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Gender & Gender Role Changes: We have yet to see if these gender role changes will allow men and women to lead happier, more fulfilled lives both together and apart.
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Gender & Gender Roles Musings on
Gender Roles and Changes in Ways of "Being and Doing"
for Men and Women Life is a series of changes. Changes in relationships, in work, in gender roles for men and women, in families and more. Changes happen throughout our lives. We all know that. We all sought change as young men and women. Yet how many of us became reluctant to change as we age? Let's take the working world as an example. Young men and women have come of age in a business world that seeks cuts, not expansions. They see downsizing and reengineering. They see people who are being laid off or forced into early retirement despite having devoted many years of their lives to the company. They see lack of company loyalty to the employee (this was always true but better disguised) and lack of employee loyalty to any company. We all suspect (know) that real job security comes with portable, ever-developing skills that demand a lifetime of learning and adapting to the new and different. Yet it is usually the young men and women who are brave enough to appear "uncommitted to the job" and to reject long hours and loss of personal life. This is something many baby boomers wanted, but feared seeking. Or take relationships as an example. Young men and young women also have different relationship styles from their parents. |
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They are more likely to equally share the role of parent, homemaker, and caregiver. They also expect to share two incomes. Often the woman's income and/or education surpasses that of the man. We have yet to see if these changes will allow men and women to lead happier, more fulfilled lives both together and apart. Somehow, I'm betting the "younger generation" can pull it off. But what is the younger generation? The younger generation is different for each person, of course, and is based as much on attitudes and ideas as it is on actual age. I am forty-something, young enough to welcome the changes I see, but possibly not young enough to get all the benefits the new definitions of masculine and feminine will bring. I am still part of that "changing and confused" generation of men and women who fuel the divorce rate, think their gender is the "best" and the natural way to be, and sell their souls to the company store. I don't always want this so I strive to open my mind to new ideas and ways of "being and doing." And I celebrate the success of men and women who refuse to live by the old definitions of masculine and feminine. They are truly the future of men and women in relationships. More information about gender and gender roles.
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