ABSTRACT
Historically, men were supposed to focus their lives on producing an income and participating in the community. This emphasis meant that the value placed on achievement has been applied to men, especially White men, and that women were evaluated based on ascriptive criteria. Thus, it is no accident that a woman would be asked, “What does your husband do?” at social gatherings. Men's status in the community depended on what they did for a living, on their productive activity outside the home. It indicated their place in the stratification hierarchy, their ability to share in the distribution of resources. Men were often called breadwinners because their income put food on the table. Women, by contrast, were supposed to reproduce, raise children, and care for the home. This emphasis meant that educational and occupational opportunity was restricted no matter how much ability they had or how hard they worked. Women's position was set by birth; as wives, they were attached to men, accompanied men, and helped men succeed. It would have been odd to ask a man, “What does your wife do?” Although women were not usually called breadservers, that was their role. This rather rigid gender-based system of domination meant that women at every class level had restricted life chances. But the issue goes beyond sharing in the distribution of goods and services: Women have had less autonomy, less freedom to make life choices. The name for these expectations and the basis for gender as a system of domination is 2 traditional gender norms. 1
