Gender Roles In Non-Traditional Families

There were a few television shows that reinforce the traditional gender roles assigned to both men and woman. “I Love Lucy”, “The Jeffersons”, “Goodtimes”, “All in the Family”, “My Wife and Kids”, and “Fresh Prince of Bell Air” were all traditional gender role television shows. All of these shows had the men working and the women were taking care of everything at home. “The Jeffersons” were a little different than the rest because they had Florence there to do all of the housework and Mrs. Jefferson didn’t do much at all around the house unless she wanted to of course. Another show was “The Brady Bunch” this show was also different from the rest because although they had Alice there to help Ms. Brady because she had a lot of children,

During the 1990’s, a total of 71.5 million children under the age of 18 lived within the U.S. Of these children more than 70% lived in a traditional two-parent family, 25% lived with one parent, and less than four percent of children lived with another relative. As of 2013, about 46% of children live in a traditional two-parent family. The remaining 54% are divided into three categories: 15% live with two parents remarried, 34% live with a single parent, and five percent live without a parent. Studies show that children who live in an non-traditional family are at a greater disadvantage than children living in a traditional family. Children who live in non-traditional families are at a higher risk of experiencing economic and psychological/health

In our society, we carry an ideological assumption that a “normal” family consists of the man working to provide for the family and the women takes on the role of stay-at-home mom (Dow 1992).

Within a household, women and men, mothers and fathers, have different roles and responsibilities, much of which are based on the person’s gender. Typically, women or mothers are “responsible for the emotional, social, and physical well-being of her family” (Lober 80), “most of the hands-on family work” (Lorber 81), and keep up of the house. The men or fathers are usually seen as the “bread winners” of the family. Due to this and the work they do outside of the house, men usually have little to no responsibilities to the family and within the home. It is not unusual for women to clean the house, make sure the children are well taken care of, and cook while the man, or father, is at work. When he gets back home, after work, it is expected for him to relax and unwind. Although they are a couple with similar obligations, the divide of them is not equally distributed among the two and offer either one different results.

Modern families are becoming more of a norm in today’s society as more and more children are being raised in non-traditional families. The ever-changing arrangement of he family unit in the Unites Stated has altered the lives of many children. With the continued increase of children being born to unmarried parents, the adoption of children by homosexual couples and divorce rates rising, we are seeing a rise in third party individuals seeking visitation and custody rights. These third parties include foster parents, step parents, siblings, same sex partners and other relatives who at one point or another may have played a significant part in the child’s life.

“In the united states, more than 4 to 5 in 10 marriages end in a divorce, and approximately half of American children are affected by this change in family relationships” ( McDevitt & Ormrod, 2015, p.73). The divorce rate is continuously skyrocketing, and more children are having to learn how to deal with this occurrence. In addition to divorce, there are also many different types of family situations, that are not considered traditional, and these also cause children to go through hardships. For the most part, children who grow up in traditional working households have tended to do better in school and grow developmentally stronger than children in non-traditional household settings due to the hardships and the changes these children are going through.

Robert Dorment’s summary from his article talked about that women always complained about men did wrong but men who worked so hard for their family and work-life balance. Richard used that word “castigate” for men that means women scold men, but they did not realize men worked so hard. Other quote about the castigation of men, “…person whose husband, by her own admission, sacrificed much in his own academic career to do other heavy lifting with their children, all so she could pursue her dream job and then complain about it, bitterly, in the pages of a national magazine” (Dorment 708). Anne-Marie Slaughter explained that women who get promotion from other positions that they realized they do not have spent time with their family and some women who leave their jobs because of their family reasons. The quote said, “It is unthinkable that an official would actually step down to spend time with his or her family that this must be a cover for something else” (Slaughter 682). Third article called Women, work and work/life balance: Research roundup talked about the wage inequality and unequal responsibilities between men and women. Women have more family responsibilities than men do because some women are staying at home while taking care of their kids. Last article, Work-Life Balance – An integrated Approach: The case for joint and several responsibility talked about the

When it comes to family, it’s not as easy to make sacrifices. This is not to imply that women can’t have careers and families and be effective, it’s simply making note of the challenges faced when choosing this path. “Yet every study so far has shown us to be less effective when attempting to multitask. Even when our subjective impression is of having accomplished more in less time, in reality we get less done, we do it with less accuracy and depth, and we remember less about it later. Doing more at once robs all our activities of the attention they deserve -- and the experience we deserve” (Rushkoff). Finding balance is the only answer if women are to continue being a part of the workforce. No one can have it all without there being obstacles along the way. While maintaining family, careers, and home where does self-priority fit? We’ve read the countless arguments in support and opposition of women having it all, and surely the debate will continue. At what expense if any does it cost to have it all? Maintaining careers, family, homes, and self-care calls for more than one working and pitching in on the day to day operations. Come up with a plan that works and execute it to accomplish all that you desire. Everyone’s definition of “All” will very well be different, define your “All” and strive to have

