most people still exhibit strong sex- role bias.
I'd agree than many people do, perhaps even most. But there was I time within lifetime that a strong sex-role bias was a given. It's not so anymore. In most things most of the time in "secular" situations such as the workplace, the difference is barely distinguishable. I spend three hours a day at the pool and I have never noticed any male or female behavior. None to speak of. The difference between men and women is obvious, especially when they're wearing swimsuits, but I have not noticed any difference in the ways they interact, for example, in determining who gets which lane or how they approach their workouts. About the only difference I've seen is that there are a few older women who wear makeup to the pool and don't want to get their hair wet. And when I say "older," I mean a lot older than me. If you still see a strong sex-role bias, you're looking at a different demographic from mine.
Sure, most firefighters are still men and probably always will be. But there was a time when there was so such thing as a firefighter, there were fireMEN. And their "little ladies" at home. Sure, more women than men are family lawyers, but in comparison to when women didn't go into law at all... Nowadays, women are as likely to become lawyers as men.
I'm not suggesting that the world has turned androgenous--women still tend to more averse to getting dirty on the job--only that the differences now are much less. A residual sex-role bias, on average, not a strong one. |
