GENDER ROLES
24 04 2008We all know that women represent at least half of the world population. It is also said that men and women have the same rights and the same possibilities. Is it true?
We can think of Spain as a “modern” country if we take into account the number of women government ministers. Or perhaps you don’t think we are “so” modern and things are as they used to be 10 years ago.
In our lesson you have been interviewing your classmates about these and other issues concerning how much gender roles have changed in the last years.
Please, send your conclusions here. It will be very interesting to read your findings.
Remember to follow the example we worked with in our lesson.
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BIG OR SMALL CHANGES?
The aim of this report is to describe how gender roles have changed in the world over the last 10 years. The information was collected via a survey of a group of 10 English students aged 17-45.
The first part of the survey is related to sections where there have been changes. It was generally agreed that more women have jobs nowadays. This explains why a bigger percentage of men look after their children today. Most people said that even though women do more housework than men, about 60 per cent of men cook, iron and sew those days. Apparently, women have a tendency to feel guilty. Even so, they are becoming more independent.
In contrast, the vast majority of those interviewed reported that women still earn less money as men doing the same work. Rather surprisingly, most of the people felt that there is still so much sexism in the office.
In conclusion, the survey suggests that men and women play different roles in the world. It also seems that fortunately, things have improved the world.
Have gender roles changed in our society?
We´ve been encouraged to present the result of a survey made in our class in order to clarify how gender roles have changed in our society. The information has been collected from both genders and all walks of life. The way it has been done can´t be considered very professional, but… we aren´t indeed.
In the first part of the study we would take into consideration the female viewpoint. The overwhelming majority of women think that a huge task has been done, although they are still living in a society where they must suffer, on some occasions, from sexist attitudes. A small minority, about 15%, pointed out how much has been achieved in the last years, although a little more is still needed.
On the other hand, the small amount of men attending class support the unanimous viewpoint that the worst part of our ancient patriarchal society is being beaten by progress and a more conscious upbringing. In contrast, just a little percentage feel that women are more self-confident than men.
It´s remarkable to notice that most of the people interviewed think that although there is still a noticeable difference in some aspects of life, it´s being quickly reduced. Moreover, and it is a widely held belief, some exclusive ancient male roles will be almost totally assumed by women in a short time.
As a result of our opinion poll we could point out that the main difference of perception of the issue enquired, lays not on the gender of the people, but on their age. Mature people in the class from both genders feel that women are catching up, if not overtaking, men, whereas young people can only see that there are still differences, and there shouldn´t be.
Written by Chema Castrillo F.
The objective of this report is to present the results of a survey into male/female differences. Concretely, the investigation examines the changing gender roles in issues such as work, home and social life in the last years. The information has been collected from a group of male and female students of the fifth year of English at the Official School of Languages. The statistics were analysed using a questionnaire whose results will be highlighted below.
In general the findings indicated that there are significant differences between men and women in the way they behave. In relation to social life, the vast majority of interviewed students assure that men and women have different topics of conversation: men speak basically about football and politics, while women prefer having conversations about social events, friendships or children. In the same way, as most of the females in the group said, men and women spend leisure time in different ways: men prefer watching sports while, in contrast, women choose spending time with friends.
The second part of the survey was centre on gender roles at work. Most students insure that, although there is still sexism in the office, the situation has got better in comparison with the previous years. In addition, they also secure that nowadays women are having more opportunities to get a job but, obviously, depending on the work requested. In fact, many of the students think that women have a lot of facilities to get jobs such as teachers, shop assistants, hairdressers or nurses whereas men are accustomed to get jobs in business, engineering or science in general.
On the other hand, the last item discussed was how men and women behave at home. It seems that nowadays more men help and do their share, however, many of the interviewed youngsters affirm that only about 40 per cent of men do their household chores regularly. In contrast, surprisingly, nearly all the females in the group assure that both men and women share their responsibilities when they have to look after the children.
To sum up, the main conclusion that can be drawn is therefore that there are relevant differences between men an women independently of the field we are talking about. The facts speak for themselves and, although considerable changes have been made in the last years, we aren’t able to speak about equality yet.
The aim of this report is to discuss further about changing gender roles in the world. Information was collected via a survey of 20 people aged 17-45. Gender roles were traditionally divided into strictly feminine and masculine gender roles, though these roles have diversified today into many different acceptable male or female gender roles. In the last decade, most agree that changing gender roles have dramatically altered their lives at work and at home.
The first part of the survey is about the different styles that men and women have in the workplace. Surprisingly, men and women agreed they should have equal work opportunities, and men said they approved of women working outside the home.It was also generally felt that although the majority of employees in most of the companies are women, men hold most of the senior management posts. It is sometimes, dangerous to generalise, however we can note some specific differences between men and women´s styles of management. About 27 per cent of people reported that the male approach to business is competitive (the end justifies the means) while the female method is collaborative.
Most men in the polls said they were happy to share child care and domestic chores with wives who work outside the home. However, more than half of all women questioned expressed at least some dissatisfaction with the amount of help their husbands provide around the house.
