Compare and contrast men and women in taking responsibilities - Essay Example

Compare and Contrast Men and Women in Taking Responsibilities In terms of gender, men and women differ from each other in variety of behaviors. Men and women are different in taking responsibilities in their life. They have different responsibilities and handle them differently. Some of these differences are constant and some are not; some have changed in the past and some will change in the future. Different life stages, beginning from the childhood to the old age, gender differences and their way to look at responsibility are different.

Children and teenagers: Most of the children and teenager have the responsibility of helping parents, studying, maintain the family living area, taking care of younger ones, etc. It can be seen that in most of the cases both male and females take almost equal responsibilities. In general, boys try to help and follow their fathers in work outside the house such as cleaning the lawn, cars, and girls help and follow there mothers in cooking, maintaining the house, taking care of the younger ones etc.

Responsibilities of adults: As adults men and women take up several responsibilities such as family responsibility, parental care, caring for the elder people, working towards the financial security, and above all the job responsibilities. Men and women have different outlook towards these responsibilities and handle them differently.While men compete for powerful positions, women are concerned with developing personal relationships and helping others. Men value gaining status by following "the rules," i.e. achievement over attachment.

Where as women value being sensitive and maintaining good relationships, i.e. they give preference to attachment over achievement. Men are considered to be physically stronger than women. As a result, the physical duties of a household always seem to be a job for the man of the house (Rhoads, 2004)1. On the domestic front, while women have taken on an increasing role in providing income to their families, men have not taken up their share of responsibility in family life. Responsibility for children, in particular, is still seen as belonging to the mother.

Studies say that fathers spend about a third as much time as mothers in providing direct child care (Interactive population center, 2005). Parental care is one of the most important issues concerning the society today. In general it can be seen that men take active role in parenting by providing for more of the physical needs of the child rather than the emotional needs, such as providing good education, materialistic needs etc. Mens commitment to their children is a key to the quality of family life and the prospects of the next generation.

Women play an active role in providing for the emotional need of the child and less towards their physical and materialistic needs. For instance, they take active role in teaching children, looking into their personal hygiene, feeding them with good nutritious food etc. Men provide financial support to the elderly parents/relatives. However, in most of the cases they fail to give quality time due to their hectic professional involvement. Though most of women are also into jobs and do provide financial support to elderly people, women are better care takers than men.

In most of the families a large percentage of women are forced to work outside of the home. The family needs their income for financial support2. Men contribute less towards educating the future generation. Women contribute more towards teaching and inculcating values in the future generation. Men are more responsible with respect to profession of job. They spent most of the time in their practice. Since they have less involvement in the domestic activities, most of the men excel in their profession.

Women have taken on an increasing role in providing income to their families through their jobs or profession and also looking into the basic needs of the family. In today’s world many of the women take equal responsibilities both in the home as well as outside. In contrast men are more towards working outside the home and take less interest in the household activities. Though there are exceptions that a few men are taking responsibilities at the home, majority of them still do not take much responsibilities at home.

Hence, in my view the role and responsibilities in today’s women has increased when compared to men. In most of the cases it can be seen that women are more responsible both in taking care of the home as well as excelling in outside work.ReferencesUnderstanding Ourselves and Our Relationships. 16 December 2005. Ketchum.com, 16 December 2005. Rhoads, E.S., Taking Sex differences seriously. 2004 Interactive population center, 19 December 2005