Gender Role Ideology and Intimacy

Women and men relate to each other in many contexts—in family life, work and formal organizations, marriage and cohabitation, friendships, and a host of others. In all of these settings, individuals confront expectations of how they should behave and think. Although some expectations may be widely shared (e.g., calling to say thank-you after receiving a gift), others vary depending on whether you are a woman or a man. Gender role ideologies is one name sociologists have given to these sex-specific expectations. This phrase refers to a “gender role,” understood as a set of expected actions and dispositions ascribed to an individual on the basis of her or his assumed biological sex. Gender also functions as “ideology,” in the sense that there is a fervent and perhaps widespread belief in the truth of the expected roles. Thus, gender role ideologies may be deeply held, and not easily relinquished; they weigh upon all individuals to varying degrees.

This entry addresses the place of gender role ideologies in past and present-day heterosexual romantic relationships. Romantic relationships (e.g., married and, more recently, cohabiting) have provided fertile ground for enacting gender role ideologies. These ideologies guide individuals' answers to many practical questions arising in everyday life, and especially in romantic relationships. Will women or men perform housework? Are men or women more emotionally attached to romantic relationships? How much time should be spent together and apart? If there are children, who will work, and who will stay at home? And although these questions continue in their importance, recent social developments also present new questions for women and men to work through, and the possibility for new, more egalitarian gender role ideologies. In part, this potential for new gender role ideologies is linked to a “culture of intimacy,” a concept that has been central to discussions of heterosexual relationships for the past 25 to 30 years.

[Page 372]The following section reviews past gender role ideologies, highlighting the social conditions that accompanied particular beliefs about women and men. Next, the entry provides a summary of how an emergent “culture of intimacy” organizes contemporary heterosexual relationships. The final section assesses the status of gender role ideologies as they exist in romantic relationships enmeshed in today's culture of intimacy.