Reflection 1: The More We Know, The More We See
For decades now American society has had specific gender roles ingrained into society and ideology for the mother and father in a family dynamic. Dad goes to work and makes the money to provide for the family while mom stays home with the kids and does the house work such as cooking and cleaning.
But Kelly J. Kelly’s article from The Washington Post challenges these gender roles in Coronavirus times where the roles may be switching – or being pushed against – with families forced to stay home together.
Kelly writes about her own experience, as well as others, with her and her husband being home together and challenging the mindset her and husband had and where their priorities lie. His went straight to work where hers went straight to their two children.
Kelly talks about how over the weeks they tried their best to balance out work and caring for their children between the two of them and how important her husband was to the caregiving equation.
The article is written to showcase how silly these gender roles are the the ideology of what a mother must do and a father must do in American culture and society and really shows us how important both parents really are in the equation. Parenting functioning together is what keeps the family in tact.
Kelly writes,
“But now, two-working-parent households with young children may find that the demands on them are too unique and overwhelming to uphold the usual gender norms.”
Before the crisis, women were doing a majority of the unpaid labor at home. Now that families are all home together we are finding that fathers will probably do more childcare and housework than usual – and that’s okay.
There is no “right” or “wrong” way for a family dynamic – sometimes the mother may be the sole income for the family and the father may stay home and take care of the kids and there is nothing wrong with that, no matter what gender roles may lead us to believe.
“This situation is forcing us to make changes,” Kelly’s husband said. “Let’s make sure some of them are good.”
Alayna Kelty 