Evolution of Womens Roles in Society - Research Paper Example

English 23 November OUTLINE The Evolution of Women’s Roles in Society I. Introduction II. The Decision to Get Married and Raise a Family First or Pursue Education and Career First A. Factors influencing the decision B. When women get married and raise children first C. When women pursue education and careers first III. Conclusion The Evolution of Women’s Roles in Society 1. Introduction According to Empey, the Fortune Survey carried out in 1946 revealed that most women in the American society were more inclined to traditional gender and family roles (152). As a result, more women were more open to the idea of sticking to the traditional perception of women as housewives and PAs, as opposed to high flying career women (Empey 152). While women ascribed to feminist opinions that suggested otherwise, many still harbored conservative perceptions which characterized them as having intrinsic limitations and therefore unable to choose between careers and marriage (Empey 152). In high schools and colleges, young women were found to have aspirations that saw them stick to the traditional roles regarding family and gender. A further study carried out on a sample of 1194 girls spread across high schools and colleges in Washington revealed that 80% of them preferred marriage to careers, while only 8% preferred careers to marriage (Empey 152); the remaining 12% was unsure about where they stood. The overwhelming majority of the sample stated that the most important role of women in the society was to get married and raise a family. The small remaining percentage favored both career and marriage as being a woman’s most significant obligations to society (Empey 152). Some other responses to the survey that support this stance include the opinion of majority of the surveyed women that they would not take up jobs to which their significant others were opposed; they would not move away from their families immediately they had settled, in pursuit of better career prospects elsewhere; and they felt a greater sense of accountability towards preserving the repose of their families (Empey 152). Fast-forward to the 1970s and the number of women pursuing professional postgraduate programs upon completion of their college education rose sharply in the United States (Goldin and Katz 730). Expectedly, the age at which women got married for the first time also escalated drastically (Goldin and Katz 730). Beginning in the 1970s, more and more women began to venture into professional courses such as law and medicine; a scenario which saw the number of female law graduates increase by well over 26% between 1970 and 1986 (Goldin and Katz 730). In the same breath, the number of married women among college graduates began to take a dip (Goldin and Katz 731). While Goldin and Katz attribute this phenomenon to the increased popularity of the birth control pills, what is agreeable is that more and more women postponed the decision to get married to much later years than before. The pill was seen by women as giving them more sexual freedom without facing the consequences of unwanted pregnancies and hence facilitating the ability of women to invest in their careers in the long term. More women found that the pill enabled them to delay marriage and engage in establishing their careers, as the pill greatly reduced the cost of doing this in what Goldin and Katz refer to as “reducing the cost is the marriage market” (731). The overall effect was that women could delay marriage for as long as they pleased. The number of women graduating from college and getting married within two years of leaving college plunged (Goldin and Katz 731). Consequently, more women compared to men began to pursue professional courses after graduation from college. In the present the day, the situation has changed even more significantly. According to Wallop, more and more women are getting married in their 30s and 40s than ever before (telegraph.co.uk). The mean age which women found appropriate to get married in 2008 was 29.9 years, while in 2009 it had escalated to 30 years. Wallop further states that these figures have increased drastically from 1981, when the mean age which women found appropriate to get married was 23.1 years, and in 1991 when the mean age which women found appropriate to get married was 25.5 (telegraph.co.uk). There are also fewer marriages taking place compared to earlier on in many societies, with fewer women opting to get married in the present day in contrast to earlier periods in time. While one of the contributing factors to this occurrence according to Wallop is the deterioration of the world economy over time, leading to financial difficulty for many people who in turn seek financial stability over marriage (telegraph.co.uk). The decline in the number of marriages and the gradual upsurge in the marriage age among women can be attributed to the increase in proportions of women getting into professional courses and pursuing their careers. While many young women still aspire to get married and start families, fewer of them are following through with these aspirations as they seek the elusive dream job, dream car, dream house and financial comfort. Wallop asserts that for most young women today, the twenties have become the age where they work at building themselves, getting an education to their preferred levels, often post-graduate level, and work their way up the corporate ladder in their respective careers or fields of business (telegraph.co.uk). This leaves the thirties and the forties as the years when most of them find appropriate to begin thinking of getting married and raising families. 2. The Decision to Get Married and Raise a Family First or Pursue Education and Career First Many modern women are faced with the challenge of the delicate balancing act between starting a family earlier on in their life, then building their careers afterwards, versus working on their education and careers first, then starting families when they are financially stable and have reached their optimum. According to Blair-Loy, women who are in the pursuit of elite professions that are challenging and demanding are often faced with the challenge of devoting time to families, and fulfilling their culturally dictated duties of being first wives and mothers (2). In line with this obligation, women are touted to attain financial stability, receive intimacy, experience a sense of creativity, and achieve meaning with their life by getting married and bearing and raising children, as well as nurturing and attending to their families accordingly (Blair-Loy 2). Blair-Loy further states that within the family, children are viewed as needing constant motherly tenderness and care due to their fragility (2). On the other hand, men are viewed as being incapable of meeting these needs due to their lack of patience and