Gender Roles

Gender roles are the roles that society assigns to men and women based on their gender. They especially influence relationships between men and women.

Gender roles have been changing in Western society in recent decades, and generally have become more flexible. However, traditional gender roles still have some influence.

For example, it used to be expected that men would experiment sexually before marriage, but that women would not. Women who went against this expectation were considered "loose" or "fallen" women, while men who went against the expectation were considered less than manly.

Years ago another expectation was that women were supposed to get married and stay home to raise a family. The man was expected to go out to work to support his family.

If the woman chose to have a career, she was considered "barren" or "lacking in maternal instinct", and her partner was often considered inadequate, as it was assumed he was not a "good provider Obviously, things have changed to some degree. Today there is more sharing of family and household responsibilities, and both males and females are working in less traditional careers, e.g. we have both male and female nurses, firefighters, engineers, dentists, etc.

In the sexual arena, however, things are still not as flexible as they might be. Many people still expect the man to take responsibility for initiating and ending sexual activity and for carrying a condom. Women are expected to be less sexually aggressive than men, even though we know that women's sexual feeling can be just as strong as men's.

How do gender role expectations affect you? Do you feel free to be passive if you're a male or aggressive if you're a female? Do you feel comfortable bringing out a condom? Do you feel there are some things men or women shouldn't do sexually?