Gender Stratification in Today\'s Society,

Gender Stratification

In today's society, women are found as abundantly affluent in every social and professional area as men. Women are among the top executives of corporate America, in strong leading political roles, doctors, educators, lawyers, and every other professional sector throughout our country. These achievements are the result of many years of overcoming unfair and discriminatory suppression. As recent as the 1960's, women were strongly discriminated in most of the areas that they now excel. Women were once subjected solely to the duties that have incurred the definition of a homemaker. Women were expected to stay home, raise the children, prepare meals and keep the home clean and organized. It has only been during the last two to three decades that the typical stereotypes and considerations toward women and their sociological positions have changed entirely. The expected 'house-wife' has now come to take on the figure of what was once solely considered as the role of a man. It is these drastic changes; the remolding of women's roles in society from 20 to 30 years ago to today, that direct the focus of this report to provide the understanding for how women have reached the point they now have.

Survey:

Through interview 10 different individuals of various backgrounds and current situations, I was able ascertain a further awareness of the different avenues by which people have come to perceive the role of women. The subjects for this survey were divided equally in half - 5 women, and 5 men. The men all consisted of a Caucasian descent with the youngest age at 22 to the oldest at 71. Three of the men are married, one engaged, and the other living with a girlfriend. The women were also all of Caucasian descent and ranged from 24 to 68. All of these women except one were married. The one woman that was not married was living with a long time boyfriend. These subjects are all acquaintances of mine, and were reached via email. Each of the subjects is college educated and either working in a professional field or fully integrated into a professional career. Furthermore, the subjects are all of heterosexual preference.

The subjects were each asked to describe themselves in terms of both their professional status and their personal conditions. Secondly, the subjects were asked to indicate their responsibilities in reference to a series of domestic chores, agendas, and other such related activities. The subjects place their responses on checklist that they were provided. The checklist, consisting of the domestic aspects, gave them the option of assigning which responsibility was theirs or their partners - more specifically; the male or female.

The options were: cooking, laundry, lawn care, dishwashing, bathroom cleaning, taking out the garbage, and other basic cleanliness-based responsibilities. The subjects were also asked to indicate according to whom took the most care for the children in terms of school help, comforting, and other such areas. For this part of the questionnaire, only 2 of the men and 3 of the women had children and were able to respond to the indications in this section.

Results:

The results of the survey concluded a very interesting trend among the women as compared to the men. All of the women associated the majority of the domestic responsibilities as equally done, except for the oldest. The oldest woman indicated that the majority of the domestic responsibilities were taken on by her and her alone. To the contrary, the men all indicated that the domestic responsibilities were, by majority, held by the women (I'd be interested in hearing their partners response). The average percentages went like this:

Cooking - Men 25%, Women 45%, Both 30%

Laundry - Men 35%, Women 40%, Both 25%

Cleaning - Men 25%, Women 25%, Both 50%

Taking out the Garbage - Men 70%, Women 10%, Both, 20%

Lawn Care - Men 95%, Women 5%, Both 5%

Child related scenarios - Men 25%, Women 30%, Both 45%

These percentages were based upon each subjects own determination of themselves. Considering the ratios, it would appear that there still lies a certain amount of domestic responsibility leaning toward the females. The males appeared to continue doing the heavier responsibilities, such as mowing the lawn or taking out the garbage. These ratios would almost lead one to believe that there are a lot of the stereotypical roles associated with each gender. However, I would stand firm in believing that these ratios are likely to be much more offset as compared to the same survey if it were taken 25 years ago. The fact that these subjects indicated that the men were more likely to take out the garbage or mow the lawn might make someone who is highly sensitive and exaggerative toward bigotry, claim that the women are just as capable of doing these things as men. but, when asked why these areas were predominantly done by the males, the subjects provided some interesting information that should be considered. Both of the tasks - taking out the garbage and mowing the lawn - are activities done outside of the home. They indicated that the taking out of the garbage is done primarily at night. and, as men are nearly 98% less likely to be raped than a woman, several of the subjects indicated that probabilities and dangers like this are what prompt the males to take the responsibilities of such duties.