the wide variety of social and cultural expectations in regards to the behaviours and attitudes that are considered acceptable or expected of individuals because of their sex and/or gender.

Closely related to gender norms, gender roles vary between societies and cultures, constantly evolve and have changed throughout history. A prominent example of gender roles in the West that has been challenged, is the idea that a woman‘s role in society is to be a wife and mother first and foremost, and for a man‘s role to be the one that is employed.

These expected gender roles, therefore, have created a society in which a working mother is viewed much differently to a working father, and, equally, a stay-at-home father being viewed much differently to a stay-at-home mother. Because of this, there are many negative stereotypes and cultural attitudes associated with working mothers and stay-at-home fathers respectively; a set of double-standards which do not apply when fathers work and mothers opt to stay at home (for example, that the stay-at-home father is ‘unemployed’ rather than fulfilling a valuable role, or that the working mother is neglecting her mothering duties or ‘missing out’ by working).

This pertinent example further extends to other cultural attitudes which place negative attitudes in regards to expectations: for example, that if a woman lacks the desire to want children, that she is somehow ‘broken’, or that any man who has a strong paternal instinct to raise or work with children is either effeminate, or doing so for some ulterior motive (e.g. a sexual one).