Social divisions are now much less significant than they were fifty years ago. Discuss - Essay Example

It shall compare divisions in gender and family roles both 50 years ago and today. And it shall also discuss the current continuation of class divisions and the exploitation of women in the home and in the workplace. Social divisions are less significant now than they were fifty years ago. With the advent of women’s liberation and anti-discrimination laws, men and women can now share the same opportunities and privileges in their work. Society has also largely discarded its outdated ideas about ethnic and cultural disparities in society and in the workplace.

Women in the 1950s and 1960s were indeed being allowed to join the workforce, however, “women continued to earn considerably less than men for doing the same job, regardless of whether they worked in a factory of office, or in a profession such as teaching or nursing” (Cliffsnotes, 2009). Even when women were exerting the same effort or even more effort than men in the same job, women were still being paid the same wages or even less than the men. Such was the life of the working women 50 years ago.

The 1950s also typified women as housewives. They were expected to stay at home and take care of the home and the children while their husbands were off to work. Any hint of independence they showed was not encouraged nor was it supported by their families and by society in general. And “the fact that so many women worked outside home ran counter to the myth in popular culture that emphasized the importance of traditional gender roles” (Cliffsnotes, 2009). The media, television, magazines, and advertisements in general all catered to the traditional idea of the women’s role in society and in the home.

And when women started to break out of this traditional mould, they were discriminated against and not given the same chances and opportunities as the men. “Domestic ideology encouraged the post-war housewife to pursue his wifely duties, and post-war developments