As we all know the term nuclear family is defined as a husband, wife and their two children. However in recent decades we see through many television shows such as Modern Family breaking this ideal hegemonic family structure. The show Modern Family presents its audience a very live action of dysfunctional families, that contains gay parents as promoting a new sense of family value. Although this show attempts to portray a contemporary view of American families, it still emphasizes stereotype of gender roles, patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity. Throughout this essay I will analyze mainly on gender criticism of the Show Modern Family, while touching base of some stereotypes I noticed on race, ethnicity and sexual orientation.

Moreover, when husbands do share work, it is often sporadic household tasks or time spent with children, such as outings to a baseball game, instead of daily chores, such as preparing dinner or getting children ready for school. This signifies that within sharing work and in the family dynamic, men continue maintain a higher amount of control and choice as to when or what they will contribute. Although women have gained equality through their increasing entry into the labour force, their decisions, career and responsibilities at home are still greatly dictated by and dependent of the preferences of men. This shows how concepts of gender stratification and gender strategies have not left the context of a family home, but instead has simply extended beyond that and into the workplace.

has begun to form. When we meet a new person, we are instantly judging whether they are male

My beliefs and view on the gender ideology towards work and family is more weighed on one side (Masculine) and partly on the other (Feminine). It is evident that the ‘Masculine’ gender is more dominant in our society and because of this; there is more expectation and responsibility for the masculine gender. However, there is a continual inclusion trend in which we are witnessing the feminine gender assume some roles of the masculine gender. But overall, the masculine effect is still dominant. I personally feel that there should be a good balance of work and family responsibility by the men. It is necessary that the ‘Men’ are mostly responsible for taking the role of the breadwinner of the family therefore, the working hours of the men would have to be met as required by the employer. For example, working 40 hours a week is the minimum in the US but varies in some other places. In a case whereby the man has to take an overtime shift just to meet the needs of the family.

Gender roles, the public image of being a particular gender that a person presents to others (gender roles, n.d.), have seen many changes through the years, especially in families. The changes can be seen in many aspects, including television shows, from the traditional family in the I Love Lucy sitcom of the 1950s to the plethora of shows about women and men who balance working and family life of the 2000s. A traditional family can be defined as “… the ‘natural reproductive unit’ of mom, pop, and the children all living under one roof… (Ball, 2002).” The 1940s, a period dominated by this type of family, were primarily a time of single-income families where the father was the ‘breadwinner’ and the mother the ‘homemaker (Hayghe, H.V., 1990).’

There are varieties of families in the world. People develop different personalities and mind sets because they have their own experience and knowledge gain from their individual families. In this essay, I will contrast and summarize each of nuclear, which is traditional, family and non-traditional families and also compare each of the families and examine how changing in non-traditional and nuclear families will affect people’s behaviors and minds in the view of sociologist and psychologist in order to argue how changing family affect individuals and the society.

Gender roles are deeply engrained within society, therefore it is no surprise that they would reflect through into the care work employed in organ transplantations. Within society one is culturally groomed to reflect a gender role, a person ultimately becomes a cultural construct of what is believed to be their set gender identity. The creation of gender roles dates back to the European approach to setting up an economic unit that was a household (Stone 2009). Due to the way society was structured with males being the recipient of inheritance, he therefore bought more economic recourses to the marriage than the woman. A woman could bring a dowry but because of the structure of society it was the only financial contribution she could contribute to the relationship as she was not allowed to work. Men tended to marry older as it gave them more time to amass their wealth. They then tended to take a younger bride because she was more likely to be fertile and thusly continuing the family line (Stone, 2009). Social class also played a role in the persistent gender roles that exist within the contemporary United States of America. In the past female virginity was prized therefore to guard her virginity families would sequester her away in the home as a method of protection. There in itself created a double standard as males could have premarital sex. It further asserted the male dominance of being allowed to participate in society. The sociopolitical dimension of marriage relegate the woman to offset her lack of financial contribution due to her inability to participate in society by performing the household task, thusly proving herself valuable in a marriage. These values that have spanned time have been embodied by the American people and are reflect into Laura Heinemann’s work on organ transplantation kinship and care networks in the form of gendered care.