Attitudes Towards Women: How Modernization Has Transformed Culturally Defined Roles - Essay Example

In present time, women are climbing the corporate ladder and carrying out responsibilities like their male counterparts (Jensen, 2009, p. 137)1. This paper discusses the finding of a statistical study on the modern day perception of women’s roles between two different age groups to arrive at a conclusion on what changes have occurred over the years with regards to this perception. Introduction In this study, we question a population sample of 22 people in ascertaining their attitudes towards women in the society.

They go through the Attitudes towards Women Scale (ATWS) test which gets responses from them on six critical areas which encompass all issues regarding gender parity. These include: access to education, employment, training, equal property ownership rights and freedom to engage in all other social activities men enjoy for instance, drinking and smoking. The questionnaire investigates their levels of agreement, and not a yes or no answer, on how they perceive women behaviour in a family and entire communal setup.

These rights, freedoms and women roles are changing, with countries coming up with legislations protecting women freedom in the constitution. With increasing awareness over the recent past, women have liberated themselves from culturally defined roles by continuous advocacy which makes them have equal opportunities with men. However, the pace of attaining gender parity is still slow in some countries with stiffer laws limiting participation of women in education, economic and social circles. Equal opportunities lead to rise of modern, educated and independent women who have property ownership rights and are free to engage in commercially viable activities (Beere, 1990, p. 91)2. Figure 1: Women at work An American feminist Mary Wollstonecraft argues that men and women have the same abilities to perform any tasks assigned to them.

She also notes that it is the society, through its cultural and traditional beliefs which shape gender roles. This is true because the roles women play differ from place to place depending on the beliefs of the community she is in. Other scholars differ with her perception stating that there are biological differences that make men able to handle strenuous duties and not women (Sharma & Sharma, 2006, p.14)3. Materials and methods A quantitative method was adopted to investigate these topical with the help of questionnaires.

A sample of 22 people (11 men and 11 women) gave their reactions on what they perceive of women behaviour and responsibility in this modern world. The sample is from two age groups (18-25 and 26-40) the first batch represents the young and vibrant members of the society with new mindset on what the roles of women should be. The second are elder members of the population, some of whom experienced archaic cultures which restricted participation of this group in overall societal development activities.

They then undergo the ATWS test which is a list of 25 questions that investigate their responses to different women issues. The results are then fed to a statistical analysis program which gave accurate information about feedback from the two age groups; the output is thereby presented in a graph which shows sex against estimated marginal means for the ATWS score.