Traditional Gender Roles Essay

The notion of traditional gender roles is a construct that has been engrained in societal structures, both eastern and western, for an extensive portion of humanity’s historical frame. It is commonly held, that men, and women, have specific roles to play within social and societal situations, and as such these roles are defined by their actions. In reference to colonial America, the same notion rang true—men and women held different roles within the community. In particular, women, while considered inferior to men in some regards actually wielded subtle and very blatant power in several social arenas. In Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England 1650 – 1750, there is an in depth examination …show more content…
Her role as deputy husband rests solely with her ability to act as her husbands counterpart so to speak, to pick up where he falls short—Ulrich gives the example of a weaver’s wife who picks up the wool or a farmers wife who plants the corn—she is responsible for the realm of external affairs as it applies to the family; this role can be defined by a sense of surrogacy. The role of Mother is that of a biological role; the woman is thus the bringer of life and as such she is tasked with continuing the growth of the family. She is then a caregiver or life bearer—she is bound by a cycle of pregnancy and rearing that is symbolic of both selflessness and love—this is very much a counter to the male dominated aspect of outward society, a balance to undemocratic male control. Finally there is the concept of the Neighbor. In this role the woman is crucial in the community of other ladies. This is similar to the notion of the social circle; women are crucial in assisting in other “womanly duties” within the community—Ulrich asserts the idea of gossiping and trading, and even assistants of birth (midwifery) and watchdogs for abuse or