Men and Women’s Roles in a family

Men and Women’s Roles in a family

Family is a very important concept in every culture. People throughout history depended on families. Men and women cooperate with each other and play different roles in a family.

In tradition family, definite gender roles existed between men and women. The man worked at an outside job for the family's income, fixed the family car and did the manly "handyman" jobs. The woman stayed at home, cared for children and cooked and cleaned. “Men’s work centers around outside, women’s work centers around the home” described the traditional Chinese family roles exactly. They had a clear division of work and worked together. However, in this relationship women had a lower position than men. This was an obvious manifestation of the inequality between men and women.

In recent decades, with the globalization and the cultural exchange, the family roles of men and women in China have changed dramatically. In modern Chinese family, the husband and the wife almost have the equal position. Women also have their own jobs and will not be driven to stay at home. And househusband becomes more and more popular in modern China. This is the positive aspect. However, in many cases, women who work full time are still perceived as having the primary responsibility of caring for the children and home. If one of the children is sick, the mother leaves the office to pick up the child. Women still do more housework than their husbands, although men now do more chores than their fathers did. It’s hard for women to balance work and family. It is clear that in a family the roles of men and women are not sharply separated. However, roles should be clearly identifiable. Individual family members must know and acknowledge their roles and responsibilities. Establishing clear, flexible roles is a key to successful family. Only in this way can we enable the family function steadily and keep the society run effectively.