Times–and minds–are changing

Featured Guest Blogger May 18th, 2009

Maggie Jackson is an award-winning author and journalist known for her penetrating coverage of U.S. social issues. She writes the popular “Balancing Acts” column in the Sunday Boston Globe, and her work has also appeared in The New York Times, Gastronomica, and on National Public Radio. Her latest book, Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age, details the steep costs of our current epidemic deficits of attention while revealing the astonishing scientific discoveries that can help us rekindle our powers of focus in a world of speed and overload. Please note that the views of our guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sloan Work and Family Research Network.

The title of the Families and Work Institute’s latest national study is “Times are Changing.” But the report easily could have been dubbed “Minds are Changing.”

One of the most striking elements of the fascinating report, which I covered recently in my Boston Globe “Balancing Acts” column, is the dismantling of American veneration for the “male-breadwinner” family model - even among older generations. Not all that long ago — in 1977 — 75% of men and nearly half of women believed that it’s better for men to earn the money and for women to care for home and family. Back then, gender boundaries were clear and distinct, and cracks in this belief system were largely unwelcome.

Now, about 60 percent of each gender reject the idea that men should be breadwinners and women should stick to homemaking. Strikingly, nearly half of workers 63 and older now reject the traditional model, up from just 10% in 1977. Another sign of change: 80% of women and about 65% of men now agree that a mom working outside the home can have just as good a relationship with her kids as a stay-at-home mom.

Surely, attitudes aren’t everything. Actions speak louder than words, and it’s important to note that American gender roles are changing in execution, as much as in attitude. Last year, women held 49% of the nation’s jobs, and women in dual-earner households contribute 44% of family income. Men spend more time taking care of the home and with kids than in the past. A stay-at-home dad is no shock anymore.

But belief systems also matter. A little girl who thinks she can’t be president won’t grow up and run for office. A young dad who treats caring for his kids as babysitting likely has a narrow definition of fatherhood. In the biology world, there’s a word for these powerful and long-lasting cultural ideas. They are “memes,” elements of a culture or system of
behavior that are passed down by imitation, not genetics.

So when minds are changing, the world is shifting. And when it comes to loosening rigid gender roles, that’s a very good thing.