Why Do Relationship Norm Types Exist?

One question I try to keep in mind when considering questions such as the inequality of relationships is, "Why?". Sure, it's easy to say that it's bad when men force women into a role that they resent. Half the battle is recognizing such, but the other half is understanding why men do this and why society is (or was) accepting of this. After all, what good is knowing the answer to a problem if you don't know the internal logic that led to the solution?

Therefore, I'm merely going to speculate (as Porfessor Reiss was apt to say) on why this dynamic existed, especially so around the end of the 19th century. I think a good place to start is this: why did men feel the need to do this? Were they threatened? Did they benefit economically, socially or romantically? Why did society accept this? The answer, I think, is that many men simply believed that this was truly the right thing to do. Socially they had been conditioned all their lives that women were the weaker sex. Their actions were not malicious (generally speaking), they were just trying to do what they thought was best. It certainly did not hurt that women were kept out of jobs, but they didn't believe women were qualified in the first place or even capable of finding a job. They also benefitted from having their wife stay home and do household chores. Overall, it was a working balance between the sexes that seemed natural and orderly.

It was only when women went of their way and tried to show men they were perfectly capable of operating on the same plane as men did perceptions of women's role begin to change. I think, to summarize, that men were acting consciously out of their moral and natural duty, and perhaps unconsciously for their indirect benefit. After all, women occupying a predominantly working, bread winner type role is a rather new concept. It was only when women demonstrated their worth did society's norms shift.