Young Canadians cling to traditional gender roles; experts horrified
September 23, 2011
A survey by the international development agency Plan International has found that many teenage Canadian boys believe that a woman’s primary role is to care for a family.
About one-third of the boys surveyed said that women’s first duties were at home, while nearly half said that men should provide for the family’s income. Nearly half also said that “to be a man, you need to be tough.”
These results worried the survey’s sponsors. Rosemary McCarney, the director of Plan in Canada, said that the survey results “should also be worrying for all of us.”
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Posted by: Gil125 -
Sep. 24, 2011 3:36 PM ET USA
The bad news is that two-thirds of the Canadian boys surveyed have drunk the Kool-Aid.
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Posted by: -
Sep. 24, 2011 8:21 AM ET USA
I'm surprised the number isn't higher. All but the extraordinary few of these boys must daily experience the care of their mothers. Even mothers who work outside the home confirm through their motherhood that a woman's primary role is to care for a family. We know this intuitively. And since when is toughness, a trait essential to self-sacrifice and self-restraint, a vice rather than a virtue?
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Posted by: DrJazz -
Sep. 24, 2011 7:15 AM ET USA
One-third of Canadian boys surveyed won't drink Rosemary McCarney's Kool-Aid. Good for them.
