Running head: WHO IS THE HEAD/BREAD WINNER OF THE HOUSE?

Feminism, Gender Equality and Sexism: Who is the Head/Bread winner of the House?
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WHO IS THE HEAD/BREAD WINNER OF THE HOUSE?

Feminism, Gender Equality and Sexism: Who is the Head/Bread Winner of the House?
Introduction
I chose the topic on Feminism, Gender Equality and Sexism because it is global problem
that attracts campaigns worldwide. I believe that as much as men and women do not look alike,
they should have equal rights. In a society where there is gender equality, both men are
responsible for providing for the family. Gone are the days when women were believed to be
caregivers at home and child bearers while men were the head of the family and would get better
education and employment in order to provide for the family while the women stayed at home. I
am against injustice and gender discrimination and believe that all women should be empowered
both economically and socially also believe that the status of a country can be judged based on
the situation of the women, since a male dominated society shows that the country lacks
consciousness on one gender and this can slow down development. All the people in the country
should be empowered and there they should live in a free and fair society (McCann & Kim,
2013). In this paper, I will discuss gender equality, feminism, and sexism. The paper will raise
various concerns, support and criticize different literature in regards to the topic.
Who is the Head/Bread Winner of the House?
Feminism and sexism are two contradicting terms that are used to define the role of
women in the society. Sexism is the gender roles that were formed in the traditional society that
believed that that there should be inequality between men and women (Heikes, 2010). The
sexists believe in the traditional stereotypes that defined men and women. On the other hand,
feminists believe that there should be equal opportunities for both men and men in terms of
education, employment, social life and political affiliation. Gender equality and feminism are
intertwined since gender equality means that women do not face discrimination on the basis of

WHO IS THE HEAD/BREAD WINNER OF THE HOUSE?

gender (McCann & Kim, 2013). Feminists also react where there is gender discrimination, this is
done through advocacy and awareness creation whereby they fight for the rights of women in
political and socioeconomic factors (Heikes, 2010).
In the American history, there have been two movements that advocate for feminism and
their impact has been felt in America and people are continually changing their perceptions on
gender. The first feminism movement was started in 1920s during abolitionist period since it is
during that time that women like Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady, and Susan B. Antony discovered
that women were not only facing slavery but were also oppressed. The major issue addressed by
the first feminist movement was gender equality whereby women were fighting for their rights.
The second feminism movement was started towards the end of 1960s and the main focus was
also fighting for the rights of women (Tomlinson, 2010). The second movement is still working
to date and has made a remarkable difference on the way people view women in the economic
and social institutions.
Feminism is also based on ensuring that people have consciousness in their day to day
activities by ensuring they are conscious on the need to end sexism. Feminism movements are
concerned on sexual exploitation on women, which is an issue that has been going on since the
early days and the main agenda is ensuring that people across different gender spectrum have
equal rights (Heikes, 2010). Feminism is most expressed by the movements that fight to end
gender inequality. The movements are in different forms and are commonly referred to as
feminisms since they fight for different issues. The movements are also found different
geographical regions and cultural backgrounds and the main goal is justice and gender equity.
The idea behind all the movements is to support women economically and ensure that they live a
life free of oppression. The feminism theory extends feminism into a more philosophical and

WHO IS THE HEAD/BREAD WINNER OF THE HOUSE?

theoretical perspective. The aim of the theory is to create and understanding of the forms of
inequalities in gender and look closely at the womens social roles, interests, and experiences.
The theory further provides criticism on the social relationships and promotes the interests of
women through providing an analysis of gender inequality. The feminists theory also reinforces
gender inequalities by the use of conflict approach. Conflict theory argues that stratification
poses harm to the society since it aims to benefit men and the rich while the children, women and
the poor people suffer (McCann & Kim, 2013). Feminism theory also examines patriarchy and
its role in the society since it supports male dominance. The contributions of the male are
considered to be more valuable that those of women in a patriarchal society thus the women are
marginalized (Heikes, 2010). Feminism further argues that patriarchy is a power system that
promotes male supremacy and makes society look like complex systems that cannot be changed.
Kimberly Crenshaw came up with sociological theory on gender stratification and feminism
movements are taking it into account. The theory is called intersectionality theory that suggests
that different social, biological, and cultural differences that include sex, ethnicity, class and race
form social interactions that have an impact on social inequality. The theory further explains that
oppression and sexism do not occur independently but are interrelated and form a wide range of
discrimination. It also explains that marginalization of women does not occur only on the basis
of gender but also based on factors that include their social status and race (McCann & Kim,
2013).
In her publication An argument for Black Womens Liberation as a Revolutionary Force
Mary Ann Weathers talks about intersectionality in action and reveals black working women of
the 20th century representing a form of intersectionality. She further deeper to explain that the
first and the second feminism movements were ran by white women meaning that feminism was

