Gender division of labor - Essay Example

This has in many occasions led to family breakdowns. This is because men consider themselves more important than women hence looking down on them and giving them no chance at all in decision making (Cohen, 2004). Their suggestions and thoughts are suppressed hence being subjected to oppression. Therefore, this causes a lot of tension in societies between men and women where women think that they have been denied access to their rights. Since women engage more in unpaid roles at home, it gives them a lesser bargaining power against their male counterparts who earn hence in most cases providing for the family needs.

Quite often, the idea of gender based division of labor causes chaos, more so in the civilized world where women are in pursuit for gender equality. Women consider themselves just as much effective as men, and that they should be allowed do the rest of the chores. This desire has been accelerated by education; education has now been advocated for all. Modern technology also makes it a lot easier for women to do work that was considered complicated for them. According to Cohen (2004), this has been a bold step towards economic developments in most societies.

To him, a shared responsibility is effective for a society to develop. He views an economically empowered woman as a tool to development in that they can generate enough income to keep their families going, making it a shared responsibility between wives and husbands. However, most men view this as a woman’s tool to fight them hence always disregarding the idea, and as a result, it leads to disagreements among the involved parties. Also, there is yet another point of contemplation; property ownership.

Property ownership is an idea that has spark different views in different societies. In most cultures, owning of property is a man’s thing. In his view, Cohen (2004), social cultural beliefs belittle the fact that women can in any circumstances own property. Women are considered weak and with no sufficient knowledge to manage property. It is often an abomination for them to acquire or inherit property, especially so, land. According to Kergoat & Othmer (2005), extremely few women have had the privilege to own property in comparison to their men counterparts.

Commonly, many families have their family possessions registered in the husbands’ names, which are in return given full powers to make any decisions concerning the property. Low percentages of married couples have joint properties (Kergoat & Othmer, 2005). Therefore, women feel left out and oppressed. They often desire to be treated equally with the men, to be considered able to handle what men can handle. This causes unrest in the society because women feel suppressed and deprived of access to their rights.

On the hand, men view them as less influential in decision making and threats to the powers set upon them. However, Kergoat puts in his view that women and men should have equal opportunities to property ownership. Most constitutions and power changes are now empowering women to own property. A property right in regard to women is fast coming up, being viewed as a great boost to societal economic upgrade. Women are now finding their way up in the ladder to equality. However, this is being viewed as an abuse to men and cultural beliefs hence it is not being easily