George Bernard Case Study

1. What evidence does Bernard offer to support her conclusion that there are “his” and “her” marriages rather than “our” marriage?
The evidence that Bernard offers to support her conclusion that there are “his” and “her” marriages is the perception of the frequency of sex between the husband and the wife is vastly different. She brings up a study where Kinsey and his associates found that “females may be overestimating” and “the husbands are actually underestimating”. Men want to have more sex as they are likely to have a high sex drive or see it is important to have sex regularly. Women want to have less sex because their sex drive is likely to be lesser or they don’t see it as important as men do.

Another piece of evidence that Bernard gives

is how a husband and a wife disagree on household tasks such as taking care of money and bills and mowing the lawn. Bernard cites a study by Granbois and Willet who say that more than half of the partners in one sample disagreed on who takes care of the money and bills and more than a fourth disagreed on who mows the lawn.

There seems to be no objective agreement on who does what in the household.

The couple’s subjective thoughts don’t seem to line up as well. They disagree on both sides of the spectrum. They see things in completely different views. Therefore, “his” and “her” marriages exist because there is no mutual agreement.

2. Does the traditional inequality of men and women support or undermine martial roles? How?
The traditional inequality of men and women undermine martial roles because tradition says that one person, which would be the man in this case, has to have power within the marriage. The man is put under stress because they feel that they have to be the sole breadwinner and provide for their family. The woman is made to feel submissive and may feel guilty that she can’t help because tradition says; she’s not allowed to help.

The man thinks that he has to have total authority of the marriage and the household. He decides what’s best for the family in every regard. On the other hand, the woman thinks that the only control she has are the household chores. She has to cook, clean, do laundry and look after the children. She’s expected to do these things exceptionally well. Society tells men that they are dominant over women and women are submissive to men so this thought can transfer over into the marital roles for husbands and

wives.

In the traditional sense, the marital roles are not seen as give and take. It’s seen as one giving, husband, and the other taking, the wife. There’s no room for both of them working together and sharing responsibility over everything because traditional roles hinder this from happening. Marriage is a blend of two people who are supposed to support each other. The couple has to act like they are a part of a team. Unless the couple breaks tradition, this won’t be possible.