Reference no: EM133026346

Topic:

Gender and Family

It could be easy for us to get thoroughly distracted by some very controversial things going on in our society, some "hot potatoes," so to speak, on the topic for this week's chapter, and we could spend our whole time fussing and stressing about those issues which mostly involve a small minority of people. What I want us to do is focus on the broad issues that tend to affect most people or the majority of people. I'm older than most or all of you, lots older than some of you. When I look back across the years on gender I see some major changes that have happened. Many more women are out of the home working in secular jobs. Their role in the workplace has changed significantly. There are some fields in which women are now dominant as far as numbers, such as real estate and banking. It is not uncommon for me to walk into a bank and see the women outnumber the men three or four to one and to see similar numbers in advertisements among sales people in real estate. As these changes have occurred, what has happened at home and in the family? How is child rearing going to be affected? What are role expectations? This is going to vary depending on who you are and where you live. As the textbook said in the summary: "Across societies, much variation exists in how gender is perceived, including the perception of how many gender categories there are. Within societies, one finds multiple versions of masculinity and femininity, and gender experience intersects with and varies across race, class, sexuality, and other social statuses." What is your experience in this regard on how gender is perceived? Name one good change and one not so good change you have seen, if you can think of one of each.