UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN BUSINESS SCHOOL
 
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‘Critical thinking around my assignment question’ exercise (5% of overall mark)#p#分頁標題#e#
 
Men in non-traditional roles   非傳統的角色中的男人 The question of my topic is ’What are the constraints on men taking up the non-traditional roles at work and in the home?’ In the traditional family, man is the main economic supporter of it, and woman always work part-time or even be housewife without work. However, today some men plays women’s role in the workplace. Some of them even work part-time. In Williams (2004) words, the social opinions towards men in the 4 occupation (nurses, elementary teachers, librarians and social workers) are negative. The ‘outsiders’ think these men are feminine and ‘wimpy’. Men encounter the negative stereotype. As Sheridan (2004) mentioned, men think that the wage of part-time jobs is low, as the breadwinner of the family, they can not accept this. Many of them also cannot accept themselves act as the ‘house husband’ which is considered as women stereotype. In the traditional occupation, if a man is absence because of the family reason, his colleagues will always think he is not focus on their career. Their attitude will be worse towards the men in non-traditional role. In addition, men in the non-traditional roles feel fewer sense of achievement compare with traditional ones. Gerson (2004) described men’s feeling towards domestic work as ‘invisible’ and ‘undervalue’. Unlike the traditional men, there is no salary, promotion or other career achievement for the in-house-fathers to show out. As a result, other people may never notice the effort made by the in-house-fathers to the families. It is also influence their children. For example, if a boy has a stay at home dad, he will be misleaded to accept the uncommon gender stereotype. And he will be confused when he receives the different information from the others, which is not good for their mental health. The reason is nowadays the world is still dominated by men. In people’s opinions, men should be responsible to the major contribution to the family and the organization. Otherwise, they will be considered as ‘aliens’. Another issue is described by Smith (2004) that the ‘househusbands’ are always be ignored by ‘their peer’- the housewives. The housewives think these men are not as ‘professional’ as women. Some women do not believe men will not involve in the housework because man must be the breadwinners.
 
However, the question is not perfect. The non-traditional role of men do not mean there is not positive aspect when men taking up these roles. Williams mentioned that the employers of the women predominant occupation are more willing to hire men than women. And the male employees always receive better treatment. In my opinion, this is because of the mistrust to women. The employers believe the men can do better than women. In addition, the men with non-traditional occupation always have a good relationship with their male supervisors which have the positive influence to their career. And most of the female supervisors accept them with no discrimination as well. What is more, the men’s female colleagues also accept them, even treat them as ‘leader’ among the other workmates. I think the reason is the society is still dominated by men as I mentioned above. Most women think their male colleagues have greater ability to deal with dairy work task and the problem they come across, although sometimes the women have advantages in this occupation. Another phenomena is common in this issue. In a family with a powerful woman, the husband always is a stay at home dad to maintain the family’s balance. In these families, there is certain need to have a house husband play the role as a homemaker, although they have to face the social unacceptance. Otherwise, the family will easy to separate.#p#分頁標題#e#
 
2 ‘Constructing my essay argument’ exercise (5% of overall mark)
 
Men in non-traditional role:
 
The main argument: the men who work in the non-traditional occupation or stay at home have not only constraints but also benefit.
 
Constraint 1: Men encounter negative stereotype from the ‘outsiders’, who thinks they are feminine and ‘wimpy’.
 
Benefit 1: However, the ‘insiders’ (their supervisor ands colleagues) think highly of them. They are more trusted and receive better treatment then women.
 
Constraint 2: Some of men can not accept themselves act like a house wife in the family especially for the men who left their traditional occupations. They are strongly influenced by the traditional gender stereotype that men should be the bread winners and the main economic supporters of the families.
 
Benefit 2: The other benefit for the men in non-traditional roles is that most of them lead good relationship to their families. The family needs such a house wife or house husband. When the husband is the bread winner, the wife must be the home maker. However, when the wife becomes the bread winner, the husband must also undertake the responsibility of the home maker.
 
