Non Traditional Gender Roles

Gender roles continue to exist in many areas of life starting from birth, being wrapped in either a pink or blue blanket. After delivery, the people who give gifts always ask the gender of the baby, even before asking how it 's doing, and then select a gift based on the answer. Gender roles were obvious back in the day, for instance, "Husbands and fathers acted as the primary breadwinners and heads of the household, while wives and mothers cared for the home and children, and children benefitted from expanded notions of the importance of childhood and a carefree youth" (Morin 437). In a child 's toddler years, they are given specific toys that encourage them to act like their gender in practice for adulthood. Even at school children learn from …show more content…
Back in the day, like way back, women weren 't exactly allowed to get an education. In fact, it was considered to be rather masculine. Thankfully, during that time there were women who thought this traditional gender role was ridiculous and decided to stand up for themselves, which is how we, as women, are allowed to get an education like men. One of the women that stood up for women-kind was, Mary Wollstonecraft, author of "A Vindication of the Rights of Women". This draft is simply about how women in her time were depressed and denied in society. The men thought that women should be kept innocent, like a child, and taught nothing other than feminine skills. However, Mary thought differently as she protested, "Children, I grant, should be innocent; but when the epithet is applied to men, or women, it is but a civil term for weakness" (Wollstonecraft 312). Mary agrees that to some extent, children should be kept innocent, but the same just can 't be said for women. She believed there comes a time for all humans to start thinking of themselves and that parents should prepare their children for this day. While she admits that much, she also admits that the result of a person depends on the society they live in. So, all education should make a goal to make an individual as independent as …show more content…
Again, Mary Wollstonecraft challenges traditional gender roles in "A Vindication of the Rights of Women". She critiques the work of a guy named Dr. Gregory, who wrote a book on how he raises his daughter, and is a supporter of traditional gender roles. First of all, the man makes his daughters dress nicely because it 's "natural" for women to like dresses. Mary finds this strange and adds her comment, "It is not natural; but arises, like false ambition in men, from a love of power" (Wollstonecraft 316). Here we can see that she 's explaining how women do like to dress nicely, but only because "looking good" is where women get their power in