how gender roles impact us...

 

Gender roles is one of the norms which is observed world-wide irrespective of the culture, region or ethnicity. It is basically behavior learned by an individual gender to act in a certain way determined by the society. These norms have influenced in wide range of human behavior including the clothes we wear, the profession we pursue, the way we act or think and numerous other ways.

According to these norms, women are expected to be gentle, compassionate, accommodating and emotional. Women are supposed to be the caretaker of the family, look after the children and serve the house. Whereas, men are expected to be responsible, aggressive, competitive and physically imposing. Men are supposed to be the head of the family and fulfill financial needs.

These entrenched roles often make feel one of the gender weaker and lower human development outcomes. It also results in loss of human potential, with cost of both the genders. Most individual feels caged to the responsibility and roles the society had entitled us with. These toxic stereotypes are one of the root causes of discrimination and abuse among the gender and often result in violation of human rights. Both the genders are affected by these discriminant roles the society has entitled us to.

We live in society where females are considered as the weaker gender in spite of having so much potentials. Where, females are trapped in the house to serve the family. Where, basic human emotion crying is considered as unmanly. Where, pink is considered as the feminine color while blue is considered as masculine all though it is so silly to judge someone on the basis of color they prefer. Society often shame us if we do something the opposite gender is expected to do like a man being a chef or a woman being a mechanic. We need to ask them is this all us youngsters need? Constant shaming, judgement and hatred. The answer will be definitely no.

However, comparing the situation of the past our society has become less orthodox. These roles are observed to be diminishing. Our generation is breaking all these norms and creating a better place to live on. There are still some things we need to make a change on like equal pay and opportunities for women. Men are often villainized before detecting the real reason.

Most of us start to accept these norms from our family, schools and other. Eradicating these norms, will leads to equal opportunities to both the gender and our overall development of our society. We all can contribute a little by making a change starting from our families. Educating our younger siblings/cousins/friends about these situations and changing their mindsets. A little initiative will result in great impact to eradicate these norms. Soon our society will be free from these toxic stereotypes.