Women throughout the ages have always played a pivotal role in the shaping of society, especially seen in the family set up as well as positions of leadership. Traditionally, women are considered as mothers, the agents of procreation as well as wives, who were to diligently be at the service of not only their husbands but also the whole society.
In today’s society, together with their traditional roles, women have shown high degrees of responsibility for not only their families but also for the wider society that is especially seen in political, social, scientific and many more fields (Bert, 2006).
With the rise of feminism ideals, women have sought to disentangle themselves from traditional values that have proven to sideline them from self-independence and actualization as women (Cook, 2006). This is seen in the capabilities of women that are emphasized such as being the backbone of developing the world economies.
But that does not mean that women cease to be women but rather as complementary of the malefactor. In most families where women have taken up an important role, that of supplementing their men in providing for the family through involvement in salaried jobs, such families flourish economically because there is no straining of the family financially which could have been realized if only the man were providing for the household (Bert, 2006).
Traditionally, men were regarded as family breadwinners; women were on the receiving end as homemakers. But this has greatly changed due to the economic times that call for a substantially good income to support families. In the leadership arena, quite several great women rulers stand out as good and successful leaders, one of the examples being that of the Margret Thatcher and the likes.
In today’s society, very many women have stood out as exemplary world leaders. Most of who have not ignored their roles at the family and society level. Though with powers, some of them have proven otherwise with the rise in divorce cases due to feminist ideals.
In the advent of the era characterized by divorces and single parenthood taking center stage, women are put in the limelight as the family breadwinners and as mothers too. Their roles have taken another turn because of this. This though has not been seen as a problem on their side because they have stood the test of time to prove that they indeed can manage (Cook, 2006).
When serving as family breadwinners and mothers at the same time, they get less involved with their children because most of the time they have to be out working, but they always tend to find time for their families which gives room for more bonding and developing good- mother-child relationships.
When they play the role of mothers in the family, they are the first child educators before a child seeks formal education, as wives, as the common analog states, ‘behind every successful man, is a woman,’ it is evident that the role of women in society calls for a lot, traditionally they were to stand by their husbands as homemakers and as mothers, a child’s success was attributed mainly to the mother (Cook, 2006).
Even though women have gotten involved much more in outdoor activities away from their spouses and children, their roles still stand and most of them once away from the office or their work stations, they are the diligent wives and mothers.
References
Bert, L. (2006). Women’s Rights: A Human Rights Quarterly Reader. Baltimore. The Johns Hopkins University Press
Cook, B. (2006). Women and War: A Historical Encyclopedia from Antiquity to the Present. ABC – CLIO.