How Do Gender Roles Affect Families

Google defines gender roles as “a set of societal norms dictating what types of behaviours are generally considered acceptable, appropriate or desirable for a person based on their actual or perceived sex” (Google, 2015). What this means is that gender roles were created to describe how the majority of society believe a specific sex should act. Just because someone believes you should act a specific way does not mean you need to base your life around it. When talking about gender roles and their influences on family life people tend to believe that it either has a huge impact on their lives and within their household or it does not faze them at all. What is a family? Today the definition of family has many different meanings; it can be defined as a nuclear family, a blended family and many more. …show more content…
Each person within a specific family has their ideal roles that they play out on a daily basis. Two of the most common gender roles people hear about are how men should be the breadwinners of the family meanwhile women are suited to stay at home and take care of the children and the household. Gender roles have impacted family life in a tremendous way and it can be seen as either positive or negative according to who is talking about it. When looking into gender roles you can find them anywhere, some of them are the found within the workplace, society, and the media. These three aspects show some of the biggest gender role stereotypes to date. Do you want to be put into a box and be told what to do, or do you want to live your life the way you wish? People can choose to step into line and follow societal norms or they can step outside of the box that was created for them and fight to have their own