The sexual revolution in the workplace
Quite a lot has changed in 50 years
It was once the man who brought home the bacon and the woman that cooked it. However times are changing. In a survey conducted by the Daily Mail, it was found that thirty percent of women earned more than their husbands.
It should be no real surprise. It has been found that more women go to university than men, get better results from school and graduate with better degrees. In theory, many are more qualified for the job. Of course, the fact that less women are taking time out of work to bring up children also contributes to the increasing number earning more than their husbands.
Subsequently men have to do more around the house; househusbands now run one in ten households. This not only challenges the gender assumption that men provide for the family but also observes a swapping of roles; women are not only providing for the family and men are completing chores and looking after children.
However men are still earning more than women when both are in full-time work, typically earning 20% more before tax. What does the future hold? Perhaps by 2020 we will see women holding doors open for men and more offering to buy the drinks at the bar!
Grazia magazine found that almost half of full-time mothers disliked not earning their own money and with over one third of marriages ending in divorce it is no real surprise. In today’s society, where a marriage is not life binding, it makes sense for women to assert their independence. Society has arguably provoked women to use their abilities to get out into the work place, where in fact they are able to do better than many of their male counterparts.
Many men don’t feel comfortable with not being the main provider, the typically masculine role. Woman’s having assumed this status has been recorded as leading to breakdown in marriage. This, along with some women giving up the idea of having children, is creating a serious change in society.
It is calling for more fluidity between women and men within their relationships but it is also affecting the work place. More women are making it to previously male dominated roles. Although employers may have originally employed a man over a future mother, with so many women acting as working mothers this philosophy has begun to change.
Tanya
