Tami Morgan

FHS 2400-001
IRE #5
Parents, Peers & Gender Roles: How did your parents influence the development of
your gender role? In what ways did you model yourself after your same gender
parent? In what ways are your conceptions of appropriate gender roles similar to or
different from those of your parents? During high school, what influences did your
peers have on your gender role development? How important were your boyfriends
or girlfriends in developing your sense of yourself as a woman or man? Who are the
people who most influence your gender-role concepts today? As a parent, what
gender roles will you model for your children?

I believe growing up in an upper middle class traditional home influenced the
development of my gender. My mother was a stay at home mom. I loved the
security I felt knowing she was always there. My father worked and provided
financially for our family. Mom took care of the midweek meals, bill paying and
housework, while Dad took care of the yard, majority of grocery shopping and
Sunday family dinner. When I married my mom made the suggestion to not start
being in charge of anything you didnt want to do the rest of your marriage, for
example taking out the trash. So I didnt. My husband takes out the trash and pays
the bills. I do the grocery shopping and cook all the meals. Both my parents
provided love and affection but in different ways. Dad provided the fun while mom
provided the discipline. I never noticed a sense of inequality in my home only that
each parent had different rolls. The Gender Theory suggests, labor is divided into
mans work and womans work, both at home and in the workplace (Strong &
Cohen, 2014, p. 119). This was the case in my home; I think each party was happy
the way in which our home was managed.
I knew from a young age that I wanted to be a stay at home mom when I grew up.
My dad was adamant about me graduating from college but never made this clear
until I graduated from high school. While my mom was more get married and
procreate. I wish my mother would have stood behind my father and advised a
college degree with a means to support myself and a family if needs be. I took my
mothers stance and was married at 19; as a result I started working and quit school.
Now twenty years later I am finishing my fathers request. I can see first hand how
important an education is regardless of gender.
I find in my home now that my husband and I have different rolls also. I modeled
what I saw of mothers nurturing ways while my husband patterned his after the
examples he witnessed growing up (Strong and Cohen, 2014, p. 120). I think we
both took what we learned and changed the things we didnt like and improved on
others we did. I do not feel a sense of inequality in my home. We just have different
responsibilities we have chosen to manage. I have three daughters and one son;
each has the same type of housework responsibilities. However my husband is much
harder on my son than daughters. He feels that he needs to man- up when it comes
to work ethic. He also made him pay for more of his own things than the girls.
Teaching him financial responsibility because he will be the one to support a family
some day.
During my high school years my friends probably influenced me some but they all
grew up in basically the same type of home as I did. We all wanted to be stay at
home mothers. Only one of my core five friends is the breadwinner of her family.
She actually started to resent her husband because he was not providing. The rest
of us have been fortunate enough to stay home with our babies. Three of the five
have graduated from college although we all attended at least two years.
Works Cited
Strong, B, & Cohen, T. F. (2014). The marriage and family experience: Intimate
relationships in a changing society (12
th
ed.) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.