The Way We Were

After the second world war, government propaganda was combined with effective advertising, and supported by Freudian psychology, to restore the traditional family as the societal norm where women were assigned the identity of wives and mothers, with increased emphasis on gender difference, and men assumed the role of breadwinners and strong, male heads of families. In this traditional family, specific male and female gender roles are instilled in the children from the outset. Males learn to be assertive, aggressive, and dominant while females learn to be docile, gentle, and passive. They learn that men are expected to be tough, courageous, and rational while women are expected to be tender, timid, and emotional. They learn that men are the power holders while women are expected to be submissive, that men make the decisions while women are expected to comply. In other words, the traditional game which is called gender-role socialisation is really a very clever way of ensuring that women learn that their place in the scheme of life is to be dependent on and subservient to men where they are denied direct access to economic opportunity and control of their own sexuality. However, such gender-role socialisation also takes its toll on men's physical and mental health because it necessitates repression of their feelings and denial of their needs. It seems that traditional gender-role socialisation " limits the options and opportunities open to males as well as females" and can prevent both from achieving their full human potential.

Black American families were not confined by such gender-role socialisation because the segregation laws that operated to keep black men out of the labour force thrust black women into the role of breadwinners for their families and thus contributed to more equitable gender roles in black households. Black parents instill both instrumental and expressive behaviours in their sons and daughters from an early age because they learned from their own experience that " black men and black women had to develop together strength, perseverance, and resiliency in order to survive."

Changing Times

In the 1960s, family life began to change when the student movement led the revolt against sexual repression, social injustice, the Vietnam war, and racial discrimination. This was the decade when the baby-boomers came of age and changed societal norms irrevocably. This was the decade when the civil rights movement challenged the discriminatory laws and practices of white supremacy, and equality of opportunity became the right of black Americans. This was the decade when the second wave of feminism emerged and gave birth to the women's movement, a movement that has had the most lasting and profound effect on both public and private life in America. In short, this was the decade when children, women, and men challenged the patriarchal, authoritarian structures of family, society, and government and demanded equal rights for all, regardless of gender, colour, or race. In my discussion, I will focus on changes in gender roles in relation to economic opportunity and sexuality, and how these changes contribute to the autonomy versus intimacy struggles in human relationships.