selflessness; hence the need for women to get married and attend to these duties as opposed to pursuing education and careers (Blair-Loy 2). Women are often required to either concentrate on their families at a particular time, or their education and career, but never both as they are deemed incapable of striking the balance. Women in the elite career fields who spend time focusing on their family obligations are thought of as not showing the required level of devotion and commitment to their work. On the other hand, women in elite career fields and who focus more on their jobs and as a result avoid or entrust their responsibilities to their families or to other people, are thought of as not showing the required level of devotion and commitment to their families (Blair-Loy 2). The decision as to whether women should first get married and raise families before pursuing their education and careers, or whether they should first pursue their education and careers before getting married and raising families is highly personal. The decision is also informed by many factors, both personal and external that differ from one woman to the next. However, both sides of the divide are complete with unique advantages and disadvantages that may provide insight to young women in the contemporary society who are looking to make the most appropriate decision. 2.1. Factors Influencing the Decision Changes in patterns of demographics and the socio-economic status of the society are gradually changing gender and family roles, the composition of the modern family, as well as the structure and of the family; consequently influencing the decisions of women with regard to family life (United Nations 23). Education is one of the key factors influencing this decision. Women are increasingly opting to pursue education leading to a delay in the age at which they get married. Additionally, the higher the level of education women attain, the more their goals shift from getting married and raising a family to goals that are more oriented towards their careers. Employment also influences the decision as to whether women should first get married and raise families before pursuing their education and careers, or whether they should first pursue their education and careers before getting married and raising families (United Nations 23). Employed women will often find themselves more immersed in work and attainment of career objectives as opposed to family life and marriage. The field of employment also creates a glass ceiling for women, which prevents them from being able to go up the corporate ladder. In order for women to be able to break through this glass ceiling, they often have to shelve their plans of starting families and getting married, so as to remain competitive within the corporate ladder. Reproductive health services also influence women’s decisions with regard to whether they should first get married and raise families before pursuing their education and careers, or whether they should first pursue their education and careers before getting married and raising families (United Nations 23). As stated by Goldin and Katz the birth control pill is seen by women as giving them more sexual freedom without facing the consequences of unwanted pregnancies, and hence facilitating the ability of women to invest in their careers in the long term (731). More women find that the pill enables them to delay marriage and engage in establishing their careers as the pill greatly reduces the cost of doing this (Goldin and Katz 731). 2.2. When Women Get Married and Raise Families First The greatest advantage for women getting married and raising family first prior to pursuing their careers and education is that they do not have to worry about the biological clock and battling with time to maintain their reproductive health and have healthy children. Peart notes that many women in the present day postpone childbearing to a time when they have financial stability, their careers are on track and they have the partners they deem best (news.yale.edu). What they overlook is the fact that the most fertile years of their lives slip away during this period. In the later years of life, women looking to have children have to undergo numerous fertility treatments, whose chances of succeeding are never 100%. Additionally, modern medicine cannot guarantee that they will have normal healthy babies devoid of the conditions that affect children born to aged mothers such as Down’s syndrome. This can be avoided by getting married and raising children before one pursues their education and career. Trunk also points out one advantage of getting married and raising a family first before pursuing a career and education as being more emotionally and psychologically gratifying (thoughtcatalog.com). If women decide to push marriage and child bearing to a point in life when they are completely stable and ready, this time may never come. Additionally, even at the point when they engage in family life, their finances will not remain constant and therefore stability when one is single and childless may translate to instability when one gets into a marriage or gets a child. Trunk states that research has proven that women get more happiness from being married than from having a good job and as a result, pursuing ones career at the expense of marriage and family life may result in a lack of peace of mind (thoughtcatalog.com). According to Baber and Monaghan, women who work and raise families at the same time are faced with conflicts in terms of roles and responsibilities (189). This situation may be especially complex for women who first get married, then attempt to make the transition back into education and careers. Like any other major life event, marriage and child birth take a great toll on women physically, mentally, and emotionally. The may change their perspective towards life and demotivate women from getting back into the corporate arena. Additionally, marriage and child-birth place a great burden on their shoulders in terms of striking the balance between their families and their jobs, taking care of their children, and holding their marriages together. This is the greatest disadvantage for women getting married before pursuing their careers and education to their desired levels. Stafford, Backman and Dibona assert that among many young married couples or those that are co-habiting, women still maintain their traditional roles of performing household tasks (43). This implies that between men and women in such arrangements, women have more duties to attend to compared to men and therefore less time to focus on personal well-being and development, including the development of careers and pursuing further education. Women who opt to get married first are therefore at a disadvantage since they might never really have the time to pursue their careers or education. 