Uri Wrt360 Gender Essay

As this course has recently delved into the topic of gender differences I have become far more aware of gender as a whole. In my daily life I pay very little attention to the concept of gender, and yet due to our last posts regarding gender and because I have in this past year been involved in conversations regarding gender roles; I have been thinking about the topic and have come to new realizations. These actualizations involve my own preconceived notions of gender differences and through my personal experiences as I was raised during a period of time, when gender roles are constantly being broken down through a stance of equality. I have grown up in a traditional family more or less and have been subjected to very traditional expectations of gender roles. I am very lucky to be relatively close to not only my immediate family but my extended family as well, and my views on gender roles are very rooted based on this experience. In my own home, although my mother and father seem very equal, I realize there are certain responsibilities which fall upon my father, and other responsibilities which fall upon my mother. This is a similar situation for most of my extended family members as well, where responsibility is split based upon gender. My father for example, is responsible for the family finances and maintenance of our home. My mother's responsibilities have generally been to clean, cook, do laundry, and buy groceries.

My parents (and essentially the rest of my extended family) immigrated from India. India is a country in Asia, which follows a very traditional culture regarding how household tasks are divided. The men of the house are expected to be breadwinners while the women are expected to be homemakers. This is certainly true regarding my paternal grandparents, and yet it has changed in the next generation where my mother is now not only a homemaker, but holds a job outside of the home as well. Gender based responsibilities are still significantly how the order of my home is. My mother is still primarily responsible for cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, and buying groceries, while my father does the yard work, repairs the house and cars, and makes the primary financial decisions. Even regarding myself, and how my parents split the responsibility in raising me, I was required to ask my father for money for school field trips and such, and yet it was my mother who I requested permission from to hang out with friends and other extracurriculars. Although my father makes the financial decisions, he will consult my mother and ask her opinion, upon which she responds whatever he thinks is best. I have noted that when my mother is away, I fall into these traditional roles of making sure my father has lunch and dinner and that the house is clean, although there is no requirement for me to do so. My father often takes him and myself out to dinner in this situation, and my mother has never given me expressed instruction to clean the home in her stead (nor has my father requested it). The only responsibility that I am required to do are dishes (a task primarily undertaken by my mother). As I've grown older, I've come to realize the leaps and bounds each generation has made since my great grandparents regarding the changing of gender associated behaviors. In my great grandparent’s time, they followed a very strict social understanding in gender roles that were very traditional. My grandparents continued to follow these traditions, and yet made minor fluctuations. The changes are even more significant in my parents. After all, would my great grandmother have ever been able to think of her great daughter in law being anything but a homemaker? I think not.

Having to think about gender roles often make me uncomfortable due to my having a set idea of traditional gender roles. My very traditional thoughts on gender are something I often feel embarrassed about when facing some of my friends who are particularly zealous in their feminist convictions, or when last year, I was interacting with a student, who was born with male anatomy, yet felt female. She often felt the need to educate me on my antiquated views and how incorrect they were, and that gender is a perception with stereotypes established by society. This is often evident through my interactions in my workplace. This year I've grown very close to a coworker of mine and have been able to view life through an entirely different viewpoint. My coworker is in her early forties, married, and has four kids. I often times become very aware of how my views regarding marriage and responsibilities are antiquated when conversing with her. One specific conversation that was eye opening was in her indecisiveness in buying a new car. Her husband wanted to buy a new family car, and she did not. She asked my opinion on the matter, and I was unable to provide one, as in my family, the buying of a car was something primarily decided by my father. Other times I realize that I fall into gender stereotypes doing certain tasks during work.