User:RBondy/Gender Role

Social & Economic Consequences

Traditional gender roles assume women will serve as the primary caregivers for children and the elderly, regardless of whether they also work outside of the home. Sociology scholar Arlie Hochschild delves into this phenomenon in her book, The Second Shift. This "second shift" refers to the unpaid work women take on in the private sphere -- housework, cooking, cleaning, and caring for the family unit. Economically, this restricts a women's ability to advance in her career due to her added (unpaid) responsibilities at home. The OECD found "Around the world, women spend two to ten times more time on unpaid care work than men." In 2020 alone, women provided over $689 billion in unpaid labor to the U.S. economy. Lee and Fang found, "Compared with Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asian Americans took more extensive caregiving responsibilities."

Across all demographics, women are more likely to live in poverty compared to men. This is largely due to the gender wage gap between men and women -- the Institute for Women's Policy Research found, "Equal pay for working women would increase their annual average earnings from $41,402 to $48,326, adding $541 billion in wage and salary income to the U.S. economy." The gender wage gap is largely racial -- in the U.S., American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) women, Black women, and Latina women disproportionally experience poverty and larger wage gaps compared with White and Asian women. Women are also more likely to live in poverty if they are single mothers and solely responsible for providing for their children. Poverty among single working mothers would fall 40% or more if women earned equal wages to men.

TO DO:

Update the lead to reflect the additions!

(Already published) Article body - edits to intro (removing "sex role", adding language about intersections on race, socioeconomic status, and ability, adding to the feminist section).
A gender role is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person's gender. Gender roles are usually centered on conceptions of masculinity and femininity, although there are exceptions and variations.

The specifics regarding these gendered expectations may vary among cultures, while other characteristics may be common throughout a range of cultures. In addition, gender roles (and perceived gender roles) vary based on a person's race or ethnicity. Studies show, for example, that black women are less likely than their white counterparts to conform to gendered roles and expectations.

Gender roles influence a wide range of human behavior, often including the clothing a person chooses to wear, the profession a person pursues, and personal relationships a person enters, and how they behave within their relationships. Although gender roles have evolved and expanded, they traditionally keep women in the "private" sphere, and men in the "public" sphere.

Various groups, most notably feminist movements, have led efforts to change aspects of prevailing gender roles that they believe are oppressive, inaccurate, and sexist.