Cicero gender roles need to change at home

Natalia Marquez, reporter

It is obvious that traditional gender roles at home are still very common to this day, at least in Cicero, girls do the cooking and the cleaning, and the boys do the heavy lifting.  

Times have changed and places are progressing, which means the traditional gender roles need to stay behind. 

People are too used to the way things are set up and would hate to make a change by changing the roles at home. Nevertheless, everything else in the word is being modified so should this. 

According to “Gender Inequality in Household Chores and Work-Family Conflict” by Javier Cerrato and Eva Cifre, “Results show that traditional gender roles still affect the way men and women manage the work and family interaction.” This shows that the way people view the responsibilities in the household and workforce are still being affected in a negative way.  

According to “Gender Inequality in Household Chores and Work-Family Conflict” by Javier Cerrato and Eva Cifre, “So the degree of participation in the home role will create difficulties for participation in work, resulting in the home-work conflict.” This statement leads us to believe that when the person must complete both tasks, they are more likely to not be able to give their all to the other part of their day. For example, if a mom has to wash the dishes, clean the house, and make sure her children are fed, and they have their homework done, it would be more stressful for her when she has to go to work because she has done so much at home.   

In my experience, since I am a female, I am expected to go to school and get all my work done. I am also expected to get great grades. When I get home from school, I am expected to help my mom cook and clean. The expectation that I have to help cook and clean comes from my dad, because he is a strong believer in gender roles. While I go to school every day, I must keep up with my work. At times I get stressed that I have homework to do because I also have housework that needs to get done.  

Going to a students’ home, we will most definitely be able to observe the gender roles at home. The girls go home and are expected to help their mom clean and cook, while boys are going home and playing their video games and waiting for everything to be done for them.