Changing Roles of Men and Women in Families in Britain over the Past Half Century - Coursework Example

Write a report on the changing roles of men and women in families in Britain over the past half century. For much of the long history of human civilization women and men evolved to assume different roles within the family and larger society. But in most societies, women were made to take a subordinate social and domestic role to men. This situation has gradually changed in the last fifty years and there is more equality between the statuses of the two sexes. Two important circumstances have made female emancipation possible. Firstly, as works of female authors started to get published, societies got exposed to the feminine perspective on various subjects. Secondly, events such as the Second World War had radically altered women’s roles by bringing them out of their homes and into factories. The women suffragette movement that took place in the early decades of the 20th century and the Women’s rights movement of the 1960s were also instrumental in bringing about substantial change in the status and role of women (Allan & Crow, 2001, p.21). These changes were not restricted to Britain, but have occurred simultaneously in many countries, especially in West. While the role of women has seen remarkable change over the last half century, the same cannot be said of the role of men. Some of the specific areas where gender roles in Britain have morphed over the recent decades are discussed in this essay. There is no doubt that women have steadily taken a prominent role in the workplace and that their participation in it has increased gradually over the last five decades. Half a century back men were deemed the sole bread-winners for their families and women were confined to domestic work and bringing up children (Morgan, 1990, p.15). But today’s Britain is a far cry from what was the case in 1960s. Since the circumstances of the Second World War forced women into taking up roles that were conventionally restricted to men, there has been no looking back in terms of their economic independence (Davies, 2004, p. 260). Previously, women had to put up with abusive husbands due to their economic dependency on the latter. But as more women became financially independent, their freedoms in regard to interpersonal relationships also grew. It should be remembered though, that despite possessing equal professional qualifications, work experience and skill sets, most women tend to get paid less than their husbands (Walters & Avotri, 1999). For example, we find that despite progress in many areas, the gender wage gap is a clear-cut sign that women still have some way to go before achieving an equal status to their husbands. What is worrying about the persistent gender wage gap is the fact that women don’t feel as indignant about this issue as they do in other areas of inequality (Allan & Crow, 2001, p.21). In addition to this, British culture and history have stereotyped what comprise feminine qualities. The following observation from research team of Chichilnisky et. al. further elucidates this point: “notwithstanding the fact that today's women and men share the same starting point for becoming equally productive in both the home and the workplace--current beliefs about earnings may be "historically biased" in favour of stereotypes. This reasoning leads us to argue that persistence of the gender wage gap in developed societies can possibly be explained by a self-fulfilling "history bias" in beliefs.” (Chichilnisky et. al., 2008, p.299) But beyond the “history bias”, there are other factors that contribute to gender wage gap within the family. While the absolute percentage of women participating in workforce has increased, the stereotyping of feminine qualities has restricted the domains in which they could specialize. As a result, women and men are segregated occupation-wise, where there is wage-disparity between occupations. There is also disparity between women and men of the same age-groups due to the fact that the former lose a few years for maternity and child-rearing which holds back their career’s progress. So while economic opportunities for women have expanded and consequently their roles within the family have changed since the 1950s, it has not propelled women to a state of equality with men today. (Walker, 2005, p.32) We can learn useful insights about gender roles in Britain by studying the foundation, organizational structure and other facets of the British Association of Barbershop Singers (BABS) – a popular musical organization that has worked with leading charities during the last half century and has also given performances in leading media outlets such as the BBC. The BABS is almost exclusively comprised of men, and the quartet music that is its highlight is sung by four talented men vocalists. When BABS is compared with its equivalent organization Ladies’ Association of British Barbershop Singers, we see that both these associations conduct elections to pick their executives and administrators. The elected members in turn report and give an account of their activities to a national council. Duties such as serving as judges in musical competitions, offering musical education, are taken over by another music team – the Music and Judging Committee in the case of LABBS and Guild of Judges in the case of BABS (Garnett, 1999, p.115). Both of these barbershop organizations print and distribute newsletters, retail sheet music and release albums. The importance of this symmetry in organizational structure and functioning is that “it departs radically from a conception of separate spheres that characterizes them not only by gender but by social space. While the nineteenth-century formulation of the term mapped a distinction of public/private onto the gendered realms of activity, this twentieth-century reworking of the model takes its terms much more at face value by constituting both genders' activities in the public realm of institutionalized regulation”. (Garnett, 1999, p.116) Hence, from the evidence gathered from the working of BABS and LABBS, we can infer that women enjoy more freedom and higher status both within and without the institution of family than was previously the case. But one should detest from drawing broad generalizations based on this evidence alone. For example, it is true that British women, being citizens of an advanced economic and industrial nation, have gained advantages over their counterparts in other nations. But it would be misleading to believe that the attitudes of British men have changed at all in the last half century, when compared to how men in other cultures