The last part of the questionnaire is about social life. The vast majority of people reported that men like to talk about their personal achievements or discuss “masculine” topics such as cars or sport, whereas women tend to talk about personal matters. Apart from that, it seems that today women are more self-confident and independent than they used to be ten years ago.
In conclusion, it appears that men and women´s gender roles have changed in the last few years, opening new opportunities. However, opportunities have their price, and some things are slower to change than others.
The purpose of this report is to present the results of a poll we did last Thursday. The survey’s theme was “The Gender Role: Are women and men so different?” and the results showed that things hadn’t changed a lot for the last ten years.
To start with 84% of the respondents assured that there’s a lot of sexism in the office, but pointed out that it has diminished with the passage of time.
A very small number of people answered there’s no sexism nowadays.
Rather surprisingly the vast majority of the men interviewed said that a woman boss is stricter than a man boss. They justified it by saying that a woman boss has to show she can do the job as well, or even better, than a man so she tends to be more bossy and stricter. In contrast a small percentage of women said that a woman boss is stricter than a man boss.
The question “Does the money a woman earns affects the couple?” was one of the most conflicting. Men said that the money their wife earns doesn’t mean a lot, however almost all the women interviewed said that the amount of money they earn was the reason of many arguments between the couple, because the man wants to keep intact the role
of head of household.
The last but not the least important question was that if women were more self-confident than men. Most of the women interviewed said they were less self-confident than men just because they were realistic. They said men need to be more self-confident for not feeling lower. An insignificant number of people answered women were more self-confident because of the interior strength that leads them to be first in line.
In conclusion, the survey suggest that there’s still a lot of differences between men and women but this is about to change. Our population is evolving so fast that in a couple of decades men and women will be the same. While I was doing the survey I discovered there’s a lot of people living in the past. This is because most parents of the people whom I have interviewed have experienced the era of the Franco regime.
GENDER ROLES AND SOCIAL LIFE
This report shows the findings of a survey into male and female tendencies in their social life. The information was collected from a group of 10 students of English as a second language aged 18 – 45 at Oviedo official School of Languages. Students were asked to answer a short list of questions and answers were written down by the interviewer.
In the first place, the survey considered the attitudes to friendship and relationships. It was generally felt that viewpoints of social interactions depended on gender. A significant number of the males interviewed admitted that they would not talk to a friend about personal feelings, while most of the female students reported that they would share everything with their close friends. In addition to this, the vast majority of women interviewed considered that they would not ask a man out on a date. However many of male students reported they would prefer to take the initiative in relationships.
Secondly, the group was asked to give an opinion about leisure time linked to gender roles. About 80% of women stated that they would prefer to spend their free time in a relaxing way. In contrast, nearly all the male students said that they would prefer to practise sports in their spare time. Most of the students from both sexes considered that hobbies and personal interests depended on gender.
A very significant number of people interviewed stated that the reasons of these differences between sexes could lie on the education that they had. According to theses students males and females were taught to act different since they were born. They all admitted that males and females were not expected to act equally, which influenced on the choices they made.
To conclude we can take out from this survey that social behaviour is undoubtedly related to gender. It seems that women and men have not the same concept of social relations or activities since they have not been brought up in the same way.
HOW MUCH DO WE NEED TO CHANGE IN OUR GENDER ROLES?
The porpose of this report is to show the findings of a survey done about the changing gender roles in our society. The information was taken mainly for a group of people aged between 20 and 40 in Oviedo. The fact that almost all the people interviewed were women could indicate that the conclussions are not relevant enough. Here are some data.
The vast majority of the interviewed people agree with the idea that fortunately there is less sexism in the office nowadays than there used to be but there are still some differences dealing with economic or responsible aspects mainly.
According to ecconomy, a very small number of women sustain the idea of being paid exactly the same as men, apart from people working for Gobernment in one way or another. It’s generally felt that men earn more than women.
Apart from that, the older females questioned declare that very few men would accept the idea of earning less money than their patterns. They explain that men could feel inferior. On the contrary, the men and young ladies ( here we have the change) don’t agree with this assumption.
Dealing with the idea of staying home looking after children and doing the housework, in case it’s no worth to go out to work, nearly the 100% of the men (only 2o% of the total) think that they would happily accept while only the half of woman questioned can see men developing efficiently those tasks. Rather surprisingly, none of the men under studio know a close male friend putting into practice this proudy (self proud) activity.
As a conclusion, we can say that the differences exposed in this survey are more connected with ages and generations than with gender. So we can say that with the help of time, THINGS ARE CHANGING.
Yolanda Álvarez Duarte
Nowadays gender roles are changing, although there are still many people who keep on thinking that some chores, like housework or looking after children, are aimed mainly at women. But for the women’s struggle in order to reach the same rights as men is that everyday you could see more women doing the same work as men.
Apparently, the majority of the people agree that women are able to cope with the same as men, however, it’s very difficult for them to reach the peak in their jobs. In addition, there are now more women in the university than men, which show that women’s role has to change more in the next years so that it would be common to see a women as a boss of a big corporation.
But we can’t avoid talking about a small minority, who are a hangover from the past, and still think about women as people who should be at home, cleaning, cooking, looking after children and being pregnant from time to time. And when they are flirting with a woman, of course, they must be who ask them out on a date.
