South African women have been courageous across all racial lines. When Thabo Mbeki was still the president of South Africa, he stated that 'No government in South Africa could ever claim to represent the will of the people if it failed to address the central task of emancipation of women in all its element and this includes the government we are privileged to lead' (www.sahistory.org.za). This clearly shows that the 1956 march to Union buildings was not in vain. Men including political leaders have seen the importance of women in society and doing something about it.
South Africa has a different kind of all racial and ethnic groups and each has long-standing beliefs concerning gender roles. Most of these beliefs are based on the premise that women are less important than men. Men are seen as more powerful and deserve to be treated as such. Many religious organisations especially the ones that have existed for a long period of time put men in the forefront and women to be following behind them.
Gender roles are also categorized according to academic achievements. There have been a number of students aspiring to careers in STEM in the last decade. STEM is an acronym that stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This STEM workforce is also increasingly diversifying with respect to gender as female students outnumber male students in some STEM fields, such as biology, medicine, and chemistry (Beede et al.,2011). However, females are still underrepresented in engineering, computer science, and physical sciences (Chen and Ho,2012). However, that has changed a lot lately. Women are seen in all spheres of work. Women have the courage to stand up and do what they want thanks to the women who have made an impact on gender stereotypes; their contribution is not only visible to society but also in the steps of Union Building. For example, Helen Suzman is one of the women who stood up and fought for gender differences. She was the only member of the parliament who made her presence felt by openly opposing the policies of the National Party and urging the government to open discussion with the Liberation movement.
With regards to people's similarities and differences, when the child is born, he or she is blank and does not understand the difference between a male and a female, but as they grow, they watch how people behave and copy that. Parents differentiate children by assigning them tasks based on their gender. They buy them toys that clearly determine whether you are a girl or a boy. However, early education plays a huge role in someone's life. Adults teach these kids about gender differences unaware of how much impact it will have on a child's future as they interact with other people in their adult life. Teachers also play a huge role in shaping a human being. Children believe in their teachers, especially in the early years of schooling.
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The study explored by (Cahill and Adams 1997) on the relationship between early childhood teachers' adult gender roles beliefs and their attitude about children's gender role behavior. Teachers were women who expressed non-traditional beliefs regarding traditional gender roles for adults. It was stated that this feminist orientation appeared to be related to perceptions about child rearing in that teachers who supported non-traditional gender role beliefs for adults also did for children. It was found that teachers were more accepting of cross-gender role behaviors and aspirations from girls than boys and that the difference was related to homophobia. There were strong relationships found between child-rearing gender roles beliefs and attitudes toward gay men and lesbians.
With changing gender roles, people are now embracing their gender differently compared to the past years when women were forced to behave in a certain way while men had the power to do as they please. (Ogletree, 2014) states that changing gender roles are impacting how employment and household childcare responsibilities are shared within a marriage. With evolving gender roles, the potential benefits and disadvantages of marriage related to marital satisfaction may be changing from women to men.
(Villa,1994) researches on gender roles and human capital investment. The relationship between traditional attitude and female labor market performance. Individual responses were constructed with statements related to the role of women and examined to determine whether it is correlated to individual characteristics. In the results, it was that female attitudes towards working women are developed in their youth and results in substantial reductions in their human capital investment, labor supply, and rates of return to education. It is also found that these attitudes are determined outside the educational process.
Several studies have been conducted to investigate if religious tendency and gender roles predicted the attitudes of people and women's work roles. Another challenge that is found in distinguishing gender roles is found in religious organizations. Most people in South African societies are religious, they believe in God and the Holy Bible. If you are a believer in God it is easy to be manipulated you will easily believe anything said by the Priest because you want to be closer to God and definitely try to follow the ways of the Holy Bible. In the Bible, it is stated how women should dress and behave, especially in church. And that the man is the head and should be respected. When they preach they also say that if a woman does not submit to a husband, which means she cannot submit to the Priest as well as Jesus because the way to God is through them. Corinthians 11 verses 4 to 12 says 'Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head; it is the same as having a head shaved. A man ought not to cover his head since he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of a man. For man did not come from a woman but a woman from man; neither was man created for woman but woman for man. It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head because of her angels. Nevertheless, in the Lord women is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For a woman came from a man, so also a man is born of a woman. But everything comes from God. Holy Bible
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