Although, we have known the word gender in grammar obviously, it is being used differently now. The word gender is now being used Sociologically, or as a conceptual category, and it has been given a specific meaning. In its new incarnation gender refers to the socio-cultural definition of man and woman and assign them social roles. It is used as an analytical tool to understand social realities with regard to women and men.

The nature of this article is not based on feminism but to define what people see in terms of gender roles. Today also it is taught in school textbooks of kids that a woman is meant to be a house maker or a teacher or a nurse and same as a man is meant to be a doctor or a business person. When these jobs are reversed, we fall into a huge whirlpool of thoughts, is it even possible. And we sometimes take these things to be wrong. But, this is not the way gender roles works.

Gender Division of Labour: Gender division of labour, refers to the different roles, responsibilities, and tasks to women and men based on societal ideas of what men and women should do and are capable of doing. Different tasks are assigned to girls and boys, women and men according to their sex-gender roles, and not necessarily according to their individual prefrences/ capabilities.

Gender division of labour also leads to hierarchies and inequalities because men and women’s labour is not valued or rewarded equally. Even now, equal pay for equal work is not the norm in most countries; housework is unpaid; and women are the first to be fired when recession hits the workplace. The gender division of labour is not the same everywhere. It is specific to culture, location, and time. To challenge the gender division of labour in society means challenging what being a “man” and “woman” in a society entail.

The situation may not always be intolerable; but it is impossible to predict that it will not become so. –Clavdia von Werlhof

The gender division of labour is responsible for statistics like : Globally women hold only 14 per cent senior management positions (UNDP Human Development Report, 1995) ; the ratio between women’s salaries and men’s salaries in US continues to be 3:5 and this has not changed in the last one hundred years. Seventy per cent of the world’s poorest and illiterate people are women.

This data exactly show that what we thought of gender roles and what they really are. These are how the tactics work in this world. It is said that, “Woman’s place in the house, therefore women should be in the both houses of Parliament “.

In the conclusion, there is a need to focus on the positions women are placed in the society. Because women gives birth to a child and feed the child, it does not mean that the work of women is to nurture only. To assess the position we need to look at the social relations of gender or power relations between men and women. To improve women’s position the existing norms, structure and power relations between men and women have to be changed.

Refrences:- 1. Understanding Gender by Kamla Bhasin 2. Lerner Greda, 1986, The Creation of Patriarchy.