Each partner would seek to fulfill his or her perceived role. In actuality, many homosexual couples do adhere to basic elements of traditional roles within relationships, wherein the partners fulfill reciprocal roles. However, in many cases, homosexual couples don not define their respective roles as rigidly as do most heterosexual couples.
Within heterosexual relationships, the obvious effect of maintaining traditional gender roles were more than evident throughout American society until relatively recently. Men would always fulfill the role of financial provider, women would rarely work outside the home and would be responsible for maintaining the household. Women would be less comfortable initiating sexual relations and both men and women might even consider it shameful for a woman to enjoy sex as much as a man is expected to.
9. What are the differences in the way men and women interact when discussing conflicts?...
Also, whereas women tend more naturally to approach conflicts with a diplomatic attitude, men are more likely to perceive any problem raised by their partner as an insult or as a challenge to their ego or authority. As referenced earlier, in relation to intimate relationships in particular, men are likely to choose partners (unconsciously) and to instigate conflicts (also unconsciously) that mirror some of the very same conflicts they experienced with their mothers.
Consequently, men often react to their wives by ignoring their requests the same way they ignored their mothers until the intensity of the issue escalates to become a conflict. Finally, men are more likely to approach any conflict as an argument that must be "won" or "lost" whereas women genuinely seek a solution without regard to who was "right" or "wrong."
