Sex, gender, and sexual orientation

Gender roles

Although America is not as seriously sexist as many countries in the world, there are still certain expectations concerning sex-appropriate behavior. Some argue that gender roles are based on tradition and that the divisions of labor between male and female marriage partners are necessary because dividing household tasks into women’s work and men’s work is functional for society. Others argue that traditional gender roles prevent women from competing economically with men because men attempt to maintain their sociocultural and socioeconomic power. And some believe gender roles begin in the family setting where children, through the socialization process, learn what roles are appropriate for girls and boys.

The second shift

Arlie Hochschild and Anne Machung, in their 1989 book The Second Shift wrote:

women [working outside the home] averaged three hours a day on housework while men averaged 17 minutes; women spent fifty minutes a day of time exclusively with their children; men spent twelve minutes. On the other side of the coin, fathers who work outside the home watched television an hour longer than their wives, and slept a half hour longer each night.

In other words, women who work outside the home have two jobs; an eight-hour shift at their place of employment and then another –6-hour shift at home, and this has not changed since the book was written!

Rosie the riveter

For the United States of America, World War II began on December 7, 1941, which was a Sunday. By 8:00am the next day, tens of thousands of men and boys were lined up at their draft boards to enlist and fight the enemy. As the number of men entering the military grew, the number of industrial and factory workers was rapidly depleted. At a time when very high levels of industrial production were required, there was a dearth of men to fill those crucial jobs. The answer to the dwindling industrial workforce was to hire women to do men’s jobs. Tens of thousands of women heeded America’s call, took off their skirts and aprons, put on blue jeans and work shirts and went to work building ships, planes, jeeps, tanks, weapons, and a variety of other industrial products needed by the war effort and by the civilian population. The name given these women was “Rosie the Riveter.” Rosie the Riveter became the symbol of women working in jobs that had traditionally gone to men, but in 1945, when the war ended, the Rosies laid down their rivet guns and welding torches, replaced their blue jeans with skirts and aprons and went home to welcome their men and have babies. By the mid-1960s, these women were beginning to get restless. The most recent modern women’s movement, which largely coincided with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, had begun and women began to enroll in college, and to enter the workplace in unprecedented numbers. Although these women led the way for all the rest of us, their struggle is not complete. Earnings for the same work or level of work still differ for men and women.