view the role of women. For example, it is true that “Middle Eastern women are beaten for wearing un-Islamic clothing; Afghan women are abused and disenfranchised with or without the Taliban; Pakistani women are suffering domestic violence, including acid attacks and so-called ‘honour crimes’. If conventional discourse is to be believed, the front line in the ongoing struggle for universal women's rights lies in the world's poorest, most patriarchal and least democratic nations” (Walker, 2005, p.32). It is then argued that in countries like Britain, where the standard of democracy is high and citizen enfranchisement is advanced, women do not generally undergo discrimination, violence and abuse that their less privileged counterparts suffer. But scrutinized properly, it seems that the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and the rights won as a result of it, has given a sense of complacency and a misplaced sense of satisfaction to women (Allan & Crow, 2001, p.23). The truth is less rosy than this as indicated by Amnesty International reports. Of all the advanced nations, the UK, the USA and Japan are striking examples of misconceptions about women’s liberation. For example, according to an Amnesty International report, “abuses of women's rights in the developed world are occasionally reported fully and accurately--as in Amnesty UK’s campaigns on domestic violence--but in general they are portrayed as isolated incidents and contrasted with widespread repression in the developing world...whereas in truth, they demonstrate that abuses in developed and developing countries are linked” (Walker, 2005, p.32) This brings us to a key reason that has thwarted greater progress for women’s station in family during the last fifty years, namely deeply rooted sexual anxieties and insecurities of men. As scholars Werner Kierski and Christopher Blazina point out, one of the core reasons for the continuation of a subordinate role for women are men’s psychological fears of the opposite sex. What has been termed Fear of the Feminine (FOF) has been studied for close to two centuries now. But it was psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud who articulated clearly and at length some of these fear (the fear of men losing power over women expressed as ‘castration fear’). Later psychologists such as Horney refined and expanded this conception to account for men’s “dread of women and how this fear left men’s sense of masculinity on unstable ground” (Kierski & Blazina, 2009, p.156). Carl Gustav Jung is said to have emphasized the importance of the feminine in his definitions of healthy and unhealthy masculinity. Further, FOF is also observed on a more socio-cultural level, affecting the roles of both genders. The phenomenon is said to emerge from entrenched patriarchal social models and/or fears of feminine underlying the origins of misogyny. Moreover, “Pielow (1998) refers to the feminine qualities living deep within the psyches of men as demonic forces. O'Neil et al (1986) widely used Gender Role Conflict Scale (GRCS) is theoretical built upon the FOF, men's gender roles being derived in large part by the avoidance of those thoughts and behaviours seen as unmanly and connected to women. Nietzsche expressed his FOF clearly in his classic work, Thus Spoke Zarathrustra, by letting an old women offer the following advice to a man: "You go to women? Do not forget the whip!" (Kierski & Blazina, 2009, p.158) Since the phenomenon of FOF is deep-rooted in men’s psyche, socio-cultural aspects have little effect on its manifestation. In other words, British men are as likely to exhibit this kind of thought and behaviour as other groups of men in the rest of the world. As a result, British men have found it difficult to assume new roles within the family during the last half century. Their attitudes and behaviours have essentially remained the same before and since the 1960s. In conclusion, it is apt to say that there have been remarkable transformations in certain aspects of women’s role in the family and society. Their status within the family has greatly improved, with more women contributing economically while also managing to do household chores. Ever greater number of women are working and earning a living since the 1960s, although their earnings tend to be less than that of their husbands after adjusting for qualifications, skills and experience. But there is still room for progress for in this regard. What seems to hold back women from attaining that potential is a mixture of two factors – complacency and male psychology. During the last five decades and for centuries prior to that, the psychology of men with regard to women has remained nearly constant. What is succinctly termed as Fear of the Feminine has ensured that men have retained their conventional roles within the family during the last five decades. Although some men have adjusted well to the changing economic and socio-cultural realities, it is seldom done voluntarily. There seems to be reluctance on part of men to accept their insecurities with respect to sexuality, which has hindered them from assuming family roles that are unconventional and unexplored. This situation has created an atmosphere of tension and dysfunctionality in contemporary British families, leading to greater divorce rates and single-parent households. References Allan, G. and Crow, G. (2001) Families, Households and Society(Sociology for a changing world) London: Palgrave. Chichilnisky, G., & Frederiksen, E. H. (2008). An Equilibrium Analysis of the Gender Wage Gap. International Labour Review, 147(4), 297+. Davies, M. (2004). Correlates of Negative Attitudes toward Gay Men: Sexism, Male Role Norms, and Male Sexuality. The Journal of Sex Research, 41(3), 259+. Garnett, L. (1999). Separate but Equal? Sexual Politics in the Barbershop. 28. Kierski, W., & Blazina, C. (2009). The Male Fear of the Feminine and Its Effects on Counseling and Psychotherapy. The Journal of Men's Studies, 17(2), 155+. Morgan, D. (1990) ‘Issues of Critical Sociological Theory: Men in Families’, in Sprey, J. (ed) Fashioning Family Theory London:Sage. Walker, R. (2005, November 28). 'The Front Line in the Struggle for Women's Rights Appears to Lie in the Poorest, Most Patriarchal, Least Democratic Nations. in the West, It Has Been Won': . or So We Are Led to Believe. the Truth Is More Complex. Developed Countries Hardly Offer a Good Example in Their Treatment of Women-And in Fact They Help Make Things Worse. New Statesman, 134, 32+. Walters, V., & Avotri, J. Y. (1999). "Your Heart Is Never Free": Women in Wales and Ghana Talking about Distress. Canadian Psychology, 40(2), 129+. Read More