Gendered Division of Labor - Essay Example

Gendered Division of Labor There is the use of symbols in many societies. This is as a result of the existence of various functions in the society and all of these are represented in different ways. As a result of this, the society comes up with ways of portraying these ideas. Gender based division of labor refers to a patterned way in which the society constructs the roles that are to be played by men and those that are to be carried out by women in the society (Peoples & Bailey, 2011). Most at times, men specialize in works that are outside the home around and have some remuneration at the end of the day.

On the other hand, women are always based in the home and carry out duties that do not have any kind of pay. This is the arrangement that has been in place before the 1970s; most family researchers found it ideal to have women staying at home and concentrate on housework and taking care of the children. On the other hand, men were not involved in any way in taking care of issues that were related to the family; instead, they concentrated more on cooperate roles. There is the common idea of viewing women as symbols of consumers, workers and emotional comforters.

Division of labor is rampant to the extent that when one talks about “nurse”, people would immediately think of a woman, on the other hand, the word “soldier” conjures the image of a man. Women spend more time on household chores than men and these are mostly the non-pleasant and obligatory duties that are performed in isolation. This is a factor that increases the level of stress among most women in the United States. However, when men do household chores, this tends to be the infrequent and optional tasks; these are more likely fun-filled activities such as playing with children or cooking for fun.

On account of gendered division of labor in crop production, men and women have different roles to play and this ranged from one region to another and on different communities too. It is usually men who do the plowing while women concentrate on weeding, applying of fertilizer and harvesting. Additionally, men tend to concentrate on large scale farming with highly mechanized tools while women tend to concentrate more on subsistence farming that deals with the locally available materials and tools.

Theoretical Concept of Gendered Division of Labor Gendered division of labor is deeper than words, thus an explanation is needed to explain why women tend to do some jobs while men concentrate on others. There are various theoretical frameworks related to the issue of gendered division of labor. According to Coltrane and Adams (2007), nature is a symbol that is used to decide on the kind of work that a person can concentrate on. Thus, biological and religious arguments suggest that according to the physical nature of women, they are designed to take care of children and husbands.

As a result, they are automatically supposed to take care of housework to ensure that their husbands and children are comfortable. In line with this, functionalist theorists argue that women perform expressive roles in the family while men concentrate on the instrumental roles, which is a family requirement that may be found outside the family institution. Economy is seen as another factor for gendered division of labor. In this case, there is the ideology that while men monopolize paid work located in offices and women do housework, there is maximization of the efficiency of the family as a unit.

The family will get its basic requirements and at the same time, there will be a peaceful coexistence with the home well tendered to by the woman in the house (Kimmel, 2000). In addition to this, education and income are seen as contributory factors to gendered division of labor. Therefore, women end up doing work that is concentrated in the home because most of the time, women have lower education qualifications compared to the men, hence their time worth in the economic market may be less compared to the men’s (Kimmel, 2000).

Critical Analysis of Gendered Division of Labor Gendered division of labor has been in existence for a long time. Women have been denied the opportunity to seek cooperate employment even in situations when they desire to do so and have the necessary qualifications. This is all as a result of the belief that the society has that women should take care of the home while men battle it out in the cooperate world. However, this should not be the case, women just as men should be given the opportunity to pursue their passion.

Moreover, some women may revolutionize the cooperate world if given the opportunity to do so. They may come up with ideas that may propel the organizations that they work for to new levels. On the few occasions when women are given the opportunity to work, they are restricted on the subordinate duties; this includes secretarial, editorial and clerical positions where they are simply subjects, following the instructions that they are given. Men are assigned the dominant roles that are bent more on authorization and decision making.

Due to this, the potential talents that the women denied such opportunities have remained untapped. The whole organization ends up losing on this opportunity for self improvement and development. Division of labor based on gender affects the developmental process of the whole community. When women remain holed up at homes while they could use the time doing other activities that would generate some income, the whole family becomes affected. The extra income that the woman would have earned would have improved the general standard of living of the whole family.

If the whole society decided to let women take labor roles that they wanted to and were capable of, the whole society would get to development levels that are progressive. Cultural inclination is one of the reasons behind the existence of gendered division of labor. In most societies, women were supposed to be submissive to men and this is what has extended to our society today. Women are expected to take roles that put them under the guidance of men. Women who tend to get aggressive and strive to venture into disciplines that are considered men’s domains are always seen rebellious and going against the societal norms.

However, with women empowerment bodies coming up every day, more and more women are venturing in careers in leadership, politics and managerial duties as opposed to what used to happen earlier. In conclusion, gendered division of labor has been in existence for long, with men concentrating on political, economic and leadership roles while women are relegated to household and domestic jobs. This is an unfair practice that inhibits the societies’ utilization of the potential that women have. The existence of gender divided labor roles should be stopped and people of all sexes should be given the opportunity to pursue what they feel they can do well.

References Coltrane, S., & Adams, M. (2007). Division of labor - contemporary division of labor. Retrieved on 17th April 2012 from http://family.jrank.org/pages/408/Division-Labor- Contemporary-Divisions-Labor.html Kimmel, M.S. (2000). The gendered society. London: Oxford University Press Peoples, J., & Bailey, G. (2011). Humanity: An introduction to cultural anthropology. Belmont: Cengage Learning.