Changing Gender Roles In The United States

Throughout history, women have been regarded as of lesser value than men particularly in the public sphere. This is the result of gender stratification. Gender stratification refers to the issue of sexism, “or the belief that one sex is superior to the other” (Carl et al., 2012, p. 78). The theory that men are superior to women is essential to sexism. Sexism has always had negative consequences for women. It has caused some women to avoid pursuing successful careers typically described as “masculine”—perhaps to avoid the social impression that they are less desirable as spouses or mothers, or even less “feminine.”

Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex. Gender roles are never comprehensive, even within a single country, and they are always historically and culturally unpredictable. Gender roles in the United States for one cultural group likely is not true for another cultural group. Similarly, gender roles in the United States have changed drastically over the time period. Gender roles has been the historical evolution from a single family income in which only the male spouse works and generates income, to dual family income or a family in which both spouses generate family income. The shifting gender roles in the past years has been huge. It happened so quickly

Women had the stereotype of being the homemaker which is a person whose main job is to take care of her family, home and children. Women were assumed to be homemakers with the primary responsibility for the children (Blair and Lenton 1). Traditionally, the job of a stay at home mother is done by women who have had to make them self’s approachable for marriage, stay at home, take care of the kids, cook and clean. Society benefited economically from high marriage rates because that led to an increase in production of family related goods, home construction, and furnishings. It was frown upon if women did not get married young, and a virgin. Women needed to get married in order to have unprotected intercourse because premarital sex was considered sinful. In the 1950s professional jobs were still largely closed off to women even after they had taken over the workforce when men left for World War II. It was common for companies not to want to hire women, and if they did provide employment for them they would pay them less than men. During that time there were too few women American lawyers, doctors, and engineers. Working women did not have a great salary, and were denied opportunities to advance. Their employers assumed they would quit their jobs as soon as they knew that had become pregnant. If women did work, they were stewardesses, secretaries, nurses and teachers. In addition, many women faced pressure from their families to stay home, and not work at all outside the home. In the 1950's, society encouraged, and pressured women to marry young because of the well-defined roles of that time. Women’s jobs were to serve as a homemaker and mother, so it was not deemed necessary for them to pursue a college degree. Most women were married after high school, and fell into their traditional gender roles right away. As stated in the American Journal of Sociology, “Women were

Women’s role within the household has changed considerably over a period of time. In the later days in the United States women were to attend to the children and to the house and not do much more than that. Children are now being raised by stay at home dads instead of the stereotypical stay at home moms. According to Gardner, "Real-life families have changed considerably since 'Mr. Mom ' appeared, with more men sharing child-rearing and household chores." (Gardner 2010) This is occurring because women’s jobs are no longer labeled as being just for women. Men have gotten a lot of criticism for being stay at

Gender plays a substantial role in how Chicanxs and Latinxs live their lives in the United States. Despite that both men and women who identify as Chicanxs or Latinxs, have had a very rough time feeling accepted and respected in the United States, gender is one of the many factors that contributes to how these individuals live out their lives. Hegemony in gender roles contributes to the different lifestyles both at work and in society of Chicanx and Latinx men and women in the way that women and men are expected to live up to the traditional gender roles. The living experiences of male and females differ greatly based on their gender; this goes to say for both Chicanx and Latinx men and women born in the United States of immigrants.

Throughout life every man and woman fits into a specific gender role. We are told what is expected of men and women from birth until death. Many people influence our view of how we should act and what we should say such as our parents, friends, and even the media. Males and females play very different roles and these differences are apparent in our every day lives. These differences are not the same as they used to be. Society has changed the way it treats men and women over time.

America is claimed to be the greatest country on earth. Many of people think of America as a place for opportunity and equality. Although America is all of those things today, it was not crafted lightly. There were many horrific event that took place to create this melting pot of a country. Discrimination and entitlement was what founded this country that is supposed to be so fair. The quality of life was not great for those of color or female. Throughout the beginning of America, race and gender roles were crucial factors of how you would live and be treated.

