Gender Roles In Phyllis Schlafly's Who Killed The American Family

The divorce rate in the United States is higher than fifty percent today. The divorce rate continues to increase in America due to many reasons, one of them being that society today is a disposable society. Back in the day, when someone had a broken shoe he or she would fix it, and if there was a problem with a couple’s marriage, the two would work through it. But today, it is easier to ignore the problem, throw away what we do not like anymore and move on to the next, which is not the right way to live. In Lorrie Moore’s “A Kid’s Guide to Divorce”, Moore writes about a child and his or her mother. The two are sitting in their living room watching TV as they

The thesis statement above attempts to examine the role that Elizabeth Bennet plays in the novel as she goes against the women’s idealistic views. This article will help justify my thesis statement in how Greenfield expresses the oppression that women go through and how they lack to see the discrimination they are faced with daily.

In this satirical article, Brady expresses the difference between the roles of women and men in the 1970’s by stating men’s point of view on women and women’s roles in society. Throughout her article, Brady emphasizes the roles of women. For example, women could now “work and...takes care of the children when they are sick”. Comparing the 1880’s to the 1970’s, there has been a big improvement. Many women had jobs outside their home, but still were responsible for most housework and childcare while their husband’s only responsibility in a marriage was to go to work and earn money to support the family. Society’s expectations allowed women to work outside the home to support college education for husbands; however,women had to know how to balance their time between their children and their jobs, making sure that their husbands “cannot miss classes at school.” During the 1970’s, women were still oppressed in many ways and had to follow society's expectations in order to live up to the men’s view of women’s roles in society. Even though society’s expectations of women had improved since The Awakening, most of women’s roles had stayed the same. In the article, Brady specifies how once a husband is “through with school and has a job, [he expects the] wife to quit working and remain at home so that [she] can more fully and completely take

The expenses for divorce have increased over the past several decades since divorce became a prominent thing in society. The cost of the divorce industry is approximately $50 billion a year, which comes from the pockets of divorcing couples and the taxpayers who support the state agencies involved (McElroy, 2014). According to a study done by the Marriage and Religion Research Institute, marriages have been proved to promote economic growth, while divorce slows it down. When couples are divorced, it means there will be more households which means more housing, power and resources are required (Haury, 2012). However, with the way that the law is currently, it saves time and money than it would if it were any different. With a longer waiting period like Cathy Meyer suggests, it would cost even more

Another bit of interesting material from the book was how the “Masculinity Imperative” of the family dynamic seemed to slowly transition over time from strictly patriarchal with the father as the ruler the household in the 1800s to where it is now. I am in a gender studies class and so the existence of this modified patriarchy wasn’t really that much of a surprise, but it was fascinating to watch a sort of play-by-play of its transition as class values coalesced and then began to transition. After reading this book, I brought some of its points up with my grandmother, who I had learned was one of those young homemakers in the fifties Cherlin talked about, and she could verify almost every single point Cherlin talked about from that time period. She went through school and was told that as much as she loved science that it was impossible for her to get a job in it. She then got married after high school, had three kids, and got divorced once most of them had left the nest so she could travel to the west coast and get a degree. She talked a lot about how for someone who really enjoyed thinking and learning, being trapped within a house in the suburbs with only chores for company was torture. That really puts into perspective that these weren’t just some

There’s an old saying that goes, “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present”, by Alice Morse Earle. The world has become a place taken for granted. Humans are beginning to wish they could live in the past, while others just want to skip over to the future but what ever happened to living right now? Or living in the moment? In the story, “The American Family”, by Stephanie Coontz, she discusses why so many individuals believe American families are facing worse issues now than in the past. She discusses how in the previous years, it was far worse and explains why those people are wrong to assume they are facing worse problems now. In addition, Robert Kuttner and his text, “The politics of family”, supports Coontz’ argument about the dilemmas facing the turn-of-the-century American families and gives the resolutions to those problems; such as talking out problems, women having the right to walk out of unsatisfactory marriages, and lastly, the emancipation for women.

