Women were economically dependent on their husbands, as they usually gave up work when they got married. Women had less power inside and outside the home.
Gradually they were allowed access into previously denied educational and occupational opportunities, if they wanted to pursue these personal goals.
Men were the sole bread-winners. They were also the disciplinarians, which meant women had even less power.
‘Father’ worked hard, demanded respect and obedience from his children, and saw little profit in personally involving himself in their nurturance. The image of father was a role model. About 1969, Social Learning Theory posed the father conceptually as the role model for masculine traits in their children. Sons learned to be men from their fathers, daughters learned to want this type of man for boyfriends and husbands (Bandura, 1969; Skolnick, 1992).
30 years on there has been a lot of progress for women, for example equal wages, which is because of the legal pay act, which has in turn led to there being much more women in the workforce. More and more women want to stay on at education, as the subjects are the same for males and females, and there is much more emphasis on expanding careers. The popularity of marriage has plummeted as women now have higher expectations.
Another important reason for women to be able to go to work is the help of nurseries and the increasing improvements of child care, meaning women can still have children and now careers as well.
Other changes have occurred in the last 30 years, such as the outlawing of rape within marriage, the outlawing of child abuse and the legislation of abortion, which makes it more socially acceptable and gives women a lot more choice and freedom.
Men’s roles have changed in the sense that they are no longer the sole bread-winner, at least not in the majority of households today. Both salaries are just as important as the other, as families now need more money to suit their lifestyles of today. Families are consuming more; therefore need more money, thus making the role of the women in the family just as important as that of the man’s.
They also do more domestic labor- although it has been argued that men still don’t do an equal amount of domestic labor. Much research has indicated that there is a clear gender division of labor in household tasks.
In order to compete in the new global market place, Britain at present needs a more flexible workforce, with most people working; again nurseries help to ensure the mother will be working. Women are needed to actively work. But women are still expected to rear and
socialize the next generation of workers at the same time (triple shift theory).
Different perspectives will suggest that change has occurred in differing amounts. They will also see change as occurring for different reasons, for example feminists will say that it was the rise of their movement in the 1970’s that caused changes, whereas Marxists would suggest change has occurred to meet the needs of the economy and bourgeoisie.
The roles of the men and women are becoming just as important as one another, thus their roles are becoming more intergrated conjugal roles.
