Changing Roles for Women: Implications for Marriage Counselors*

Abstract

Noting that marriage counselors focus on the male-female relationship and that changes affecting women also affect men, the author examines changes in womens' roles in American society and draws implications for marriage counselors. Editor.Marriage counseling focuses primarily upon the male-female relationship within the marital dyad. Many counselors have stressed that this relationship, in and of itself, is "the" client. The marital dyad in this conceptualization may be viewed primarily as a system in which inputs that affect one part of the system automatically produce changes in other parts of the system. Inputs into the marital dyad system come from a wide variety of sources. Here we shall primarily concern ourselves with two major sources of inputs; first, those coming from the broader society that the couple exists within and, second, from marriage counselors. A historical overview of American womens' place in society will be sketched, followed by a review of their contemporary status. Although dramatic changes have taken place in very recent decades, it is helpful to examine the changing roles of women from colonial times forward. Womens' place in the social and helping professions will be examined and the conclusion will focus on the implications that changing roles for women have for contemporary marriage counselors. For brevity, the paper will concentrate on changes for women, but it will be kept in mind that a basic law in nature is that for every action there is a reaction. Hence, any change for women-in society at large, in the professions, and in marital dyads-implies changes for men also. These implications must ultimately receive equal attention from marriage counselors.

Sex Role Considerations and Behavioral Marital Therapy: Equal Does Not Mean Identical*

“…Sex role considerations are relevant to all forms of marital therapy (APA, 1975;Gringas-Baker, 1976;Gurman & Klein, 1980;Hare-Mustin, 1978, 1979Humphrey, 1975;Klein, 1976;Rice & Rice, 1977) but will be explored here specifically for behavioral marital therapy. Behavioral marital therapy offers contradictory messages about sex role issues.…”

Sex Role Stereotyping and Marriage Counseling*

“…In light of the changing roles of women and therefore of men in recent years (Humphrey, 1975), it was important to determine if there had been a shift in clinicians' bias since the Broverman study. Therefore, more recent research was examined.…”

“…In the area of human psychology, while it often has been recommended that clinicians need more education in the psychology of women (Humphrey, 1975;Rice & Rice, 1973;Task Force Report, 1975), there had been no similar recommendation for clinicians needing more education in the psychology of men. This may be due to the fact that the present standard of mental health is a male standard (Broverman, et al, 1970).…”