Gender and Work Roles in Society - Essay Example

Mom and Dad have changed. Moms today are many things to many people. Mothers have always been the ones that are responsible for making decisions related to the children and the home. Now fathers are accepting some of that role and Mom at the same time is accepting and appreciating some of the outside role of work. The changing role of Mom today includes career, home care, education of the children, healthy living for the family, as well as the expectation that she will remain healthy by caring for herself.

Fathers have learned to do the things that were only for women to do as well as juggle family and home. It is not unusual today to see a Dad going down the street with a backpack full of baby downtown. Mom may be at work or she may just be out with the girls. What a change. Researchers have noted two particular trends in this generation of young workers. Young women are looking for more responsibility in their jobs, not less. That is the opposite of what was true in the 90's as women chose to have less responsibility in their jobs.

The second is that young women do not see motherhood as a deterrent to having a career. Today women with children and women without children view their careers in the same way. (Milkie, 2007). Young working men are spending more time with their children on work days than ever before, as well as sharing household duties. Milkie, (2007) informs us that according to the results of her study, women, though still having some difficulty negotiating family demands and work are in general feeling a sense of success in that balancing act.

Their imbalance comes from marital unhappiness in the fact that they feel they have no time to share with their spouse and time is missing when their children are young. Men on the other hand feel that their time is unbalanced by what they perceive as unfairness in sharing housework, and the tradeoffs they have to have at work to be able to be home for family. In all of the studies reviewed, both genders report better role balance when they have a greater amount of time for their children. Women feel that the balance is greater when they are paid better and less financial strain and when they have to work fewer weekends.

Workforce Research The past 35 years have been greatly affected by the change in the workforce and family. In today's families over 64% of married couples with children under 18 and 58% of married couples with preschool children are dual earner families (Corwyn & Bradley, 2005). Research shows that as this process has progressed the gender role lines have become very grey and men and women are learning to share roles quite well. It consistently gets better. Survey in the 1990's versus those now have changed drastically in the way women and men juggle their responsibilities.

Children surveys show that more and more often there is an expectation that both parents will work and that there will be times when only one parent is home. Most of the research now shows that men and women report that they have mush more in the way of gains from the changes in lifestyles than in losses. They feel that there is more money, a positive