do you fill gender roles in relationships?

This is a really nice question. Im female and i've been with my partner for 6 years. We don't really have any roles i guess. At the minute im out of work (i got a degree in zoology and worked part time while volunteering with the wildlife trust but my contract ran out a couple of months ago) so i do most of the cooking, cleaning, dog training (neither of us wants kids so i guess the dog is the substitute kid and the training is disciplining the kids lol) etc as my partner works his *** off full time so i dont see it as i do it because im female i do it because he works and doesnt have time to do it himself. However there has been times where he has been out of work and ive been working or was at uni and he has done all this for me. he likes to think he's a manly man and i have had to pull him about being a little controlling at times for example i had to ask him to go out and when i did he would say be back at this time, ring me and dont drink too much and i would have to inform him in advance that i was going out whereas it was ok for him to come home from work and say im heading out, he also used to kick off at me for having guys mates when it was ok for him to have female mates and at one point when we had a lot of drunken fighting in our area he told me i couldnt go out to the shop after it got dark - yet he could (baring in mind i grew up in northern ireland and in my area i had to deal with a lot more than drunken fights when i was younger and also we have a 4stone bull terrier that i would take with me to the shop). But we sat down and had a few talks and he is always willing to listen (if not to me then our mutual best mate) so he calmed down on that front.

At any time both of us are working we contribute equally to the bills, at any time one isn't we support them. We have been through at alot of crap in our 6years together (i dont mean bad things between us i mean things like being made redundant, his bro burgled us, my dad was diagnosed with cancer etc etc) and we have always ended up pulling together and working together.

So we dont have a specific gender role, we just fill whatever role needs to be filled at the time. i think sometimes filling gender roles can be worse (im mainly thinking about the male bread winner role here) because in this day and age with jobs dropping like flies (i know in my area a lot of places have closed down) it pays to have two people with appropriate experience/education trying for jobs.

I think also it is down to personality some women want to go out and work and experience life, some want someone to look after them and some want somebody to look after including husband and kids. Some guys want a girl at home to tend to everything, others want someone to share their life equally with and some want a strong woman that can be completely independent.

Gender equality is about choice it doesnt mean someone coming up to you and saying you are a woman and you dont have to sit at home and have kids (because some women want that) it means you have a choice to do that or not, Just as a man wanting a woman to be a stay at home wife and looking after the place and kids doesnt mean he thinks lower of women and thats all they can do it, it can just mean that he wants someone who is comfortable with it and needs the security of that.

In my honest opinion if both are working then both need to deal with the domestic issues (kids, cleaning, cooking) if one is working then the other needs to take over that and if any have aspirations (ie uni etc) and the other doesnt then the one that doesnt needs to support them or support each other.

Just to let you know both me and my partner are enlisting in the TA (part time army as in the Uk we are downgrading our regulars and increasing part time) He is going for infantry and im going for logistics (driving - i've driven 101 landies before along with other heavy vehicles as my dad is part of the vintage military club and i grew up on a farm) but we will be in the same basic training together so it will be interesting to see if some of the lads and girls react differently to me or him lol

To answer your question id say sometimes i do fill gender roles but at the same time i dont. And sorry this answer was so long :/