Ch.4 Equal Partnership Between Men & Women in Families

           Growing up in the Church, I can often recall being taught that men and women are different but are of equal value.  Because of this it has always made sense to me that men and women are no better than the other.  They are much like puzzle pieces filling in the empty spaces of one another.  In the class textbook, “Successful Marriages and Families,” Elder Bruce C. Hafen and his wife shared this insight saying, “Eve was Adam’s ‘help meet’ (Genesis 2:18). The original Hebrew for meet means that Eve was adequate for, or equal to, Adam.  She wasn’t his servant or his subordinate (2007, p.27).”  In accordance to what Elder and Sister Hafen said, God intended both men and women to work together as a team in all they do.  To find out more about what others thought, I came up with a question or two and sought some feedback.

How do you feel about the roles of men and women within a family? Where does the man’s roles end and the woman’s begin?  How do their roles factor into this?  These are some of the questions I asked when speaking with others in order to discover their opinions.  To get a more varied set of responses, I spoke with people from different backgrounds.

When interviewing I spoke with a guy named Stephen, who is married and has a little boy. Upon asking him this question he responded saying, “I believe men and women to be equally important in a marriage and family. Each gender has their strengths and weaknesses where both man and women need to come together and help each other. An example would be that naturally men are to go out and provide for their families while the women stay at home. Though, were the man to lose his job and or need help bringing in money then the woman can pitch in and find some way to help her husband.” When asking my co-worker Maria who is single, she shared her thoughts saying, “ Women should be able to do pretty much whatever a man is able to do. They are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves without a man leading the way.”

As you can see there is quite a difference in opinions between Stephen and Maria. In today’s society people are being led to believe that either men are not needed in the home or men have too much control in the home, but not that men and women are not better than the other. People need to realize that we all have something to offer the other and that we need to cease being so narrow minded and see the greater picture.

Links to Consider…

http://mormon.org/faq/role-of-husband-wife