Introduction
The paper adopts feminist theory to explore gender roles in the family and work dynamic. It also discusses the issues women face in society, whether negative or positive. Understanding the etiology of the concerns and remedying gender-related stereotypes remains a huge concern. Acknowledging the need to change the current dynamic is essential since it will go a long way in eliminating past negative feelings. In contemporary life, there is a need to address gender role concerns in the family and work context to better the future of others, especially the women of this world.
Traditional Family and Work Dynamics Viewed Under Feminist Theory
Feminist theory is a concept drawn from sociological conflict philosophy that argues that society is in continuous battle between women and men. The feminists believe that society is patriarchal and that it is anchored in the disparities between women and men. Moreover, the concept details that men dominate society while women remain oppressed (Hooks, 2000).
The theory also postulates that patriarchy results in gender inequality, making men have more status and sweeping powers than women (Hooks, 2000). De Beauvoir (1949) used the master and slave analogy to describe women as persons who depend on men and act as their slaves. In the book, he states that men and women have not shared a society based on equality (De Beauvoir, 1949). Traditionally, family dynamics have been very conservative with expectations and responsibilities, but feminist theory challenges these gender roles.
Therefore, analyzing the nuclear family, the conventional family structure composed of a heterosexual married couple with one or many offspring using the feminist model, shows underlying challenges that have existed for years. In many scenarios, traditional gender roles might contribute immensely to the family structure, where the husband is known to be the breadwinner (Cerrato & Cifre, 2018). The wife is expected to remain home, nurture the children, and perform household chores. From the feminist perspective, the traditional nuclear family concept is harmful and problematic to women and challenges the family in socialization and gender roles.
Traditional Nuclear Family Expectation and Socialization
Feminists concur with new right theorists and functionalists that the nuclear family brings fundamental functions. Nonetheless, the resemblance ends when feminists do not view the performed functions as constructive. According to feminism, the nuclear family tends to prepare children to embrace certain personality traits and characteristics that adhere to traditional views of gender roles, which benefit men rather than women (West & Zimmerman, 1987). For example, young girls are urged to remain submissive, passive, non-confrontational, and polite, while boys are encouraged to be competitive, assertive, and dominant. Moreover, children are trained to have masculine qualities, as demonstrated in boys, since feminine characteristics seen in girls are not admirable (Cerrato & Cifre, 2018).
According to the feminist theory, such socialization starts in the nuclear family since children receive early orientation from their parents. In this process, girls and boys are trained to understand that such dissimilarities are biological and unavoidable (De Beauvoir, 1949). Gender socialization is reinforced and strengthened by other factors such as education. For example, boys are urged to adopt masculine themes while girls are anticipated to study subjects professed as feminine.
In the context of the work environment, the differences have also been reconstructed, especially in adulthood. Women have suffered to get into mainstream employment due to gender role expectations as envisaged in the traditional family concept (Hochschild, 1989). Women have been subjected to difficulties in getting employment or being incorporated into male-dominated roles due to the perceived urge to preserve the roles of men in society.
In most traditional family settings, women are urged to remain at home, take care of the children, and organize the daily household chores without subverting this identity (Butler, 1990). Moreover, hiring administrators might also be cautious about engaging women in leadership roles if they trust that the male counterpart would intrinsically perform better in such positions (Cerrato & Cifre, 2018). Instead, managers might recruit women for feminine-inclined roles such as secretarial duties, where they will address other needs and adhere to orders. Therefore, the family is the ground for enhanced socialization that subjugates women.
Gender Roles
The socialization that happens within the nuclear family assists girls and boys in assuming gender roles. Moreover, they are informed that gender roles are natural divisions based on biological variances such as women and men. Various beliefs and cultures have translated into societal gender roles (Butler, 1990). For example, it is believed that men are competitive while women are not, making males go-getters and breadwinners.
The traditional gender role concept reduces women to housewives since they cannot perform well in stressful and fast-paced environments. Women are also believed to be concentrated on children’s nurturing, while men may avoid having hands-on roles in children’s nurturing. The same belief shows that women should be mothers who must focus more on fostering children since they are best at doing such work (Hochschild, 1989). The examples show how entrenched views can transform and designate gender roles for women and men.
In the context of family and work dynamics, gender roles tend to underpin the idea of patriarchy since the responsibilities are designated to benefit males rather than women. This happens because women are dejected from working, compelling them to depend financially on their husbands, while men get great opportunities to develop and grow their careers (Hochschild, 1989). Women assume the burden of childcare and housework, even if they work, showing that they receive fewer opportunities for leisure and rest while men relax after work (Hooks, 2000). Women are also expected to nurse sick and elderly relatives, making them have more home-related activities while men focus more on work.