Constraint 3: The children in the family will be misleaded to accept the uncommon stereotype, which is not good to his psychological health. However, if in the future, the real equity between the two genders comes true, this issue is no longer exists.
 
3 ‘Structuring my essay’ exercise (5% of overall mark)
 
Introduction:
 
1 the background: the traditional gender stereotype and its example
 
2 the brief introduction of the situation of the men in non-traditional roles
 
3 the main argument: the men who work in the non-traditional occupation or stay at home have not only constraints but also benefit.
 
Body: Constraints:
 
1 Men encounter negative stereotype from the ‘outsiders’, who thinks they are feminine and ‘wimpy’.
 
2: Some of men can not accept themselves act like a house wife in the family especially for the men who left their traditional occupations. They are strongly influenced by the traditional gender stereotype that men should be the bread winners and the main economic supporters of the families.
 
3: The children in the family will be misleaded to accept the uncommon stereotype, which is not good to his psychological health. However, if in the future, the real equity between the two genders comes true, this issue is no longer exists.
 
Benefits
 
1 However, the ‘insiders’ (their supervisor ands colleagues) think highly of them. They are more trusted and receive better treatment then women.
 #p#分頁標題#e#
2: The other benefit for the men in non-traditional roles is that most of them lead good relationship to their families. The family needs such a house wife or house husband. When the husband is the bread winner, the wife must be the home maker. However, when the wife becomes the bread winner, the husband must also undertake the responsibility of the home maker. The divorce rate is lower and the relationship between fathers and their children is better.
 
Conclusion:
 
In this article, both constraints and benefits of men in non-traditional roles have been discussed. The reason of why these roles are considered as non-traditional for men is caused by the inequity of male and female.
 
Extended essay (25% of overall mark)
 
Introduction
 
In a traditional family, the man plays the role of the economic supporter, which is also known as the breadwinner, of the family. When talking about theses men’s typical occupation, industrial engineers, senior managers, government officers, construction workers and delivery drivers etc. comes to people’s mind. These jobs actually match the traditional stereotype to men in everyone’s opinion. The reason is these occupation required one or more characters of physical strength, ambition, logical ability and leadership, which are considered as ‘masculinity’. Oppositely, the traditional roles of women are housewives or part-time workers. In William’s (2004) article, the 4 jobs which is considered as women predominant occupations (nurses, elementary teachers, librarians and social workers) required feminine characters such as gentle, careful, and emotional. However, today some men play the role of homemakers in their families. They works part-time in the women predominate industries or even stay at home as ‘house husbands’. In the workplace these men in non-traditional roles face different challenges compare of those who have typical jobs. And they also face the different attitude from the family, public and themselves. In this article, the both the constraints and benefits of men who plays the non-traditional roles will be discussed.
 
The constraints
 
Traditionally, men dominate the development of the whole society. Refer to the history; most of the significantly scientific and social contributors are men. Thus, men are stereotyped to pursue the career achieve and undertake the economic responsibility of the families. Therefore, the men in non-traditional roles must suffer a great deal of doubt and criticize. The first challenge they face is the discrimination of the others. In Sheridan’s (2004) words, men is considered as more tough gender which always be ‘judged more harshly’ when they escaping from their expected role. He continued to point out when men is focus more on the family rather then their career, the criticize from others is arrived. Some people may think the in-house-fathers and the men with the part-time occupations as ‘wimpy’ men. The word ‘others’ indicate the public opinion towards these men. As William described, the men in the women predominate occupation always encounter the negative stereotypes from the ‘outsiders’. They were considered as passive and asexual, which is a great barrier for the men enter these industries. In the traditional industries, men always be looked down by their colleague if they absence for the family reasons, which is be considered as lack of career ambitions. Smith (2004) described that the ‘househusbands’ are always be ignored by ‘their peer’- the housewives. The housewives think these men are not as ‘professional’ as women. Some women do not believe men will not involve in the housework because man must be the breadwinners. And when they are told someone is a in-house-fathers, they will always do not take it seriously. One example Smith put forward to support this view a women even forget a man is involving father in the same conversation, in the beginning he have already told her. And some women are not willing to approach the male because of sexual difference.‘Perhaps they thought I was trying to lure them round to my place for a coffee.’ (Smith)#p#分頁標題#e#
 
