Mother and father have different roles in some countries due to the local culture. However, in recent years the parenting roles start to change and it’s predicted that in the future parents will have similar duties.
The ‘patriarcy’ culture has been rooted for many years, especially in our country. Based on their ancestor stories and today’s practice, father plays a vital role as breadwinner, while mother tend to be housewife. This can be seen from an idiom in Javanese culture, “the woman duties are touching up, cooking, and giving birth.” Women is not allowed to go far away from their home because they must finish all the house duties. In contrast, it’s forbidden for men only to stay at home conducting female’s duties.
Nowadays, people have changed. They start to realise and aware about gender study. Equality is the key of the connection between men and women. In a household, male and female should share the duties to each other, so that mother and father have the same roles, except for given duties such as giving birth and breastfeeding. It’s not an obligation for father to earn money and the opposite it’s not a must for mother to stay at home taking care the children and doing house duties. The survey conducted by Woman National Agency (WNA) showed that 4 out of 10 males in Indonesia have role to earn wage for their family life and it is estimated that the number will be increased in the following years. Today, we can see there are many fathers take their kids up to the school, prepare children’s daily needs such as meal, clothes, etc, and accompany toddlers playing in playground.
To sum up, due to local culture father and mother have different roles in looking after and educating their children. But today, this culture starts to change and it can be predicted that the role of male and female in parenting will be the same in the future.