NCERT NOTES

Elevate your UPSC preparation with NCERT Notes – because every word matters on your journey to success.

Breaking Gender Roles: Tracing the Impact from Childhood Distinctions to Workplace Inequalities

November 24, 2023 574 0

Introduction: Gender Roles and Inequalities in Society

The different gender roles assigned to boys and girls prepare them for their future roles as men and women. Most societies value men and women differently. The roles women play and the work they do are usually valued less than the roles men play and the work they do. Further, inequalities between men and women emerge in the area of work too.

Discrimination Starting at Childhood: Early Gender Roles and Their Impact on Adulthood

  • Gender Distinctions in Society: Societies make clear distinctions between boys and girls based on traditional gender roles.
  • This distinction begins from a very young age. 
  • Example, given different toys to play with. Boys are usually given cars to play with and girls’ dolls. 
  • Early Toy Differentiation: Toys become a way of telling children that they will have different futures when they become men and women.
  • Normalise Behaviour: This difference is created in terms of the smallest and most everyday things.
  • Gender Norms: How girls must dress, what games boys should play, how girls need to talk softly or boys need to be tough.
  • Preparing for Adulthood Roles: All these are ways of telling children that they have specific roles to play when they grow up to be men and women, adhering to predefined gender roles.
  • Impact on Education and Careers: Later in life, this affects the subjects we can study or the careers we can choose, perpetuating the influence of gender roles.
  • Unequal Valuation of Roles: In most societies, including our own, the roles men and women play or the work they do, are not valued equally. Men and women do not have the same status, reflecting deeply ingrained gender roles in societal structures.

Inequalities Between Men and Women in the Area of Work: Examining Gender Roles and Valuing Housework

Valuing Housework
  • Across the world, the main responsibility for housework and care-giving tasks, like looking after the family, especially children, the elderly, and sick members, lies with women.
  • Yet, as we have seen, the work that women do within the home is not recognised as work.
  • It is also assumed that this is something that comes naturally to women.
  • It, therefore, does not have to be paid for. And society devalues this work.
Lives of Domestic Workers
  • Many homes, particularly in towns and cities, employ domestic workers.
  • Most domestic workers are women. Sometimes, even young boys or girls are employed to do this work.
  • They do a lot of work – sweeping and cleaning, washing clothes and dishes, cooking, and looking after young children or the elderly. 
  • Despite the hard work they do, their employers often do not show them much respect.
  • In fact, what we commonly term housework actually involves many different tasks. A number of these tasks require heavy physical work.
  • In both rural and urban areas, women and girls have to fetch water. In rural areas, women and girls carry heavy head loads of firewood.
  • Tasks like washing clothes, cleaning, sweeping and picking up loads require bending, lifting and carrying. Many chores like cooking involve standing for long hours in front of hot stoves.
  • The work women do is strenuous and physically demanding — words that we normally associate with men.
  • Another aspect of housework and care-giving that we do not recognise is that it is very time consuming.
  • In fact, if we add up the housework and the work women do outside the home, we find that women spend much more time working than men and have much less time for leisure.

Work and Home Divided Among Gender Lines in India

 

Need help preparing for UPSC or State PSCs?

Connect with our experts to get free counselling & start preparing

THE MOST
LEARNING PLATFORM

Learn From India's Best Faculty

      
Quick Revise Now !
AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD SOON
UDAAN PRELIMS WALLAH
Comprehensive coverage with a concise format
Integration of PYQ within the booklet
Designed as per recent trends of Prelims questions
हिंदी में भी उपलब्ध
Quick Revise Now !
UDAAN PRELIMS WALLAH
Comprehensive coverage with a concise format
Integration of PYQ within the booklet
Designed as per recent trends of Prelims questions
हिंदी में भी उपलब्ध

<div class="new-fform">







    </div>

    Subscribe our Newsletter
    Sign up now for our exclusive newsletter and be the first to know about our latest Initiatives, Quality Content, and much more.
    *Promise! We won't spam you.
    Yes! I want to Subscribe.