America is typically at the forefront when it comes to modern thinking; however, when it comes to gender roles, America is falling behind. Since we do not see many if any females in higher government positions, the younger generations of females begin to believe that it is not the norm for a women to be in those positions. Because of this the younger generation of females do not strive for those positions. Lili Gil who is a Entrepreneur, Multicultural Strategist, and Cofounder of XL Alliance, cover this issue in her article entitled, “The Gender Crisis in Politics: U.S. Congress Fails at Equality.” This article, published May 26, 2012, covers many different aspects of this situation. Her article talks about how other countries have progressed

Improved independence (economic, technological, and social) leads to more gender role dynamics. However, this can be shown as the root and not purely the correlation because in absence of these freedoms, gender roles are more unyielding. This is true in the United States, which already ranks #21 on the Legatum Institute’s and ranks #49 on the World Press Freedom Index ; this is true for higher ranking countries, and you can infer that this will become true for other countries as they increase with their personal freedoms.

Gender roles are sets of societal norms dictating what types of behaviors are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable based on their sex. The concept of gender roles are quite simple, yet can be very biased towards both genders. Men and Women are equal enough to where a woman and a man can do whatever their mind wants to accomplish. Believing that you can do anything you want will always help you to succeed in life. I do not believe in there being such things as "male jobs" or even "female jobs." Having gender roles is very comical. At the end of the day, as long as the job is completed, who cares what gender it took to get it done. How effectively do you feel, that the US could be ran, if gender roles were never an aspect

In the media specifically shows in United States are the typically represented some gender roles of men and women. Men are depicted as successful individual, bread winner of the family or the one that provides good things for the family. They are capable of everything and they represent men as strong and independent roles. Men roles are the superhero who will do everything to make everything perfect. Men are supposedly represented with honor competitiveness, with power and self-reliance or sometimes objectifying sex. Nonetheless, the roles of men in other shows illustrated more successful and more capable in doing more things than women. Consequently, we typically watch women as a mother who take cares of the family, the household chores

I believe that gender roles are still relevant in American culture in the 21st century. There is a great statement about gender that was presented in the lecture PowerPoint Sex vs. Gender: “In our society, gender is a master status. In other words, gender impacts almost every single area of our lives, including our relationship with others. If we don’t know what someone’s gender is, then we often don’t know how to react with him or her and we get uncomfortable. As a result we like to know what people sex and gender are.” Today, however, we're less likely to stereotype though there are still narrow- minded people around.

Gender roles are based on different expectations that individuals, groups, and societies have individuals based on their sex and based on each society’s values and beliefs about gender Gender roles have and have not altered dramatically over time, they have stayed consistent for very long. Both women and men sometimes are being held to their traditional expectations. Men and Women haven’t changed society's expectations of them. In source 1, an excerpt from partners in ideology “ Chapter 7, Gender stereotypes: Masculinity and Femininity” pg 161-166 states that there is very little evidence that shows change in men’s expectations. “Evidence indicated very little change in hegemonic masculinity and strong representation of the four themes of

     Femininity and masculinity are topics that have been debated over in our society extensively, through psychological research and day to day interaction with people. Children learn from their parents as well as society the concept of “feminine” and “masculine.” The majority of people tend to believe that these conceptions are biological but I believe it is more cultural. From birth, female children are shaped by society as being sweet, caring, loving, and delicate and usually associated with the color pink. While male children are shaped by being tough, aggressive, and competitive and associated with the color blue. As these children grow, the boy is given a football to play with and the girl a

It will take more centuries for male and female equality in the United State. Longer and difficult for nations with serious traditions and religion. In some cultures, for a female to want that equality is a taboo or cultural law breaking. Toady at the rate females in developed nations are fighting for equality and holding powerful positions, there will come a time woman may have the opportunity of equal opportunities with their male counterparts. Also, the rate of development is rapid, males are educating themselves and finding ways to allow woman share their dormaine. I do not think equality should be about physicality, but individual’s intellectuals and ability and capability to do the same job with either a male or a female. Authors Chambliss