Changed Marriage, Family and Women Roles

In today’s world it is normal to see a father out grocery shopping with his baby girl, or at the park, or anywhere in general. Before, in western Indian times it was rare to see a father “spending time” with their children, well it was usually never seen.  When you hear people talking about marriage and raising a family, all you hear is that the husband needs to do this and the wife need to do this and that. But the related type of conversation has changed immensely throughout the years. The roles in marriage have changed a great deal, and what used to be seen as normal husband and wife roles are now done equally between the couple. In the traditional American society, “the husband has traditionally held the role of the breadwinner, and the wife lived the role of the caregiver” (Hawke 70). According to Winnemucca, in Indian culture when a woman accepted to marry a man she accepted all the duties that came with it, “She is to dress the game, prepare the food, clean the buckskins, make his moccasins, dress his hair, bring all the wood, in short, do all the household work” (Winnemucca 68).

It is surprising to hear that someone still lives by those “roles”, especially in the year 2012 because now that women are more educated and have many more opportunities like men do, the roles have changed and become almost fully equal. In a typical American marriage and family, the husband can now take care of his kids, fulfill household duties just like the wife can. The wife can now also go out a pay bills, get the vehicle oil changed, practically do things that she couldn’t do before. The women is today more independent. According to Hawke, “The American Women’s Suffrage Movement focused on the abstract philosophy of equal treatment for women and the legal measures to achieve this goal” (Hawke 71). With that said in mind, women seemed to be invincible when wanting to gain equality in genders and in rights. After this movement of feminism, the role of the women took almost a whole 360 degree turn. Women were able to make enough money and have the sufficient tools needed to survive on their own without husbands or a male figure. It is almost like how Sarah Winnemucca described the women’s duties when they accepted to get married, it was tough but they had to cater to their husband and take care of mostly everything themselves and on top of that take care of the children (Winnemucca 68).

Women to this day have showed themselves to be strong and able to come up on their own. Although the feminism movement brought many good things, it also brought some negative aspects to marriages. Hawke says that “It must be admitted that in some cases, a lack of clear gender roles weakens the marriage. However, when a husband and a wife have the freedom to bring to a marriage his or her whole self, and not just live a traditional gender role, the American marriage has been strengthened by feminist theory” (Hawke 73-74). Many of these things are true and I’m sure that they have been proven, but in my personal opinion the number one thing that makes things clear between humans is communication with each other. Roles have come along way, but what it very clear is that both the woman and man in the relationship strive to have a happy marriage and the perfect family.

Works Cited

Hawke, Lucy A. "Gender Roles within American Marriage: Are They Really Changing?" ESSAI: 5.23 (2008): 70-74. Web. 21 Feb 2012. Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol5/iss1/23

Newcombe, Bertha. An Incident in Connection with the Presentation of the First Women’s Suffrage Petition to Parliament in 1866. 1910. Women.qmul.ac.uk/index.htm. Web. 22 Feb. 2012.

Russell, Charles Marion. Stone In Moccasin Woman 1890. Encore-editions.com. Web. 22 Feb. 2012

Winnemucca, Sarah. “From Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims.” 1883. The Literary West: An Anthology of Western American Literature. Ed. Thomas J. Lyon. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 65-69. Print.

Zak, Eugene. Happy Family. 1st-art-gallery.com. Web. 22 Feb. 2012.