What brought interest to me, not necessarily in an appealing way, was Social Role Theory.

What brought interest to me, not necessarily in an appealing way, was Social Role Theory. The idea that biological roles play a role in men and women’s preferences. Biological roles constrain the roles that men and women adopt. (Eagly, Wood &Johannsen-Schmidt 2004). While this thought process may have been adopted in my parent’s day if you expressed this theory to today’s female millennial (brave one!) she would laugh heartily in your face ! While I would hope men would see it with the same amusement, my personal findings have been we still have some work ahead of us.

What could make the motivational theory / approach work best here for women is the idea of proving it wrong. Women today use this theory as an incentivized way to disprove it as they grow in population of becoming the primary bread winners of their household as well as breaking the glass ceiling in corporations in high level executive positions. Educating both genders to the advantage of success in business, with women having a significant role in the workplace environment, will be paramount in the years ahead. Men as well being seen as a viable caregiver to children allow PTO days to be taken equally for a sick child at home or to care for an ailing parent. Men need to be seen as competent caregivers as well, such as being given parental leave when having a baby, to form the bonding process.

I think other approaches, such as a divide and conquer mentality (Mindset that women are “better” in certain areas than men), can produce a divided environment of which no one wins. In order to get past this ideology and into the present and future we need to recognize it will only be accomplished together, as human kind, not as mankind or womankind. This will require men speaking up for women when they feel there is inequality in pay, promotions, etc and women speaking up when they observe men being pressured into a mentality of macho masculinity.

References: Lilenfield, Lynn,Namy, Woolf (2014). Social Role Theory, page 450 , Third Edition Psychology: from Inquiry to Understanding