WHO IS THE HEAD/BREAD WINNER OF THE HOUSE?

not well represented. It is evident that the working class women of color faced a different form of
discrimination compared to the working white women since the women of color dealt with not
only sexism but also oppression due to their low class and racism.
Gender equality focuses on ensuring that there are equal opportunities for men and women so
that no one feels inferior or superior to the other (McCann & Kim, 2013).. Through advocacy by
feminism, women have been empowered through awareness creation and they are able to live
without the constraints that were imposed on them in the traditional society. Gender equality is a
core factor that any leader who wants to develop the economy, promote peace, security and
achieve sustainable development should consider ("Feminism and Sexism", 2016). It is
unfortunate that gender inequality and discrimination still exists in the current society. In some
African countries, girl are forced into early marriages, denied access to education, go through
female genital mutilation and women go through domestic violence. In some communities men
also face domestic violence whereby the women bat up their men and deny them access to basic
needs. The reality is that domestic violence and gender discrimination promotes slow
development and affects the esteem of the people facing it (McCann & Kim, 2013).
Gender inequality also focuses on social stratification whereby differences in the
biological status people deny or give them power. Stratification is also seen when certain groups
enjoy privileges such as power and status over the others (Tomlinson, 2010). This means that in
such societies, people live in different hierarchies that are based on religion, economic status,
race, ethnicity and gender. In most cases, the classifications are defined in regards to the sex of a
person and this is the reason why there is gender inequality in churches, parliament, education
facilities and work places. This further explains that apart from the common of form of social
stratification, there is also existence of gender stratification whereby difference in gender gives

WHO IS THE HEAD/BREAD WINNER OF THE HOUSE?

power to one gender over the other. There is a big difference in the way the society treats men,
women, gender-non-conforming and the transgender.
As seen earlier, sexism is the also referred to as gender discrimination since it is a form of
prejudice that people face in regards to their sex or gender (Tomlinson, 2010). Sexism does not
affect women and girls only but can also affect men but in most cases, women are the most
affected. Sexism is linked to gender stereotypes which are defined by the traditional gender roles
which believe that one gender is stronger than the other. In the extreme cases, sexism may
advocate for rape, sexual violence and different forms of sexual harassment. In the ancient
societies, women and children were seen as a form of property that was to be guarded by the
husband, brothers and fathers and they had no right to own property or acquire education. One of
the common forms of traditional sexism is whereby women were not allowed to participate in
any political matters and voting was done by men (Heikes, 2010). Lack of freedom for voting
continued for a long time and 1893, New Zealand marked history since it was the first country to
give women the freedom for voting. In some of the western countries, women were given the
rights to vote in the 1970s, for example in Swiss, women started voting in 1971. Today, almost
all countries have given women the right to vote but in some states, women are still facing
gender stereotypes. In the political seats, women are mostly allowed to vie one the basis of their
education background and some cases, their physical appearance matters, since women are
commonly believe to be emotional in nature (Tomlinson, 2010).
Women also face gender stereotypes whereby men are believed to be more valuable in
conducting certain activities while women are incompetent. It is evident that some women fail to
conduct certain activities effectively because the society has made them to believe that they
cannot ("Feminism and Sexism", 2016). For instance it is believed that men are can solve

WHO IS THE HEAD/BREAD WINNER OF THE HOUSE?

mathematics problems better than women, and in such cases, women fail in mathematics not
because they are incapable but because gender stereotypes have made them believe that they
cannot. This stereotype threat makes women to doubt their skill which is the reason why some
women do not enroll for technical courses.
According various religious beliefs, the man is called to be the leader of the family but is
not primarily required to be sole bread winner. I also believe that if the wife has a better capacity
for providing, the man just acts like the leader and he should ensure that there is respect in the
family. Other religious believe in the biblical teachings in Gen:2 whereby man was cursed by
God for eating the forbidden fruit. The chapter further explains that man will eat from his sweat
while the woman will have pain during child bearing. But from the teachings, it does not mean
that the woman was delegated the mare duty of child bearing but she should also take care of
children which means that she should take part in providing for the children. Some Theologians
argue all this form the book of Titus 2:5 where women are called to be home workers while men
are not. What is more important to consider from this verse is that it does not mean that women
are supposed to work only at home since providing for the family is part of working at home.
A Christian Theologian argued that house work is not less valuable since women uses
their Gods given gifts to ensure that everything at home is in order (Tomlinson, 2010). He
further explains childbearing and nurturing the children is the most important work in the world.
According to Proverbs 31, the woman is responsible ensuring that there is financial stability in
the house and this means that even if she does not have a paying job, she can ensure that the
money earned by her husband benefits the family. Biblical teachings show that people should
obey the bible and do what is right and that is why women are allowed to help their husbands in
providing for the family since they are called to be helpers. Religious teachings urge people to