Gender Stereotypes
A gender stereotype refers to the generalized preconception or views about characteristics, roles, or attributes that should be performed or possessed by men and women. The concept is difficult when it constrains an individual’s capacity to grow their abilities, make life choices, and pursue professional growth. From the feminist theory perspective, gender stereotyping is regarded to be a considerable issue hindering women’s career progression, especially in the realms of management (Hentschel et al., 2019).
For example, a continuation of low participation and representation of women in high-level management shows the issue’s depth (Tabassum & Nayak, 2021). Most studies have focused on the sex stereotyping of women with under-researched work on its causes. It is vital to identify and understand the key elements that cause gender stereotyping relating to women’s work dynamics.
From the feminist model perspective, it is apparent that stereotyping occurs in various contexts to facilitate functions demanded by such situations. In many instances, multiple roles are accomplished by stereotyped feelings reflecting diverse motivational and cognitive processes (Tabassum & Nayak, 2021). The rise of stereotyping can be comprehended as an aspect of simplifying the requirements of the perceiver, allowing the observer to react to the previously kept knowledge in place of new information. The perceiver also responds to various environmental aspects, such as diverse social responsibilities, differences in power, and group conflicts. Stereotypes can also extenuate the status quo and respond to social identity.
Gender stereotyping is unjust, especially when it leads to abuses of fundamental freedoms and human rights. For instance, the failure to criminalize marital rape by remarking that women are known sexual property of men. Another example may include a lack of investigation, prosecution, and sentencing of individuals perpetrating sexual violence against women by arguing that such victims consented to sexual acts. Unjust gender stereotyping is a common cause of prejudice against women (Hentschel et al., 2019). Moreover, it contributes to ruining numerous rights such as education, freedom of speech, and adequate standards of living, work, or marriage.
The consequences of engaging in gender stereotyping of women are apparent regardless of the type of position a woman holds in any organization. However, it is more striking when leadership or managerial positions are considered (Tabassum & Nayak, 2021). For instance, Tabassum and Nayak (2021) illustrate that female and male respondents concur that prosperous leaders have traits frequently linked to men, such as competitiveness, leadership ability, self-confidence, aggressiveness, and desire and ambition for responsibility.
Contrarily, women are related to qualities regarding the sympathetic handling of others. These include affectionate, friendly, helpful, sympathetic, soft-spoken, gentle, and kind. Women in boardroom positions might be considered token females instead of serious board members.
Women face various challenges due to gender-associated stereotypes, and these can be distressing. For instance, Tabassum and Nayak (2021) demonstrate that women’s major associations with business are through the enterprises linked to their fathers or close kin. The inclusion process into the family business is attained through birth rather than by choice.
Despite the requisite exposure of women to entrepreneurial practices, they are still considered inept in becoming successors in such businesses (Tabassum & Nayak, 2021). Furthermore, the traditional nuclear family attitude poses huge threats to women’s career progression since the conventional arrangement does not permit them to seek work beyond household chores and nurturing children. Such patriarchal ethos generates masculine work settings where women in leadership tend to venerate ‘men as leaders, leaders as men’ while women managers are compelled to bow to patriarchal working culture.
Intersectionality Approach
Intersectional feminists believe in the scarce focus on the connection between male dominance and other aspects such as religion, class, and race. Intersectional feminism reasons that other forms of feminist theories presume all females are oppressed in the same manner in the family. Different philosophies, such as black feminism, maintain that it is essential to deliberate ethnic and racial dissimilarities between a group of women (Davis, 1983).
For instance, White women and Black women in nuclear families might share certain things in common, but the general experiences might not be identical. For example, in previous centuries, women of African descent living in poverty performed informal work to support their families. However, White women ailing from economically empowered backgrounds stayed at home. Therefore, this shows that their solutions and interests for gender equality are perfectly different. Apart from the nuclear family, other family structures and types might be less tyrannical for women and encompass single parenthood.
Family and work are closely related; this association changes based on race and gender. Most studies on family-work inequalities have focused on a few indicators, such as the connection between wage gaps and marriage and parenthood. However, single-outcome views disregard how economic, psychological, and social aspects correlate with single events such as unemployment and how they impact other aspects, including family situations and succeeding in employment (Fasang & Aisenbrey, 2022). Family and work are dynamically connected in manners that can compensate for or reinforce the challenges across life spheres.
