ABSTRACT
Researchers in the West began to pay attention to the study of gender roles as a result of the women’s movement in the early 1970s. Initially, attention was focused mainly on re-examining women’s conventional gender roles, but later, inquiries started to include men and especially their roles within the family. The delay in the study of male gender roles was caused partly by the fact that researchers and the public were blinded by gender-stereotypes and took it for granted that the man’s role within the family was that of a provider. For instance, this is clear from the fact that while a large number of people show their concern about the ability of working mothers to care for children, only a few express a similar concern about working fathers (Strong and DeVault 1992).
