Benjamin Toubia Gender Role Conflict

The article, “Gender Role Conflict, Role Division, and the Gay Relational Experience” by Benjamin Toubia, published by Journal of Systemic Therapies in 2014 explains the study of same-sex couples issues of gender roles and role division in America to create new alternatives for culturally sensitive therapies as well as gay couples obtaining a higher success rate when using mental health services. In order for this research to take place, sociologists needed to figure out what they had to set their focus on. Since gay relationships have recently became socially legal, there is little information regarding the lifestyle of these couples in and outside of their homes and how they interact with each other. Researchers had to find out what it

The main question that was asked was how gay men took on the traditional male and female gender role in their own relationship and how much do they deviate away from the male traditional roles. There was a main quantitative study that was conducted by a researcher named Soloman. He focused on how gay couples feel and behave about the idea of a same-sex relationship and researchers found that there is a difference in attitudes, equity, and role divisions when compared to married heterosexual men. The research was conducted with an American couples questionnaire consisting questions about behaviors, monogamy, and finances. This questionnaire was chosen because the questions are gender neutral and avoided bias regardless of sexual orientation. Results of the survey showed that gay couples believe that all humans deserve egalitarian with all duties such as finance and roles compared to the responses from the heterosexual

Although, most couples believe in the principle of egalitarian, it doesn’t mean that they are comfortable preforming certain tasks that are not usually the social norm. An example that the article gives is that gay men can feel uncomfortable to express their emotions openly because it would be perceived as feminine. Researchers were also interested as to understanding how gender role conflicts impact gay relationships. A researcher named O’Neil created a conflict role scale to measure conflict experienced in these men in four separate areas such as competitive efforts, restrictive emotions, restricted affection, and work and family relationships. The purpose of this research was to see if the perceptions of a gay man would be weaker or stronger in a relationship rather than being single. The results showed that those in a relationship experience less conflict than those who are single. The conclusion of the article states that these research methods conducted by Soloman and O’Neil revealed that behaviors and actions of gay couple greatly differ from heterosexual couples. Even though these studies introduced new information about gay men gender roles and division, there is still more information that needs to be uncovered. With more information gathered, this will help mental health services and cultural therapies have a better understanding in “community-specific” information