The second barrier to the men in non-traditional roles is their self identification. Some of men can not accept themselves act like a house wife in the family especially for the men who left their traditional occupations. They are strongly influenced by the traditional gender stereotype that men should be the breadwinners and the main economic supporters of the families. In Sheridan’s work, different from women, men have psychic separateness, which influenced them from childhood to later life. Most men think themselves should be masculine, which means they should undertake the economic responsibilities and be the breadwinners of their families. And it is one of the reasons why men absent from the part-time jobs, as well as the in-house-fathers. The reason is these roles are stereotyped as femininity. In addition, men in the non-traditional roles feel fewer sense of achievement compare with traditional ones. Gerson (2004) described men’s feeling towards domestic work as ‘invisible’ and ‘undervalue’. Unlike the traditional men, there is no salary, promotion or other career achievement for the in-house-fathers to show out. As a result, other people may never notice the effort made by the in-house-fathers to the families. And they may be lack of enthusiasm to the step in to the non-traditional occupations. What is more, the economic issue can not be ignored. In Gerson’s article, the low wage of the part-time occupations is the great constraint for men to accept. Sheridan informed that the reason is the wage of most of the part-time jobs is not enough to support one’s family, because the part-time jobs are to save the cost of the organizations. As the social expectations to the men, the men should be the breadwinners of the families, and these jobs are not plan to provide to men. In the other hand, it is difficult for women to support the family as the breadwinners because women typically face more difficulties in the workplace and receive fewer benefits than men do. And regularly, men have to carry the economic responsibilities.
 
The third barrier for the non-traditional men is the family issue, especially the family education the children receive. In the families with in-house-fathers, the children will be misleaded to accept the uncommon stereotype, which is not good to their psychological health. When the children receive the different information from others, they will be confused. And they will even be teased by others because of their fathers. This issue may have more significant influence when the children are boys. These boys receive less masculine education from their fathers, which influence their characters. Combine with the reason of the isolation of their peers; most of them are shy, passive, quiet and sensitive. These characters match more the feminine features rather than masculine ones. It is reasonable to infer that these children will also enter the non-traditional roles as their fathers, which may not be the expectation of most parents, even the parents of the non-traditional families. The reason is most of men with part-time jobs and in-house-fathers are not satisfied with their current roles most of which is their last choice. As a result, they do not want their children to follow them. And these issues is also due to the above two reasons. If some days the men in the non-traditional roles are accepted by the society, this barrier will be solved automatically.#p#分頁標題#e#
 
The benefits
 
Although the above three constraints can be great barrier for men to play the non-traditional roles, things are not that horrible, in the non-traditional roles, men can also get benefits, which sometimes better than what they get in the traditional roles. In the women predominate occupations; the men always receive better achievement than women. As Williams mentioned employers of the women predominant occupation are more willing to hire men than women. And these men always have good relationship to their male supervisors. In the same time, their female supervisors accept them with no discrimination. The reason is the society is male dominated. Men get more trust than women in the public opinion. And even in the women predominate occupations; the employers think the minority to be rare. And they also get more chance of promoting and better material treatment. Williams continued to point out these men often encounter the "glass escalator", which is the invisible pressure to move up in their profession. They will be criticized by the supervisors if they do not have the intension for promotion. The men in the non-traditional occupations often have good relationship with their female colleagues. In Williams’ article, the men’s female colleagues also accept them, sometimes even treat them as ‘leaders’ among the other workmates, which made them feel comfortable. Most women think their male colleagues have greater ability to deal with dairy work task and the problem they come across, although sometimes the women have advantages in this occupation. And men feel comfortable working with them. Although sometimes the single men feel not natural to work with their married female colleagues, under most of conditions, the cooperation of the two genders in these occupations is happy. Williams conclude this phenomenon as the sexist belief, which means when men enter these occupations, in spite of they are minority, they still have the gender privilege as the advantages. As a result, a number of men are willing to work in these part-time occupations. Under this working environment, they receive high recognition and admiration, which increased their self-esteem. What is more, they have more spare time for them to devote to their families or their own hobbies, because these jobs are often part-time.
 
