http://abcnews.go.com/US/stay-home-dads-dad-mom/story?id=16596365#.UCwKVdBSSRg
In the past, a traditional household were women in families are usually the one staying at home taking care of children while the husband works for money. Women were rarely in the work force, and if there were, they would be discriminated against by having lower wages than the male counterpart working the same job. This was common until several decades ago. Women were making an appearance in the work force more frequently and some even climbed their way to the top of the chain of commands.
As women are starting to earn higher paying careers than men, there has been an increase of stay at home fathers. In this article from CBS, it has been reported that the number of stay at home fathers has more than doubled in the United States in the past 10 years. In one scenario, while Erica Howard Potter works as a tax attorney, her husband Jake Howard Potter stays at home and take her of their 2 year old daughter Skylar. Jake is a sculptor and his daily life involves getting fit at home and changing diapers. The couple does not seem to have any problems with this except the wife tends to feel jealousy towards the fun they are having at home.
I feel that choosing to be a stay at home father is a choice. Although some people feel that it is unethical that a women has to work for money, I feel that as long as it’s in the best interest of the family and if theres no conflict between the couples there should be no problem. It is rational to say that whoever earns more money should be the bread winners because at the end of the day, only money will put food on the table. Although some men might feel they are emasculated, they should put their short term interests to the side and look at the bigger picture.
I agree the role is changing for some family. In the past, women were housewife and their responsibilities are cleaning the house, cooking and babysitter. Men were the only financial supporter of the family because men dominated the job in the past. Mostly only single mother needed to work outside and be housewife after work. Women were tend to be reproduction. In 21 century, things are changed. The society has changing every year and become more open. For example, gay marriage and role-switching between couples are acceptable in the society. In other country, women can be president and become the most powerful women in a country. Women can be lawyer, police officer, firefighter and justice.
In 21 century, women are doing a lot better in school than before. The number of women who receive higher education in college are increasing every year. Better education usuallyhelps to get a better job. Some women who make more money than their husband will most like work and are financial supporter in the family In the story, Erica Howard Potter makes a lot more money than Jake. Their family needs more money for life. Therefore Erica becomes the financial supporter of the family. In some family, grand parents are still alive. Grand parents can be babysitter, do some housework and responsible for other works at home.
However, some men don’t accept to stay home and be housewife. They think men are support to work and make money. Some men even feel embarrassed when they make less money than their wives. Everyone is different.
I agree with you. Someone states people are born sexed, but not gendered, and then they are told how to be masculine or feminine base on culture. However, the environment for our living is changed. Therefore, some traditions have been changed. Now, more and more women go out to work with higher wages than their husbands, why not let their husbands stay at home. Moreover, more and more husbands stay home because they gave receive gender equality from the education, so some men think that take care of kids at home is not the thing that they will feel shame and the thing that unspeakable is. For certain families, the wife goes out to work can better balance family and career. If we look at wages as family income, Therefore who make more money can go out to earn money was nothing wrong, if the wife can earn more than husband, I haven’t feel any bad about let them wife go out and the husband stay at home because more incomes that family earned can improve the standard of living of the family. Therefore, I think which need to consider either the men go out or work, or a woman go out can base on the who can earn more, and another one can stay at home to take care of their children. Overall, I think one day we can decided the person who go out to work not based on the gender but depend on their ability to work.
These traditional roles are definitely changing, but it will still be a long time before people begin to accept this as the norm. As you said, certain men will feel emasculated by the growing representation of women in society. Since women inferiority to men existed for centuries to thousands of years, the acceptance of women as equals will be a lengthy and harsh process. Institutional sexism is also slowing this process. For example, even though men and women are slowly entering occupations that were traditionally dominated by a specific gender, these people may suffer disapproval or discrimination for entering these occupations. A male nurse or female firefighter may experience different interactions with other people than their gender counterparts in the same occupation. The perception that females are supposed to be supportive still exists, demonstrated by the domination of females in care-taking professions like nursing and social work. As long as these perceptions do not change, the biases of traditional roles will be difficult to change as well. Sexism in the workplace is still widespread despite women’s increasing representations. In the bigger picture, the wage gap between males and females is still very apparent. Even though stay at home fathers is increasing, they may still represent only the minority of males. It will take several more decades to see if this trend will actually continue at this rate, but the traditional roles may still hold true as well. Nonetheless, the process of accepting the change in these roles will be difficult.