Moral Dilemmas Essay

Moral Dilemmas, Moral Strategies, and the Transformation of Gender Lessons from Two Generations of Work and Family Change Women seek personal development by caring for others and men care for others by sharing the rewards of independent achievement are the traditional social norm in the 20th century. In the 21st century, people started to question whether women and men should really be separated into two distinct, opposed and unchanging moral categories. Women and men now have conflicts and tensions between family and work, public and private, autonomy and commitment, for these, gender dichotomy cannot be used to solve as in the past. Undoubtedly, gender dichotomy in moral orientation can resolve the universal tension to certain extent, but it is only prescriptive rather than descriptive. Gender is a social institution rather than an inherent trait and it is now transforming. Women now seek self-sufficiency economically and socially, they seek personal and social commitment outside the home, while men’s breadwinning role and obligation to support women and children diminish. Women and men are now facing socially structured moral dilemma. Investigating how the new generation thinks, the interview reveals that the young generation believes that it is difficult to keep a relationship with balanced autonomy and commitment. They believed that it is not morally wrong to end the relationship if the two do not get along well. Ending the relationship would be better than keeping a bad relationship, not only to the couple, but also to their children. Also, they appreciated their mothers if they work and think that both women and men should care for the family both financially and emotionally. As it seems difficult to apportion moral labor by gender-neutral strategies, women and men diverge in their opinion in gender role. Men prefer the Neotraditionalism, that is, the couple share the breadwinning but the women have to place family first, but this collide with what the women long for, autonomy before commitment, and they want to be economically independent. In my opinion, this gender transformation has significant importance to people in the 21st century, especially to women. In the past, because of the gender dichotomy, women are restrained from work and are expected to stay at home to manage the household, e. g. look after the children, do the household chores, they have to devote all their time to the family and have to give up their dreams, even if they are talented or have potential in some fields, they do not have the opportunity to explore into their careers. Also, they have to be tolerant to the household violence just because they are economically dependent and they rely on their husbands for living. They do not have the working ability because they have spent most of their time in the family and they have already been detached from the outside work society. It is also difficult for them to find jobs because of the social and cultural environment that do not encourage women working. As a result, women are trapped in the marriage for their whole life. On the other hand, the traditional gender dichotomy does not only give disadvantages to the women, men also suffer from that. Men are the sole breadwinner in the family and they have to bear the pressure to earn the living for the whole family. Because they have to work hard to support the family financially, always with long working hours, they may not have time to care for their children. They have less time and opportunity to communicate with the children and build good relationships with them. Men have no choice but to sacrifice the time with their family. Now, we are lucky that the gender difference is getting smaller and the moral obligation for men and women are not so obviously divided. Though there are still structural and cultural contradictions in the society nowadays, women and men now enjoy more freedom to choose what they want to do to attain a balance between family and work, autonomy and commitment. To help with the transformation, more family-friendly elements should be added to the society and in the workplace to help women and men to strive for their success in both their careers and their families.