Gender and Family Ideals

Abstract

This article relies on in-depth, open-ended interviews with 15 Black men to explore three questions: What do Black men and Black women expect from marital life? How did these expectations evolve? and What impact, if any, will these expectations have on the cycle of the second shift and provider role strain? The author found that the male and female respondents expect that men will take on the provider roles in their families because a man's self-worth is rooted in his ability to take on the provider role. Respondents also expect that women will be nurturers in their families. This is not to suggest that the male respondents expect that their wives will be submissive—far from it. In fact, the male respondents expect their wives to work. However, regardless of whether women work or not, the respondents insist that men have to be providers and women have to be nurturers in their families. Finally, the male and female respondents intend to pass/have passed their gender-specific ideologies about family life and spousal roles on to their children.