heyy ja das kann sein..ich habs gefunden und ich fand ziemlich gut

The concept of gender roles
Gender roles refer to the behaviour normally associated
with men and women. The word focuses on the social and
cultural rather than the biological differences between being
male and being female. So it is impossible to talk about
gender roles without looking at social background, class,
culture, ethnic origin and religion. Most sociologists will
argue that gender differences are encouraged from an early
age through education and that the behaviour of individuals
is a consequence of social rules and values rather than of
biological sex and genetic disposition.


The situation of women in the 19th and 20th
centuries
In the 19th century families were usually large, and in most
working-class households men, women and children had to
contribute to the family income. Apart from this, women of
all classes shared lives centred on explicitly female
concerns. They were expected to take on the caring role in
the family. Despite their economic importance, women in
Britain and elsewhere had fewer rights than men.
In the 20th century the legal situation of women
gradually improved. In 1928 women in Britain received the
right to vote at the same age as men. At the same time,
however, women still faced discrimination at work and in
education. Many jobs were clos-ed to women, and they
found it difficult to enter university.

The feminist movement
In the 1960s and 1970s there was increasing pressure for
equal rights for women. These were the important decades
of the feminist movement. Feminists argued that traditional
gender roles were oppressive to women (for example the
‘stay-at-home-mother’). Feminism fought against gender
stereotyping and the barriers created by it for women in
education and in employment.

The situation today
Nowadays women in Britain make up 51 per cent of the
population and 45 per cent of the workforce. Although
women are still employed in traditionally female jobs such
as healthcare, teaching, secretarial work and retailing,
attitudes are changing, and women have a wider and better
range of job opportunities than in the past. There is a new
generation of young, educated, full-time professional
women who are just as successful and career-orientated as
men. Despite this progress, it can be argued that much still
needs to be done to achieve equality. Women often do not
have the same access to job promotions and their pay is
frequently lower than it is for men.

Changing family patterns
Since the mid 1980s family patterns have changed
considerably as a result of changing attitudes to separation
and divorce. Today 65 per cent of children in Britain live
with both parents, about 25 per cent live in single parent
families and about 10 per cent live with a stepfather or a
stepmother.
As in other European countries, it has become
increasingly common in Britain for couples to live together
without marrying, or to delay marriage for a number of
years. More and more couples decide to remain childless.
Many women face the difficult decision of how to achieve a
balance between an ambitious professional career and
motherhood.

Gender roles and the family
As a traditional marriage and a family is no longer the only
option, many traditional ideas about gender roles have to
become open to question.
There is statistical evidence that the traditional middleclass
view of the woman who stays at home and looks after
the household and the children and the man who earns the
family income is very much out of date. Women continue
to have a major share in childcare and housework, but as
new legislation makes it easier for fathers to take on a
significant role in childcare and household chores,
traditional models of masculinity and femininity have
become less relevant, obsolete or are seen as failures.
Gender roles and relationships
“Men want power, achievement and sex, women want
relationships, stability and love,” as socio-biological
researchers Barbara and Allan Pease put it in their book
Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps
(2001). It is obvious that any generalizing conclusion like
this is very controversial because it is seen to be sexist.
However, a different perception of gender roles and
gender differences can play an important role in how
relationships between women and men work and in what
women and men expect of each other.