The Evolution of Gender Roles

Source: Wikipedia Commons / Helicopter WikiWorld by Greg Williams / C.C. Attribution ShareAlike 2

Cultural lag is an important concept from sociology that affects a great many people in our current cultural landscape. As originally defined, it is when there are differences in the rate of change between different groups within a society. For example, if one group adopts a new technology more quickly than another group, this can lead to a gap in knowledge and understanding between the two groups.

It clearly happens when the culture evolves and begins to demand a more individualistic way of being and relating to others. This process was well described in historical terms by Erich Fromm in his classic book, Escape from Freedom.

Confusion Over Gender Roles Still a Common Issue

This phenomenon has created a great many problems in our society. A big one is internal confusion and ambivalence about gender roles, which often leads to marital squabbles among other things. It also seems to cause parental guilt over not being there for the children as much. This guilt may be the reason for the marked increase in so-called helicopter parenting, as parents try to assuage their guilt by trying overly hard to protect their children from any and all adversity.

The old cultural mandates about such things as having children and independence from family have been internalized by members (who follow a series of rules about these areas). In turn, if everyone follows the rules, the family functions smoothly—called family homeostasis. This can be highly adaptive—when the rules within a culture are fairly clear. When these rules evolve, many families literally can’t keep up with the changes, and their family rules and the resulting behavior become maladaptive in the larger society. Cultural changes are happening more quickly, leaving more and more families in the dust.

Rapid Cultural Changes Lead to Problems

In the not-too-distant past, women were not allowed to vote, serve on juries, or own a credit card. Within my lifetime, women started to join the workforce in large numbers, oftentimes in jobs women in the past only thought about performing. The feminist movement has led to a more egalitarian society, but the old ways still gnaw at many people.

One extremely common pattern: With household chores, many of the prior divisions of labor between wives and husbands remain stuck in old patterns. People may read about how easy it is to have it all, when in fact in today’s culture this is often next to impossible for middle and working-class women. We also have feminists on one side denigrating stay-at-home mothers, while on the other are preachers telling women that they are harming their children by not being home with them. At the same time, many employers are asking for more and more time from employees and could not care less about childcare responsibilities. This is a factor in the parental guilt mentioned above.

Childcare and Employment Difficulties

Mothers even now are, in general, more responsible for children than male parents. While some of the differences in income between men and women who are doing the same jobs are indeed due to ongoing sexism, some of it is because many have to take care of the kids. Therefore, they don’t work as many hours.

My understanding of this was supported by a study that showed that more wives are now primary earners, but still spend more time performing most household chores, let alone childcare, than their spouses. Aliya Hamid Rao, an assistant professor in the department of methodology at the London School of Economics, is the author of the study. She found that most husbands spend less time on housework even when the wives were earning as much or more than they are. In fact, this research shows that in more marriages today than ever before, men still spend more time at work, relaxing and socializing and less time mopping floors, cooking dinner, and picking up kids from school than their spouses.

Most of the time when we talk about gender equality, we focus on the workplace where women are sharply underrepresented at the top, face discrimination in hiring and promotions, and are paid less for the same work. But gender disparities don’t just happen at work, but continue to be difficulties when people go home.

Statistically, the share of women who earn as much or more than their husbands has tripled over the past 50 years, In about a third of marriages, 29 percent, husbands and wives earn roughly the same. In 16 percent of marriages, wives are the breadwinners. But housework and caregiving responsibilities are still widely considered women’s work.