Gender Roles Within The Social Sciences And Humanities

Gender Roles in Marriage Brandon Smith Georgia Southern University Gender Roles in Marriage Gender roles are defined as a theoretical construct in the social sciences and humanities that refers to a set of social and behavioral norms that, within a specific culture, are widely considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex. Gender roles differ between different sets of cultures but it is widely accepted that gender roles reflect the expectations that go along with being male versus female. Two words that help to describe the traits that are expected from men and women are: masculinity and femininity. Men are expected to be masculine which entails being strong, competitive, independent and the hiding†¦show more content†¦Traditionally in the United States there has been a widely accepted set of gender roles that occur within a marriage. These roles include the man being in charge of financial responsibility as well as the one of authority and the woman being a homemaker and the primary ca regiver. It is common belief that men should make the key decisions and have the upper hand in power over his wife. Many studies have been taking and there has been evidence that gender role expectations within a marriage can affect couples. The first way is that these typical expectations can serve as goals or a structure that a couple can shape or guide their marriage towards being. The other way is that they can cause a â€Å"counterfactual† occurrence in which partners compare what has happened in their relationship to what could have happened. As time has gone on studies show that the majority of males believe that spouses should share the breadwinning, that men should take on a bigger share of housework and that a wife’s job does not interfere with her ability to be a mother. This provides for a modern shifting of gender roles within a marriage. The shift in gender roles that is most common is the sharing of power within a marriage. Power is defined as stable potential influence in a dyadic relation between two persons. John R. P. French and Bertram Raven have described five different types of