WHO IS THE HEAD/BREAD WINNER OF THE HOUSE?

learn that being a leader is not all about money, therefore as much as the man is considered as the
head, money should not define his position in the family (Tomlinson, 2010)..
In the Islamic society, there is a difference between Islamic teachings and Islamic cultural
practices. The Islam men are required to take care of the families and should fulfill all the needs
of their families (McCann & Kim, 2013)..
There have been significant changes in culture over the last few years on the ideas of fatherhood
(Meron, 2010). In the current society, people have witnessed changes in the in the household
roles whereby men are cooking for the family and doing other chores such as washing dishes
("Feminism and Sexism", 2016)
. The mother and father are now co-workers in the family since both of them provide for
the family and make household budget together (Meron, 2010). There have been changes in
equality and justice between couples. In the traditional societies, fathers spent more time
working and did not spend quality time with their families. What mattered the most was the
economic situation for they were striving to provide and make more money. In the era of hunting
and gathering, fathers would leave their houses early in the morning since the most important
thing for them was to bring home the meat and a considerable amount of food for the family
(Tomlinson, 2010).
The male breadwinner model is essentially an ideal of the family unit., whereby men
receive a family wage and provide for their families while women assume the role of caregivers
and domestic workers. This paradigm is part of a much greater gendered separation between
private and public spheres. Although it has never been fully realized, this ideal has been central
to most western civilizations as the underlying logic of numerous state policies geared towards
gender roles and relations in paid employment and the basic unit, the family. According to the

WHO IS THE HEAD/BREAD WINNER OF THE HOUSE?

International Encyclopedia of Social Policy (2016), the male breadwinner model, as put forth by
Jane Lewis, is a tool for increasing awareness on the gender-based disparities between welfare
regimes.
Nevertheless, the constructs of the male breadwinner model and its outcomes when put
into practice were challenged by Eleanor Rathbone in her book, The Disinherited Family
(London: 1924). In her arguments, Rathbone argued that over half of the male working
population did not have children, implying that the family wage would be supporting 16 million
phantom kids. Single mothers, on the other hand, would be left to support their children on an
extremely low wage. Her solution to the problem was to give family allowances to women to
help them protect themselves from domestic violence and their kids from poverty. Although
these propositions were indeed implemented in the post-war epoch, the ensuing transformation
of the labor market and the family in the twentieth century have made the family more diverse as
employments opportunities become increasingly insecure (Engster & Metz, 2016). Subsequently,
the male breadwinner model has been considered as an insufficient basis for children and
womens security.
Crompton, Lewis, and Lyonette (2007) argue that strong breadwinner administrations
usually have state policies that foster the connection between women, the home, and their
dependency in marriage. The Beveridge Report, for instance, increased the domestic roles of
women and persuaded married women to increase their dependency in their husbands for
purposes of social security instead of being individual contributors. Married women were denied
access to the Invalid Care Allowance because policy makers believed that caring was womens
natural role. However, the breadwinner model comes with numerous disadvantages. For
example, it makes women highly dependent within cohabitation or marriage, particularly those

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with young kids. Further, even though the participation of women in the labor market has
increased in the recent years, women in regimes with string make breadwinner models continue
to bear excessively high costs unpaid labor, work part-time, and deal with broken career patterns.
Consequently, women are exposed to considerably low lifetime earnings as compared to their
male counterparts, as well as poverty and insecurity in case of termination of the relationship
(Elgarte, 2008).
A suitable solution to the problems introduced by the male breadwinner model lies in the
ideals proposed by Frasers universal caregiver model. Ideally, a feminist approach to policy
making and political thinking is primarily one that identifies a theory of justice that is not
dependent on life patterns and male experiences alone. Instead, it should pay attention to the
singular hurdles faced by women in their endeavor to pursue a personal life plan. Although
women have gained equal legal rights to men to pursue further education, participate in politics
and hold property, they do not have equal opportunities to effectively use these rights,
particularly due to the history of their subordination and its manifold shadows. The tendency to
assign different roles to men and women is the core contributor of the lifelong inequality in
todays world (Crompton, Lewis, & Lyonette, 2007).
According to the International Encyclopedia of Social Policy (2016), the best way to
redress the incessant adverse effects on the gendered division of labor is to create an avenue
through which women can cross over to the mens plane of the divide and let the market or the
state deal with the womens side. In short, women can only be liberated through engagement in
permanent paid labor and allowing the market or the state to take on the immense care-giving
role that was traditional assigned to women, in support of Nancy Frasers universal caregiver

