Healthy societies perpetuate certain norms and behaviours for different social roles. Mother, father, man, woman, boy, girl, etc. This is because, as we are in the painful process of rediscovering in the West, if you leave people to their own devices with no direction, they will lose their minds. Either they drift aimlessly, or they latch on with a vice-like grip to the first thing that promises direction and purpose to their life.

You really don't have to cater for the exceptions, boundary-pushers or border-straddlers, because anyone who is serious about defying society's expectations for them (female blacksmiths, male nurses, etc.) will push through with sheer force of will and achieve what they want. If they aren't willing to persevere against social pressure, they obviously aren't serious about whatever it is they claim they want to do that defies the norms. A healthy society can tolerate a certain number of eccentrics and deviants.

For everyone else, they NEED these social norms. It gives us all a shared language by which we can navigate social situations. It provides safety nets and guard rails for the different roles in society. Most people are not capable of putting rational checks on their own behaviour. They have no use for absolute freedom. If you give it to them, they will squander it, or it will consume their potential in hedonism and aimlessness.