Changing gender roles have brought stress to many people-
to men
who have had to give up rights and power and also
to women. Women
who grew up in an era when being a good
mother and housekeeper was
a sufficient goal are troubled
to find that society no longer regards this as
enough.
Genreally, the changes in gender roles mean that both women
and men must add new roles, while retaining many of their
traditional
obligations. For women, the remodeled gender
role may appear in the
superwoman complex. Each woman is
expected to maintain a well-kept
house, prepare elegant meals,
and have cheerful and clean children; she
must belong to
the PTA, be a room mother, and have a successful career.
There is a parallel in the postfeminist superman role: Each
man is supposed
to have a successful career as well as be
a gourment cook, a sensitive lover,
and a dad who begins
a life of total involvement with his children by going
to Lamaze classes and staying in the delivery room.
In the short run, the increasing role demands on both men and women
may create role strain, a feeling that too much is being demanded. In the
long run, many expect that changed gender roles will produce more well-rounded
human beings. The greater flexibility of gender roles may increase
our freedom to choose the roles that we play well and that suit our interests.
It would be a mistake, however, to think that the past has been swept
away. In many respects, continuity with the past is much more important
than change. This is especially true at home. The kids and the house are
still largely her responsibility; breadwinning and the lawn are his
responsibility.
The lack of responsiveness of family roles to the other changes is a
source of frequent conflict in American marriages, and the family is increasingly
being identified as the most critical frontier for women's equality.
In fact, it may be in the family that gender role stereotypes
are the most resistant to change, where women physician
and typists are equally unable to override expectations that the children
and household are their responsibility and that their husband should assume
the dominant role in interaction.