The other benefit for the men in non-traditional roles is that most of them lead good relationship to their families. They get powerful sense of accomplishment when they manage close relationship to their children, especially for the men who can not get reward in their career. Gerson described that the in-house-fathers treat their children’s talents and achievements as the revenue of their ‘investment’. Although most of these men are not rich, they also receive happiness from their families’ life. The involving fathers pay a lot of time in teaching the children, which also ensure their children will not be lack of family education. And the children always have stronger emotion to them. Different from those children in traditional families who always have closer relationship to mothers than fathers, the children of the families with involving fathers have more balance relationship with both parents. With involving fathers, the daughters are more self-reliance, the boys are more empathy. Although it cannot be guaranteed in all case, in these families, when the children grow up, they always create a more egalitarian household as Gerson described.Some men account this as kind of success in one’s life. He also pointed out that many men with successful career also pay attention to the families’ relationship by involving doing some domestic work, which is for balance their self-esteem from both careers and families. In addition, the relationship of the husbands and wives will be more harmonious if the husbands are involving fathers. When a baby is born, the mothers pay their attention to take care of the new family members. And some fathers may feel rejected by their wives. Gerson thought that the emotional supports are provided by the involving fatherhood to the mothers. The divorce rate of the couples with involving fathers is also lower than the average. Gerson indicate the benefits are provided by the egalitarian relationship between the couples. Wives will not feels like they undertake the burden of the domestic work themselves without any assistance from other family members. More men willing to work less and do the domestic work more to keep the harmonious marriage.#p#分頁標題#e#
 
Conclusion結論
 
In this article, both constraints and benefits of men in non-traditional roles have been discussed. The reason of why these roles are considered as non-traditional for men is caused by the inequity of male and female. And these roles are traditional and regular for women. There is close relationship among the three constraints. The men’s individual unacceptance of the non-traditional roles is due to the public opinion and social expectation. And the uncommon stereotype, which caused the bad influence to the children in the non-traditional families, is also defined by the social expectation and the public opinion. As Gerson indicated, if the men have strong determination which can overcome the public pressure, they will receive a lot of benefits from the non-traditional roles, which maybe more valuable than the career achievement for somebody. The reason is despite of the economic issue, the men sometimes get more respect and work more comfortably in the non-traditional roles. They have less pressure and more freedom in these roles. In addition, their family lives are happier than the traditional men. For most of the traditional working men, if they spend more time with their families and involve doing some domestic works, they will receive more happiness from their wives and children.
 
(2017 words)
 
References:文獻參考
 
Gerson, K. (2004) “Dilemmas of involved fatherhood”. In: N. E. Sacks and C. Marrone (eds) Gender and Work in Today’s World. Cambridge, MA: Westview Press.
 
Sheridan, A. (2004) Chronic presenteeism: the multiple dimensions to men’s absence from part-time work. Gender, Work and Organization 11(2): 207-225.
 
Smith, C. D. (2004) “Men don’t do this sort of thing: househusbands”. In: N. E. Sacks and C. Marrone (eds) Gender and Work in Today’s World. Cambridge, MA: Westview Press.
 
Williams, C. (2004) The glass escalator: men who do women’s work. In: N. E. Sacks and C. Marrone (eds) Gender and Work in Today’s World. Cambridge, MA: Westview Press.