To my mind, the society has to face a big deal, which is to give a better education for young people because this is the key to break the rules and the gender roles. There are people thinking in that way because at home or in the school or even on the television, they have picked up these ideas since they were children. Of course men and women are differents in many ways, but this is not a problem for women to be in the same place or to have the same rights as men.
To sum up, education is the problem and the solution. It’s time for Spanish society to be more open minded and to let women show who they are and where they can be instead of saying it to them.
The purpose of this report is to discuss whether the tradicional gender roles have changed or not. The information was gathered from people from all walks of life at Official School of Languages. The interviewees gave their answers orally.
The first part of the survey dealt with male attitudes at home. The vast majority of the women interviewed said that men didn’t talk about their problems whereas men disagreed. It was generally felt that men spend much more time doing housework than in the past but ‘It isn’t enough’ said women.
The second part of the survey outlined social life. Well over 80% thought that men and women spend leisure time in different ways while a very insignificant number felt that how you spend your free time depends on your hobbies and not on your gender. Seemingly, male and female have completely different topics of conversation with friends. Male talk about sports, cars and politics while female prefer talk about books, fashion or their children.
Almost all the people interviewed said they believed women are more self-confident and independent than some years ago. Even so all the males in the group thought that women still feel guilty about everything, all the time.
In conclusion, the survey suggests that although the traditional gender roles have changed in the last 20 years, there is still a lot to do.
The aim of this report is to discuss about the change in gender roles. The information was collected from a group of ten students at Official School of Languages.
The first question was about sexism in the office and it was generally felt that there is less than before.
In contrast, the answers obtained when asked if men earn more money than women for the same job were controversial. The vast majority of females said that they earned less than men and they did not understand the reason. The men justified this saying that women have just joined the job market , leave their jobs first and are less likely to work full time because they need time to take care of their children.
Many of those interviewed agreed with the idea of fathers staying at home after having a baby and the answers were similar when we asked about men staying at home taking care of children and doing the household chores. The reasons given for this were that fewer women opt to remain at home and let their partner be the economic suporter of the family because they want to have a piece of the action too.
Almost all the people said men are less interested in people, they are less empathetic. Even so they need to feel they are indispensable.
In conclusion it seems that we are in the right way to obtain the equal rights.
In the opinions collected in the classroom the results were a bit surprising.
Men consider men earn the same money as women for the same work. In contrast, women consider men are better-paid for the same work. However men and women agree women feel guiltier about everything they do. It doesn´t matter if it is because of their job, children and so on, it´s considered women have a lack of self-confidence and a tendency to cry very often over unimportant things.
By far the biggest differences were in the kind of jobs men and women do. There was a huge range of opinions. Every person gave a different idea, from a man who thought sex didn´t matter at all to another man who thought men and had completely different jobs. There were much fewer differences when discussing the housework. Everybody agreed men do less housework than women, although this is slowly improving.
Anybody can deny the fact that gender roles have changed in a significant way during the last ten years in Spain, but, the question is: Is it enough to claim we have reached equality between men and women?
To know what citizens thought about this topic we resorted to a survey of very miched people -of both genres and diverse ages- and these are the conclutions we could extract:
Firstly, in relation to household chores and children care, the vast majority of people agreed men are, nowadays, more willing to share responsabilities with his partner, although the answers were different depending on the age of those polled (older ones defined that change as an amazing progress, while young people were more inconformist).
On the other hand, talking about work, it was generally felt that the porcentage of women workers has increased steadily. However, a significant minority said that the messures done were insufficient to solve this problem.
Thirthly, everyone coincided in the fact that, concerning to social skills, women had won in self-confident and were, in general, more independent than men, although, it is important to point out that men have improved talking about their feelings and emotions, according to many of those interviewed.
In conclusion, it seems that society gets better and gender roles change with it, making easier to interact with the opposite sex and becoming weaker the idea of “men are from Mars and women are from Venus”.
Manuel (19:12:48) :
CHANGES IN GENDER ROLES
This report has been compiled on interviewing ten of the 5th year English students in the Oviedo Official School of Languages. Opinions have been attended to show, using six different indicators, how gender roles have changed over the last ten years.
The first part of the report is about the number of working women, and the kind of jobs they do. Overall there has been an increase in the percentage of working women. All the people surveyed, no matter what gender, agreed about this. On the other hand, the vast majority of males and females said that very little change has occurred in job type, and women continue to choose different kinds of jobs than men.
Housework and child care have also been considered. In this case, about 60% of women think that men’s commitment is at the same low levels as before or has increased slightly. Men agree, in similar percentages, when it comes to housework, whereas their perception about childcare varies, thinking that things have changed significantly during this period of time.
Findings on leisure time and topics of conversation conclude that all of the people interviewed agree that men and women spend their free time in different ways. Other than that, most of this people think also that topics of conversation have not changed significantly.
All in all, the survey suggest that during these ten years the most significant change in gender models is related to the rising percentage of working women, followed by significant, (although not too significant in women’s opinion), changes in men’s commitment to housework and childcare. Leisure activities and topics of conversation seem to remain very similar.
Manuel