Gender Roles Throughout the Years

Gender roles play a large part on the effects of society. They define where a person's expected place in the community lies. Fortunately, they have changed greatly since the 1950s. At this time, men and women had drastically differing responsibilities. The woman was expected to cook and clean whereas the man was supposed to be the breadwinner. Anything outside of these strict places was looked down upon for either gender. If a man had to stay home with the children while the wife went to work, this would be seen as a negative circumstance. However, today, this is more accepted. This isn't to say that there still isn't a stereotypical "housewife", but it is nowhere near as common as it used to be. Women are more independent and it's not socially unacceptable for a man to have less power over his wife. Overall, gender roles have become more flexible to for today's society as a whole.