Traditional gender roles are a huge headache for women. The constructed roles create many limits for women that only make life harder.
From the time girls are born they are socialized and expected to behave in alignment with societal expectations. They are dressed in pink, with bows, and frilly outfits. As they grow up and reach the age in which they begin playing with toys, little girls are given baby dolls, play kitchens, fake vacuums, etc. While seemingly innocent, these toys actually encourage gender roles. It teaches young girls what activities they are expected to enjoy doing and how they should be an active member in society. The baby dolls and kitchens push girls towards the traditional gender roles of taking care of the children and cooking and cleaning.
As toys turn into reality, it becomes less fun. Women now have career goals that they want to achieve and gender roles often get in the way of this. The expectation for women to be the primary caregivers to their children, causes them to take time off of work and miss out on experience opportunities. This reality for women can also cause a lot of problems in various types of relationships. Women do not always want to be the ones responsible for the care and production of the home. The role should be shared between men and women.
These gender roles are so frustrating for us, women, because it confines us to society’s expectations and when we try to go against them, we are faced with obstacles and scrutiny. On the positive side, these traditional roles have become less restrictive in the modern day, that is not to say that they don’t still exist. Gender roles still affect women and their work, as I mentioned, and their relationships.
The issue is that there is no way to get rid of the gender roles overnight. It requires a change of attitude in society which is extremely difficult because many people, especially men, don’t see the issue as is. Men can often be ignorant or just turn a blind eye. However, we need men to be active participants in trying to eliminate the traditionality of gender roles if we want to make any kind of progress. Because it is unlikely that men, as a whole, will do much to help us, we have to take matters into our own hands. In order to deconstruct these gender roles women have to continue to push the limits that are placed on them. We have to continue to fight towards equality and fight against the grain for our own personal success as well as for the success of females all together.
It took all of history for these gender roles to be constructed and nothing will be fixed overnight. We have to give ourselves grace and time as we try to transform society. This transformation will require a lot of energy and fights and setbacks. For now, we must be empowered.