Gender Stratification Today

Gender does not simply refer to which sex you are, but it rather refers to the traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being either male or female. Gender roles are placed upon someone since their birth weather you like it or not, baby boys are usually always given blue clothing from friends and family, and the girls are typically given the stereotypical pink clothing. But even in babies, color is not the extent of the way people treat them, people tend to act more gently and nurturing when interacting with baby girls, where on the other hand baby boys are usually being bounced on their parents knee, or raised into the air, or other more physical play. This is only the beginning of the gender roles that the children will face, and throughout schooling and after schooling in the real world they will experience similar distinctions depending on the child's sex.

Although the idea of the man providing for his wife, while she tends to the home and children may be an age old way, it is shown that although these gender roles are changing, they still do exist. I can relate to this personally, my family followed the same age old tradition of my father providing for the family, while my mother tended to my siblings and I. But with things like this raise the question of if both men and women want to have these roles, or if they would prefer to break the old cultural norm. A survey asking both men and women if they would rather have a job outside the home, or care for the house and family showed that 76% of men would like to have a job outside of the home, and only 22% of men would like to care for the house and family. These statistics are not really shocking to me, men have typically always had this role and for the most part the men do not seem to be changing their minds on the issue. But on the female side only 51% of women would prefer to have a job outside the home while 44% would prefer to stay at home. Although that statistic is staggering compared to what it would have been 50 years ago, it still shocks me that 44% of women stick to these old gender role norms. But with time i expect these numbers to change, because women in America have only experienced rights for so little time compared to men.

A great example of women proving themselves would be a slide that we had during our gender lecture, showing how women have advanced in marathon times since the women's movement. During the beginning of the women's movement in 1965 the fastest time for a women in a marathon was just under 3 and a half hours, but only 40 years later after women were giving equal rights in regards to physical activities the best time was 2:15:25 over an hour faster in just 40 years this 2:15:25 time was so fast that it beat mens world records well into the 60s. This just goes to show that if equal opportunities are given, gender becomes much less of a factor.