The intersectional approach to the concept of gender in work and family dynamics also helps to comprehend the situation and immensely contributes to understanding the causes of inequality (Fasang & Aisenbrey, 2022). In most circumstances, inequality studies focus on the rights of dominating groups and emphasize the alleged shortfalls of marginalized groups. The intersectional concept does not recommend obliterating the most privileged group but suggests being complemented with other complete, whole group-wise comparisons. Intra-categorical approaches give subjective encounters with intersectional groups.
Free Labor
Another scenario in which family structure tyrannizes women is by offering free labor, which is extremely unequal and unappreciated, making it hard for the group to pursue its ambitions and goals. The division of labor, as outlined in the nuclear family, creates two layers of roles, with males dominating the process and females concentrating on domestic chores, such as cleaning, cooking, and other voluntary jobs around the house. Based on the conventional gender roles, women conventionally performed the duties of homemakers, mothers, and housewives, performing all domestic chores. However, in current society, women constitute about 50 percent of human capital yet continue to perform most domestic duties and nurture children (Hook, 2000).
Hooks (2000) reasons that since women manage every house chore and childcare, their input is the greatest. Contrarily, men contribute the least yet stand to get the largest share from the structure of the nuclear family. The situation shows that men exploit women, evidenced by unpaid labor offered by the free services.
Similarly, house chores are complex and thankless for women, and the free labor arrangement favors men. From a feminist perspective, women rarely get a break since housework and childcare roles are continuous throughout the day, while men have jobs that end in a specific period of the day. Even when women get a job, they are expected to come home and handle the chores and children, while men relax after work.
Lott (2015) affirms that part of the women’s role is to offer emotional care to their husbands to motivate them to continue working. Lott (2015) also points out that women are anticipated to appreciate and acknowledge their husbands’ accomplishments and success, though the reverse is not projected of men. Women are also required to support their husbands, relax, and destress, often by submitting themselves sexually.
In contrast, the Warm Bath Theory postulated by Talcott Parsons urges that the nuclear family serves as the warm bath for their husbands to come home after work. Dennis Marsden and Jean Dunscombe coined the phrase ‘triple shift’ to demonstrate women’s roles in the nuclear family, such as housework, emotional labor, and childcare (Lott, 2015). This happens since although women constitute approximately half the staff, men do not constitute half the job relating to child nurturing or housework, showing that women are still overworked.
Decision-Making
Since men are considered the head of the household and the breadwinners in the context of a nuclear family, they have higher chances of dominating the decision-making process. In many instances, it ranges from selections such as the holiday destination, type of car to purchase, type of house to build, and more. Moreover, women are restricted from making certain big decisions regarding the family since this is left to the husband, who is the breadwinner (Butler, 1990).
Contrarily, women are anticipated to make more decisions regarding the daily organization of the house, such as buying household appliances and groceries and supporting children with homework. Ferments posits that the structure of the nuclear family does not favor women in decision-making and that men tend to dominate such undertakings. The same is reflected by men being assertive and women being non-confrontational (Hochschild, 1989). The situation gives men the leeway to have hegemony in decisions in their respective households and the different levels of society. Women should not challenge the decisions men make at any stage.
Through the lens of feminism, it is apparent that such actions are retrogressive and deny women fundamental freedom of expression and ventilation of ideas that can be part of the decision-making process. The need to realize gender equality in all household and societal activities remains the top concern for feminist supporters (Butler, 1990). The urge is even more urgent in modern society, where opportunities should be merit-based and not anchored in the traditional concept of gender roles that lock out women in deserving positions.
The progress that women have made dropping the shackles of gender stereotypes should be compensated with equal and just representation in any societal undertakings. At the same time, considerable progress has been made in recent decades, evidenced by empowerment programs and the integration of women in leadership positions coupled with involvement in many aspects of society; much more needs to be attained. This will go a long will in ensuring women attain the required levels of a match to counter the patriarchal society and remain competitive.
Conclusion
In conclusion, present-day life necessitates addressing gender roles issues in the family and work setting to better the future of women globally. While feminist theory provides an internally varied and occasionally divisive set of concepts, emphasis on dissimilarities can obscure essential areas of agreement. The feminist perspective agrees that male supremacy within nuclear families is a component of the broader patriarchal society, and it is neither inevitable nor natural and happens at the cost of women.
Feminists recommend a just and equal society and not one anchored in the traditional view of gender roles as depicted in nuclear families and work environments. The theory reasons to challenge the traditional family concepts to reconsider the overall inclusive view of gender roles at home and the workplace. The feminist perspective not only offers an analytic basis for the situation but also provides meaningful engagement that aims to deliver approaches to free society from misogynist and sexist structures of oppression and inequality.
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