The beginning of this project was a bit rocky. I had to change my topic because of complications with my original idea. I eventually came up with the idea of interviewing different generations about the presence of traditional gender roles in their youth and in their current lives. In discussing gender roles, I am referring to “feminine and masculine social expectations in a family based on a person’s sex” (DeFrancisco and Palczewski, 2007, pg. 155). I was expecting to find stricter and more sexist gender role stereotypes in interviews with older participates. I was surprised to find that traditional gender norms were also present in the childhoods of younger interviewees.
I centered my project on two concepts. One is family a social institution. Traditional gender roles stem from the idea of the nuclear family. It is “composed of two parents (one male and one female) and biological children, with the male as the primary wage earner and the female as the primary homemaker (DeFrancisco and Palczewski, 2007, pg. 155). Even though the nuclear family is not ideal, it is still the stereotype of what a family should be. The nuclear family also makes it seem as though there is only one type of family, when in reality, even the term “family” has a unique meaning to each individual. With today’s high divorce rate, there are many single parent families. One of my interviewees mentioned this. Below is a clip from an interview with 62 year old Wesley Brown Jr. from Omaha, Nebraska on March 24, 2012. *Wesley chose not to be videotaped.
The nuclear family creates gender stereotypes of the way men should be and the way women should be. This is where gender as a social institution becomes relevant. Men are thought to be the breadwinners, work outside of the home, be dominant. Women on the other hand should be the ones to stay home to keep house and take care of the children. These gender role stereotypes put in place the idea that both men and women should be able to live up to these ideals. The demand to abide by these ideals is called a gendered social script. They are “the rules that people carry around in their heads about what they ought to be like as men or women (straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, or intersexed) and what others ought to be like as men or women (DeFrancisco and Palczewski, 2007, pg. 155). The majority of the people I interviewed said that their parents followed stereotypical gender roles. Many of their mothers did the household duties while their fathers worked. Some interviewees stated that both of their parents worked. Even in the cases where both parents worked, they still saw their mother as the primary homemaker. Below, 21 year old Megan Pohl from Columbus, NE discusses her family’s division of work when she was younger in an interview on March 24, 2012.
It was not surprising to me to find out that both parents of the people I interviewed worked. In the United States economy, it is hard to find a job that pays well enough for only one parent to work. I think with these restrictions, gender norms have to be broken. Maybe this will make way for generation who does not grow up with traditional gender norms.
It was interesting to interview people from other countries. I was not expecting this to happen. One of the people I interviewed, Wesley Brown Jr., happened to know the three international participants. It seemed as though traditional gender roles were even more prevalent in their families than in the United States. The international interviewees did not understand what traditional gender roles were, so I had to explain. Their English wasn’t very good, so that was another obstacle that had to be overcome. Through their interviews, I learned a lot about family dynamics in other countries. Below is a clip from one of those interviews. (I didn't think to have them write their names down, so I have no idea how to spell it. I added the clip where he states his name. He is from Beijing, China.)
This project has taught me to open my eyes to the presence of traditional gender roles. I had never thought too much about women being stereotyped as the housekeepers while men were the wage earners. I realize now that I can make a conscious effort to break these norms in my own family. If I were to do this project again, I would ask the people I interviewed what norms are present in their own families. By this I do not mean their parents, but with their husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc. I wonder if the gender roles one grows up seeing affects what roles they fill in the families they eventually make.
References:
References:
DeFrancisco, V. P., & Palczewski, C. H. (2007). Communicating Gender Diversity: A Critical Approach. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications Inc.
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