“With a bit of exaggeration one could say, ‘anything goes’… Marriage can be subtracted from sexuality, and that in turn from parenthood; parenthood can be multiplied by divorce, and the whole thing can be divided by living together or apart” (Beck, 1992:116). I read this article when I was surfing the net this evening.

I feel that there is a constant weakening of concerning ties and relationship between the family and gender roles. The individual now has a far wider range of acceptable choice of conduct and this can seen in the decline of motherhood as women’s autonomy have increased the costs of marriage and motherhood. The societal move towards greater liberalism concerning marriage, sex and family behavior have led to depictions of a contemporary ‘risk’ society.

In this new age of individualism, what entails for the family and preconceived notions with regards to gender roles, I believe there is no certainty about this. Ideologies have constantly been changing, gender patterns of domestic behavior are also changing, simply because the society takes on a new form every single day. In a way that, women are changing a lot faster than men to adapt to the changing and evolving needs of our society.

Although there are instances where governmental policies can help shift expectations and this may in turn lead to the acceptance of future efforts from the public to reduce gender inequalities. For example, paternity leave in Britain is far more significant than any other work entitlements.

However, the general practice has been that ideas revolving around family and gender roles have been skewed and stereotyped. Just take a look at the traditional women’s roles and the biasness that they face by the control and management of resources by men in the family. Given the deep rootedness of such ideals, they can hardly be changed and challenged.

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