Traditional Gender Roles and the Contemporary Reality .
Through the precedent of human history, it is clear that society, with very few exceptions such as the Greco-Amazons, has been a patriarchal system. The central figure head in leadership positions were inevitably men and if it were a female it was always claimed that she rose through the ranks despite being female. But can this system be applied to the current situation in this country? Can traditional gender roles survive in the twenty-first century? The women's rights movement which began with female suffrage has put the prospects of this squarely in doubt.
What exactly are traditional gender roles? The concept of gender roles comes from societal examples beginning from birth, throughout adolescence, and culminating in the birth and rearing of the next generation. Before we are born, mothers have a habit of agonizing whether to purchase pink, blue, or gender-neutral colors. Shortly after the birth of the baby, the father hands out cigars among his male friends and he enjoys a good smoke. During the growth of the child, it is inseparable from its mother as she is the main care-giver. The father is relegated to the background focusing on providing for the family except for perhaps playing with the child upon arriving home from work. During adolescence, mothers help children with their homework and home-make while the father still remains in the background except for rule-making and enforcement and perhaps playing sports with male adolescents. In late adolescence, fathers become very protective of their developing daughters while encouraging their sons" romance life, creating an unacknowledged double standard. As sons and daughters equally develop romantic interests, both mother and father play a more active role in the daughters" relationships than those of the sons. These traditional roles of the mother, father, son, and daughter in the family unit are passed on to the next generation as the daughter and son become mother and father themselves.