Gender Roles

Which aspects of gender roles are true everywhere?
Generally, when looking at roles in the family, the women stays home and tends for the kids and cleans the house, while the father will go and work. But it must be said that this is not always true. Many times both the mother and the father will go to work or even, it is less common but it still occurs when the father will stay home and care for the children and clean while the mother will work.
One other role that is gender specific is the way people propose to eachother. Usually, the mon proposes to the women.

Which are specific to your culture?
In a lot of cultures, the gender roles are decided throughout history. Im not exactly sure if this is specific to any one culture. But I do know that women is some islamic traditions must wear burqas which cover your entire body. Their sole purpose is to conceal the body including the face.

How does language reinforce or create or thrwart those gender roles?
Language can be used many times to persuade people in a certain direction. A perfect example is this article that describes how afgan women will risk their own death to describe thier feelings in the forms of poems. They want to raise awarness and hope to them and want people to realize how bad they have it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/magazine/why-afghan-women-risk-death-to-write-poetry.html?pagewanted=all&_r=3&