Gender roles refer to acceptable, desirable or appropriate social role that is based on ones perceived sexuality. While today the aspect of gender role seems to reduce, in early ages and middle age to be specific, men and women performed different tasks that were defined by their sexuality. There were roles that were left for women as men undertook others. For instance, women in the middle ages held positions of a mother, a wise, a peasant, a nun and an artisan. Men on the other hand engaged in more economic duties that majorly kept them out of their homes as women were around the homes taking care of the children and domestic duties.
Presently, women just as men engage in economic roles and do not have any gender limitations on their roles. Men have as well been seen to take care of children and domestic chores.
It is important to note that even in the same gender; there were disparities that existed in gender roles. For instance, peasant men did not have similar roles to the noble men. During the middle age, it was the peasant men that fought by the king’s side and worked in the fields for long hours. The noble men then owned land and had some people who could work on them at low pay. On the same note, peasant women as well had different roles from noble women.
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"Gender Roles in the Middle Ages: 500-1500 CE".
Some noble women rose to leadership positions and owned land. In today’s setup, roles are still divided based on peoples’ classes. As some people take management and administrative roles, there are others that still offer semi-skilled or unskilled labor in the fields or in construction sites. What can be generally agreed on to have changed in gender roles are the discriminatory roles that were left for people of a given sex.