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model. This solution implies that once women have secured full-time paid jobs, they too can
significantly contribute to the family, thereby achieving some sense of equality.
Frasers model asserts that gender justice cannot be fully achieved unless the gendered
division of labor (GDL) is eradicated. GDL refers to a situation whereby men are assigned paid,
productive work while women are left with the unpaid, reproductive work. According to Elgarte
(2008), the universal caregiver model promotes gender equity by eradicating the gendered
antagonism between care-giving and breadwinning. It entails activities that are presently
disconnected, do away with their gender coding, and persuade members of opposite sex to
perform them. This restructuring of the gender order is already underway in many parts of the
world, particularly in the United States, where women have also become the primary or sole
breadwinners in the family.
The shift to an economy whereby women can also be breadwinners in the family has
been mirrored in a research conducted by the Pew Research Center on the census and polling
data. The study found that four in every 10 American families with kids under the age of 18 had
a mother who is the primary or sale breadwinner for the household, a situation that points to
changing family dynamics. Presently, it has become expected and accepted that married women
should also join the labor market. In addition, single mothers are increasingly raising children on
their own. Rampel (2016) attributes this situation where more women have been pushed into
primary earning positions to the recession because men are disproportionately engaged in sectors
such as manufacturing and construction, which suffered the most during the economic downturn.
The changing attitudes of women towards working have also changed significantly.
According to the research by Pew Research Center, the proportion of women who prefer to work
full-time instead of part-time or not at all increased from 20 to 32 percent between 2007 and

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2012. While there still exists a division concerning whether it is good for mothers to work fulltime, most Americans concede that an increasing number of working mothers makes it easier for
households to earn enough income and live comfortably. Further, there is an increase in the
proportion of women who earn more than their husbands, from six percent in 1960 to 24 percent
in 2012. This trend is reflective of a society that is increasingly accepting that both men and
women can be breadwinners in the family (Rampell, 2016).
Conclusion
The present world has diverged from the traditional roles as advocated by schools of
thought such as sexism, which proposed distinctly different gender roles, thereby encouraging
inequality between men and women. Feminists have had major breakthroughs, and women can
now enjoy almost similar rights and freedoms to men. The effects introduced by the feminist
movements have led to more women being expected and accepted in the labor force. The
eradication of gender stereotypes in the society has allowed women to contribute constructively
to the family, rather than being caregivers and taking on an unpaid reproductive role. Contrary to
the once popular belief, women can also earn a family wage and support their households in
various meaningful ways.
From a religious perspective, men are often referred to as the head of the family. This
connotation is primarily with regard to roles such as decision making, whereby men should be
allowed to lead the family, in consultation with women. Some theologians translate the Bible
verse where God cursed Adam and Eve after eating the forbidden fruit and declared that man
would eat from his sweat while women would have pain during childbirth to mean that women
should take on reproductive activities while men worked. However, others feel that the duty of

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childbearing comes with additional responsibilities of providing for the kids, in which women
should also take part.
With the rapidly changing family dynamics, household members are continuously
assuming roles that were primarily not theirs. Men, for instance, are cooking and taking care of
children. Women are also increasingly getting employed and earning modest wages. These
changes have led to the decline of the male breadwinner model in favor of Frasers universal
caregiver model. Research has also indicated that more Americans prefer to have working
women than stay-at-home mothers. Further, more single mothers are taking care of children on
their own, and a significant percentage of women are even earning more than their husbands.
This implies that the role of being a caregiver is no longer the preserve of men.

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References
Crompton, R., Lewis, S. & Lyonette, C. (2007). Women, men, work and family in Europe.
Basingstoke England New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Elgarte, J. M. (2008). Arguing for a universal caregiver model of welfare provision and assessing
alternative incarnations1.
Engster, D. & Metz, T. (2016). Justice, politics, and the family. London: Routledge, Taylor &
Francis Group.
Feminism and Sexism. (2016). Saylordotorg.github.io. Retrieved 17 November 2016,
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Heikes, D. (2010). Rationality and feminist philosophy. London New York: Continuum.
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2016, from http://cw.routledge.com/ref/socialpolicy/male.html
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Meron. (2010). The mother and the bread winner : the socio-economic role and status of Gumuz
women. Berlin London: Lit Global distributor.
Rampell, C. (2016). U.S. Women on the Rise as Family Breadwinner. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 17
November 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/business/economy/womenas-family-breadwinner-on-the-rise-study-says.html
Tomlinson, B. (2010). Feminism and affect at the scene of argument : beyond the trope of the
angry feminist. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.