Gender Issues

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate July 2001

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Men and Women, and especially husbands and wives, need to have equality in their marriages and relationships so that their commitment can last forever.

Many women today are being torn apart by the conflicting ideas of what they should be according to the standards of the society they were raised in and what they believe they could be according to their own vision. As women are becoming less and less satisfied with simply being a mother, they begin to expand themselves into the workplace.

In the past the woman held the role of a mother and a caretaker, making sure that the family's internal needs were met. She also maintained the majority of the daily household chores. The society in which women were raised in the past, and to a lesser extent, today, tells them that they need to stay home and take care of the family; in essence, devote themselves to making their husbands happy.

But what about making themselves happy? Many housewives begin to feel bored and unimportant because every day, they do the monotonous jobs of housework and child care. (with no release from it).

The work that they do at home is not equally valued to the work of the husband at his paid profession; neither by society, nor the husbands themselves. In turn, these women do not have equal power within the family to make decisions. The fact that household work is not being acknowledged as valuable and important , and that women are not being recognized for their contributions, has caused women to become unhappy with the role of housewife.

Long hours, no salary, isolation, boredom, and being assigned child rearing duties enforces the feeling that women are placed in the subordinate position. Wives are dissatisfied and emotionally injured by being constantly told...