The Breakup of the Sex-Role Caste System

Abstract

The ancient system of sex roles, under which men were assigned a monopoly of access to money and the public sphere, and mature women were restricted to the home, came under severe attack over the course of the last century and a half in most developed countries. The social and economic forces behind the release of women from obligatory domesticity are far from spent; they continue to reinforce each other and grow stronger. An economic cataclysm or a wave of religious fanaticism such as occurred in Iran and Afghanistan could bring a regression, but barring such upheavals, women will not retreat back into domesticity. On the contrary, the emergence of women into the money economy and into larger roles in the society will probably go further, both in the developed and in the developing countries.