fewer clearly defined models for contemporary marriage genderroles and how these roles ought to be lived out.  It must be admitted that in some cases, a lack of4ESSAI, Vol. 5 [2007], Art. 23http://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol5/iss1/2374clear gender roles weakens the marriage.  However, when a husband and a wife have the freedom tobring to a marriage his or her whole self, and not just live a traditional gender role, the Americanmarriage has been strengthened by feminist theory.  As Elizabeth Cady Stanton asserted over 100year ago, “There is one kind of marriage that has not been tried and that is a contract made by equalparties to lead an equal life, with equal restraints and privileges on either side.  Thus far we have hadman marriage and nothing more” (Treckel, p. 1995).  Change is not easy, but change is happening.My hope is that through education, more people will see the benefits offered to contemporarymarriage by these changes.Works CitedBolzendahl, C.L., & Meyers, D. J. (2004).  Feminist attitudes and support for gender equality:Opinion change in women and men, 1974-1998. Social Forces, 83,750 – 790.Leeder, E. (2004). The family in global perspective: A gendered journey. Thousand Oaks, CA: SagePublications. 1-305.Lockhart, W. H. (2000). “We are one life,” but not of one gender ideology: Unity, ambiguity, and thepromise keepers. Sociology of Religion, 61, 73 – 92.Treckel, P. (1995).  Forging the thunderbolts: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and American feminism. Giftsof Speech.  Professor of History.  Allegheny College., Chautauqua Institution: July 28, 1995.retrieved November 25, 2006.http://gos.sbc.edu/t/treckel.htmlWhite, J.M., and Klein, D.M. (2002). Family theories: Understanding families. Thousand Oaks, CA:Sage Publications. 1-259.5Hawke: Gender Roles within American Marriage: Are They Really Changing?Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2007

Gender Roles within American Marriage: Are They Really Changing?

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