Sarah's father is an immigrant who holds Jewish traditions as the highest importance of life. The role of Sarah's father strikes her hard and creates an enormous hatred for him. Sarah has been Americanized and feels strongly that her father should be the provider for the family. Instead her father lives off the work of his four girls as they slave away to make ends meet. Sarah sees this as the main reason of why her family is in poverty and is in such pain. If her father would work then at least some of their misery would lesson. She appears to view her father as a leech, as worthless man, who has lives in the days of the past. "I can't respect a man who lives off the blood of his wife and children" (Bread Givers 130). Sarah appears to believe that his idea of family does not fit the American recipe for being successful and more important happy. America has a standard cultural, "nuclear family", of a providing man, a caring mother, and student children. Her apparent hatred for her father's preaching's reflects how she feels about her Jewish religion and traditions. This influences her enough to turn away from her upbringing for an attempt to better her self.

On her part, Cheryl Wetzstein in her article “Lowering Divorce Rates Urged As National Goal” argues that legislation should be put in place to checkmate the rate of divorce in the United States especially for a family with children. According to Wetzstein, the problem of divorce and its effect on children is a national goal which demands critical evaluation on the part of the government. Wetzstein claims that the effect of divorce touches every aspect of life. According to a study shared by Wetzstein, children from separated homes exhibit emotional, physical and mental problems; are easily exposed to crime and drugs; perform poorly academically, and are likely to commit suicide. Wetzstein states that seeing the unfortunate impact divorce has on these children, the government, as a matter of urgency, should come up with laws that would reduce family separation; this would not only preserve the future of the children but also saves government lots of money (2000).

Later on Rich believed that women who were starting to make a difference towards society were switching their gender roles by surpassing the male. In the essay she claimed that “…middle-class women were making careers of domestic perfection, working to send their husbands through professional school, then retiring to raise large families” (Rich 9). She argued how women are supporting their spouses when the men are dependent and how women later put their dreams on hold when they start a family. But men don’t have the same sympathy towards the women’s careers, when they have children they don’t let them continue ‘their careers of domestic perfection’, instead they make the women become dependent on them. This is ironic towards the male and female roles because now the male is portrayed

Paid work for women moved from principally customary female-situated employments to all the more non-conventional and already male-arranged vocations. Ladies ' support in the workforce prompted them to start careers in the field dominated by male in the 20th century. Career yearnings were affected by elements, such as sexual orientation, financial status, race, occupation and instruction level, and parental desires. This paper exhibits how women developed, changed and the challenges they faced in the 20th century in America in the workforce and the advancement of ladies ' careers, improvement and profession goals during the 20th century in United States. Also, gender issues affecting women will be discussed in details during this period and how women played their role in fighting for their rights.

Throughout the story we see the protagonist struggle with the gender roles placed upon her by her society; specifically the role she is supposed to play as

At the very beginning, the of the book the gender roles really stood out to me. For example, the father seemed to be the “leader” of the house and everything revolved around his job, his ideas, and his personal perspective on topics. They moved from Berlin to Out-With just for his father's job. Father's job was the most important. “Well, sometimes when someone is very important” continued Mother, “the man who employs him asks him to go somewhere else because there’s a very special job that needs doing there.” (4) The mother stayed at home and watched over her son Bruno. She also did some housework, but most of the work was pushed towards Maria. Maria was their house maid; she cooked, cleaned, did the laundry.

In the world today, many men and women believe divorce is always a dreadful thing that occurs, but there is actually a beneficial side to it. Divorce has been around for many years and mainly just men were the only ones capable to make the decisions. Until, The Guardian states,” The 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act allowed ordinary people to divorce.” Under this new law, it was capable for women to make the decision, they just had to prove the facts to withhold a divorce. Following 1857, in 1923 there was a private member’s bill that allowed women to petition for a divorce for adultery. However, it only made it a little bit easier, they still needed to prove the reason. A few years later, they were able to pass another law, this law allowed divorce

In the 1960s to 1970s, a feminist movement began and sparked a change in attitudes towards women in familial roles and pushed against gender inequality. This movement’s effects trickled down to the opinions and actions of people in the later 1970s to mid-1980s. The period saw a decline in the backing of the traditional family wife role for women and greater acceptance for women finding employment (Mason, K.O., Lu, Y., 1988). However, the change also encountered backlash, with the growth of employed mothers came concerns of the negative effects on the children and their relationship with the mother (Mason, K.O., Lu, Y., 1988). This triggered an inconsistent time for family structure. The nineties saw