Gender Roles in My Family

Gender roles may begin as soon as the birth of a child in the way they are dressed by their parents based on their gender, however, along with the clothing comes an expectation of how they should act and how others will act around them. My family consists of my two younger brothers, and older sister, mother, father, and myself. Within our family our parents and other family members have expectations on how my sister and I should act as women as well as how my brothers should act and perform certain duties or chores as boys. My family comes strictly from a Mexican background which can be quite conservative heritage when it comes to social life. Men, in general, have always been seen with more power while a woman's place is right behind the husband attending to their every need, cooking, cleaning, and other things even at a young age. The women in my family are the complete opposite. Since I was young I was taught to not let anyone step on me and to get ahead by getting an education, good job, eventually becoming a powerful woman. The typical gender role for women has nothing to do with surpassing the position of a man, but when done so it is looked upon in a positive way, while if a man were to lose his position to a woman, people would view it negatively. Although other people might view women as vulnerable, sensitive, and weak our family views, a bit out of tradition, view women as independent, powerful, and strong.
There were times when our parents had to explain why my brothers were treated differently than we were. Their explanation was because they were boys they could have more freedom without having to deal with the repercussions that a girl would have to deal with if she had freedom but did not go about it in a wise manner. My father would also talk to my brothers a lot more than to me and my sister and his explanation was that they could relate because they were the same gender, rather than try to elope a little more and converse with my sister and I. When it comes to chores in the household you will hardly ever see a