Question about the lack of respect for traditional gender roles?

Question

..Recently I have been thinking about the absence of respect that both men and women have for their innate biological gender roles. I don't mean to turn this into a post- feminist spring board question, but I think what we're seeing is a generation that not only does not know how to pick up their newly recieved responsibilities (i.e. having two working spouses) but also lack the knowledge of how to pass on and live up to their innate responsibilities (there are innfinite examples of these innate responsibilities I could point out here but the two that jump out to me personally are the nurturing that only a mother can provide a child, and the sense of duty and respect that fathers have always had the uncanny ability to instill in their children)...I am young myself and I have noticed that young people today seem to lack these things that really, I thought, came naturally....What is going on?

Answer 1

First of all, your question contradicts itself. "Gender" refers to the socially defined categories of men/women or bory/girl, as compared to "sex" which refers to the biological categories of male/female. "Gender roles," by definition, are socially established roles or norms defined by society. Therefore, we are not born with gender roles, but we do have sex traits.

In addition, your reference to "traditional gender roles" suggests that you are referring to roles which have changed over time, suggesting that these are not biologically determined roles, but simply social norms you have become comfortable with. If they were biologically determined, it's unlikely they would change so easily with the changing tide of social life.

What is your evidence that fathers can not nurture, or that mothers can not instill a sense of duty and respect? I have known many nurturing fathers and many mothers to teach duty and respect. Often men or women don't pursue roles that are not encouraged, but that doesn't mean they can't.

Answer 2

I REALLY don't think those things "come naturally".
Me and my husband are a working example of how gender does not equal a specific responsibility. We both work, I pay the bills, he cooks, etc.
He's the more nurturing one, and I'm the hard@ss. I think saying that father's have an "uncanny ability" to instill "the sense of duty and respect" to be just weird. How about all the dead beat dads and absent fathers or fathers who are abusive, druggies, etc.?

Answer 3

add: and its not about respect its about evolving.

Modernization happened and things changed. We need to adapt better than we are currently, though. Listen, I was a stay-at-home mom for four years and my husband was the sole bread winner, in those years, as agreed by us, until our youngest turned two. It was quite...isolating and sadly undervalued in the world in which I live, to tell you the truth.

Now that I work almost full time, he does more "mothering" and I am making money contributing to our income to maintain our middle class life in NYC (very expensive here) I am also creating for myself a means to fall back on should something unexpected happen. As women are no longer private property thank the gods we need to protect ourselves and our children from an unforeseen future.
I am constantly in a state of influx or discontent about my job, my creative pursuits and how much time to spend with my children and family, but this discontent is more of a reflection of the larger world, than my personal situation. I am not at peace completely, but the answer is not returning to "traditional" values as we can never go back nor do I want to.
But we can move forward by creating nu values for a nu world maybe even revisit a traditional truth that it "takes a village to raise a child" and everyone can play their part.

Answer 4

Have you read George Orwell's 1984? If you read that book and others of the kind, you will know; simply, the Government at all levels in all countries is gaining a stronger and stronger grip on people's lifes. Take the IRS and the "marriage penalty". In simple terms, two single people living together, each with his/her own income, will pay a lower income tax than if those two were married. The same thing applies in so many instances, such as welfare, foodstamps, etc. The Government (all of them) encourages lawlessness, encourages people of moral weakness, etc., because these kinds of people are easier to control. Mao Tse Tung learned that by destroying family life he could control the population of the most populous country on earth. That's what it is all about. Upset the apple cart (tradition) and you can control the situation.
Now they claim that girls do better in math. They claim it is because girls are smarter or that they finally have a chance to be themselves. The truth is, when people are constantly put down, as "white" "males" are (ever seen a sit-com poking fun at any other groups?), they lose confidence and do not perform as well.

Answer 5

After reading the others' posts, I once again see people trying to give examples by mentioning extreme cases. Of COURSE there are bad parents out there, relax, this is a very sociological question and it isn't aimed at anyone in particular. I agree with the poster 100%. I believe women should have equal rights to the fullest degree, but women are men are NOT equal. We have different brain chemistry, think differently and sure as heck act differently from one another. To the person who brought up the nature vs nuture argument, you gave a very biased opinion. For every case study you give me regarding nurture I will throw two back at you about nature. I do believe that women have a special bond with their children (if we were equal sexes men would carry the baby 50% of the time, no?), and men generally instill duty and respect in their children. This is fact in most cases, and to the poster...I think about this all the time. In fact, my partner and I have spoke about it more than once and he's with me about it; neither of us are sexist but neither of us can stand hardcore feminists who have no ground either.

Cheers!

Answer 6

What kids need to realize is that people should only be single parents — or, for that matter, have children at all — if they can afford it. That's the real issue here. After that, as long as it's legal, parents can raise their children however they want.

Answer 7

Well obviously, if these instincts were true then the feminist movement never would have happened. Nobody wants to spend their lives taking care of children (that will eventually grow up and leave them anyways) when they can be creating inventions and traveling.

Answer 8

Do not worry. Nature has still not changed, only fashions have changed and fashions are costly.

Answer 9

Mildly put, we are all caught up in our own quests, it is no wonder somethings have been allowed to slip on the way side. It is no wonder there is a great mix-up. The right hand no longer knows what the left hand is doing.

Answer 10

Alisha took the words right out of my mouth. lol. I totally agree with her.