Limited By Social Traditions

“If their options were limited by their sex, it was due to social traditions that had existed for so long that few questioned or even noticed them.”[1]Even today, these attitudes are learned. We take it step farther with ultrasounds and modern technology that can tell the sex of a child even before the moment of birth. Everyone always wants to know is it a boy or girl? Gifts given to the mother are gender specific, pink outfits for girls, blue for boys. As a mother of two boys and one girl I have seen this first hand. These gender roles we give our children, either consciously or unconsciously, are difficult to avoid even if we wanted to, because baby products are so typed by gender. Even the diapers I used buy for my children had gender roles instilled on them; blue for the boys and pink for the girl. What does this say about society? Have we come as far as we’d like to think we have in terms of equality? Would you let your son play dolls or paint his fingernails, would you let your daughter play football?

---

[1] Gail Collins, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women From 1960 to the Present(New York: Little, Brown and Company.2009). Kindle edition. Location 370 out of 8155.

Girls "...losing gracefully..."

“One year little girls were learning the importance of losing gracefully, and the next they were suing for admission to the Little League.”[1] However, this didn’t really happen overnight. As the economy changed, a “higher value” was put “on women’s skills.”[2] The key to these changes was in changing attitudes towards women. Women needed to be seen as important, capable, as contributors. We can thank Manpower for the development of the Two-income family. The idea was to work and spend, in order to acquire the “advantages of the two-income family.”[3] As Collins points out, for the economy to continue to do well, consumerism was essential.[4] The desire for new houses, cars, vacations, college educations for children, TVs, summer camp, washer and dryers were instrumental in women’s fight for equal opportunities to work.[5] However, in the 70’s and 80’s the economy slowed and for women “work [was] no longer optional… [as women now] … provided a third of the family’s income.”[6] Not sure this was the intended result, but it certainly helped women’s lib along at a much faster pace.

---

[1] Gail Collins, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present (New York: Little Brown Company, 2009). Kindle Edition.1474 of 8155.

[2] Ibid., 1486 of 8155.

[3] Ibid.,1538 of 8155.

[4] Ibid.,1551 of 8155.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.,1566 of 8155.