2.3. When Women Pursue Education and Careers First One of the advantages of pursuing career and education first before getting married is the fact that as one gets older by the time they make the decision to get married, they have lower chances of getting divorced compared to when they are younger. This is according to Trunk who states that statistics have proven that getting married at the age of twenty-five for example lowers the chances of one getting divorced compared to when they are in their early twenties (thoughtcatalog.com). At later ages, women are more mature and aware of themselves. They are able to make better judgments with regards to the best partners for themselves and their children. For women who may have met their spouses earlier in their lives, they understand and relate to them better, and this results to a more harmonious union as each person is well aware of their partner’s needs and wants. The biggest advantage of pursuing education and career first before getting married and raising a family however, is the stability that it brings both mentally and financially. According to Sweat, careers provide women with a sense of personal fulfillment as they are daily required to use their creativity to counter the challenges that they face in the contemporary workplace (ucg.org). This provides women with a great feeling of mental and psychological stability that can help them deal effectively with the pressures of family life. Inevitably, working women are able to supplement the income of their partners in a family setting. With a double income in the family, they are better able to cope with financial pressures in terms of footing bills and meeting family expenses. In so doing, this also makes it easier to solve the problems resulting from financial issues that face marriages in the contemporary society, as finances are a very major issue in a marriage. None of the spouses feels over-burdened by the other by having to bear all the financial burden of the family. The disadvantage of pursuing education and career first remains that a woman may be forced to make the decision to get married in a rush without considering the qualities of her partner, or her readiness to be in the union but rather from the fact that time is running out. This may result in a woman being in an unsatisfying or unhappy marriage for the sake of time. As Trunk states, when a woman gets married late in life, she will be in a hurry to get children due to pressure from her biological clock (thoughtcatalog.com). As a result, women may end up not spacing their children well enough, which is bad for their development. Trunk states that research has proven that development of children can be enhanced by having a two to three year gap between them (thoughtcatalog.com). However, women getting married in their forties may not have the luxury of such time to wait. Another disadvantage of pursuing one’s career and education at the expense of getting married is the fact that as one gets older, they are faced with more fertility issues. Trunk states that particularly in this generation, the issue of fertility is a major challenge for the modern woman (thoughtcatalog.com). This can be attributed to a number of issues, key among them the lifestyles that people in the modern society adopt. People work for long hours resulting in a lot of stress and burn outs. Leisure time is spent engaging in activities such as social drinking that do not add any value to the quality of life of a woman. People generally eat unhealthier due to lack of time to prepare proper meals and as a result, have issues with their weight and terminal illnesses. Due to the amount of time spent working, people have no time to build their social lives by engaging in activities such as games and sports, but rather opt for the internet and television both of which do not do much to improve quality of life, and do not facilitate the building of healthy relationships. All these factors put together serve to deteriorate the quality of life for women and as a result, they grow older faster. With these comes greater problems with infertility and the need for more fertility treatments, which also affect the general health of women making it more difficult to conceive at later ages. 3. Conclusion The decision as to whether women should get married first and raise families before pursuing their education and careers, or whether they should first pursue their education and careers before getting married and raising families is highly personal and privy. The decision is also informed by many factors both personal and external that differ from one woman to the next. Such factors as discussed include education, employment, and reproductive health. However, whatever decision one makes has both advantages and disadvantages. For instance, if one decides to get married first, they do not have issues with their biological clock, but on the down side, the transition from family life to career may take a great toll on a woman. On the other hand, if a woman pursues their education and career first, they are more mentally and financially stable, but run the risk of making the decision to get married and have children in a rush due to time limitations. This decision therefore requires a woman to carefully weigh her options and determine which of the consequences she can bear, and which are too extreme so as to make an informed decision. Works Cited Baber, Kristine M. and Patricia Monaghan. “College Women’s Careers and Motherhood Expectations: New Options, Old Dilemmas” Journal of Sex Roles. 19.3/4 (1988): pp 189-190. Web. 23 November 2013. Blair-Loy, Mary. Competing Devotions: Career and Family among Women Executives. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005. Print. Empey, Lamar T. “Role Expectations of Young Women regarding Marriage and a Career.” Journal of Marriage and Family Living. 20.2 (May, 1958): pp. 152-155. Web. 23 November 2013. Goldin, Claudia and Lawrence F. Katz. "The Power of the Pill: Contraceptives and Women's Career and Marriage Decisions." Journal of Political Economy. 110 (4 August, 2002): pp. 730-770. Web. 23 November 2013. Peart, Karen. “Women cannot Rewind the ‘Biological Clock.” news.yale.edu. 5 April 2012. Web. 23 November 2013. Trunk, Penelope. “Get Married First, then Focus on Your Career.” thoughtcatalog.com. 19 August 2013. Web. 23 November 2013. Stafford, Rebecca, Backman, Elaine and Dibona, Pamela. “The Division of Labor among Cohabiting and Married Couples.” Journal of Marriage and Family. 39.1 (February, 1977): pp 43-57. Web. 23 November 2013. Sweat, Becky. “Career, Home and Family: Can Women Really Do It All?” ucg.org. 2013. Web. 23 November 2013. United Nations. The World's Women, 2000: Trends and Statistics. New York: United Nations, 2000. Print. Wallop, Harry. “Average Age for Women to Marry hits 30 for First Time” telegraph.co.uk. 30 March, 2011. Web. 23 November 2013. Read More