Editing Gender role (section)

===Talcott Parsons===
Working in the [[United States]] in 1955, [[Talcott Parsons]]<ref>[http://www.arte-tv.com Franco-German TV Station ARTE], Karambolage, August 2004.</ref> developed a model of the [[nuclear family]], which at that place and time was the prevalent family structure. The model compared a traditional contemporaneous view of gender roles with a more liberal view. The Parsons model was used to contrast and illustrate extreme positions on gender roles, i.e., gender roles described in the sense of Max Weber's [[ideal type]]s (an exaggerated and simplified version of a phenomenon, used for analytical purposes) rather than how they appear in reality.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=West |first1=Candace |last2=Zimmerman |first2=Don H. |date=1987 |title=Doing Gender |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/189945 |journal=Gender and Society |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=125–151 |doi=10.1177/0891243287001002002 |jstor=189945 |issn=0891-2432}}</ref> Model A described a total separation of male and female roles, while Model B described the complete dissolution of gender roles.<ref>Brockhaus: Enzyklopädie der Psychologie, 2001.</ref>
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" border="1" style="border-collapse: collapse;"
|
! Model A – Total role segregation !! Model B – Total integration of roles
|-
! [[Education]]
| Gender-specific education; high professional qualification is important only for the man.
| Co-educative schools, same content of classes for girls and boys, same qualification for men and women.
|-
! [[Profession]]
| The workplace is not the primary area of women; career and professional advancement is deemed unimportant for women.
| For women, career is just as important as for men; equal professional opportunities for men and women are necessary.
|-
! Housework
| Housekeeping and child care are the primary functions of the woman; participation of the man in these functions is only partially wanted.
| All housework is done by both parties to the marriage in equal shares.
|-
! [[Decision making]]
| In case of conflict, man has the last say, for example in choosing the place to live, choice of school for children, and buying decisions.
| Neither partner dominates; solutions do not always follow the principle of finding a concerted decision; [[status quo]] is maintained if disagreement occurs.
|-
! Child care and education
| Woman takes care of the largest part of these functions; she educates children and cares for them in every way.
| Man and woman share these functions equally.
|}

The model is consciously a simplification; individuals' actual behavior usually lies somewhere between these poles. According to the [[interactionist]] approach, gender roles are not fixed but are constantly renegotiated between individuals.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://ieet.org/archive/IEET-03-PostGender.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://ieet.org/archive/IEET-03-PostGender.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |title=Postgenderism: Beyond the Gender Binary |last=Dvorsky |first=George |date=2008 |work=ieet.org |access-date=3 May 2019}}</ref>