Factors Shaping Gender Roles

What is gender roles really about? What really makes it so important in our day to day lives? Well to first understand gender roles, you have to understand gender. The dictionary definition of gender is "either the male or female division of a species, especially as differentiated by social and cultural roles and behavior:" While Gender roles are more complex, they are something that society has shaped us to look at in a certain way. The sociological perspectives all help justify gender roles. They are seen as essential to society's makeup because the assigned roles work together. Men are, also, seen as dominant and women as submissive. These views are what make individuals in society act a certain way towards a gender because of the beliefs

When a person is born, they are either male or female. Before they are born, their parents are going to set goals and expectations for them. Sometimes parents will name their child after a famous celebrity hoping they will be just as great as them. Each gender will have different ways they should live their life in order to stay within their gender role. Some will meet the expectations and other will not. That does not make them look less of their gender, they will just be expected to meet them. Over the years, some gender roles have submerged and others have risen above. They will be able to show how the gender roles are supposed to be in jobs, education, and marriage and also how they can benefit from stepping out of the gender roles.

In many shops, there seems to be an obvious separation between boys and girls items, for example, the birthday cards, books, clothes, and toys. This is shown in a variety of ways the boy's items are mainly the color blue and the books have pictures of either action figures, superheroes or tools. Whereas the girl's items are mainly the color pink. The books show pictures of fairies, princess, and Bratz. The cards also have the theme of the color pink for girls and blue for boys. The girl's cards have a lot of sparkles and pretty pictures whereas the boy's cards are covered in camo kind of illustrations and also have action figures on the covers. The children's clothes are separated into sections where there are labels for the boy's clothes and labels for the girl's clothes. The girl's clothing is all pretty and pink, it is covered in sparkles. Whereas boys clothing has camo patterns, blue colors, and pictures of action figures.

Study on gender role stereotypes has shown that there are several negative effects of stereotyping. The study on how gender role stereotyping effects children is not as prevalent because most believe that it doesn’t matter, since children are just forming their stereotype so children do not care. However, some psychologists have done some research on it, and from their research found out that children used a mixture of moral and social conventional reasoning

Your _____ depends on whether you were born with distinct male or female genitals and a genetic program that released either male or female hormones to stimulate the development of your reproductive system.

Today it is seen as more socially acceptable for women to assume roles that are defined as traditionally masculine than it is for men to assume roles that are defined as feminine. In my opinion, this is based on stereotypical roles that have been placed by parents when babies are born – stemming from their own parent’s stereotypical and traditional roles that have been modeled and observed by them personally. For example, at a very young age, children notice whether their mother will stay at home or work and viscera what their father does. Another example, for the majority I would say that once a couple finds out their baby’s gender the nursery room tends to painted in such a way based on whether the baby is male or female. Including, toys

Societies today are highly affected by the way people are believed to act. Gender roles are created by society, and they are a way to define how a gender should or shouldn't act. In “Answers” by George Singleton, there is a husband and wife thinking about getting divorced, and they begin answering questions in a book, and realize that the other turned out to be less manly or trustworthy, than they believed to be. In “Public Relations” by George Singleton, a man and his wife are out eating with his boss and his wife. While eating he gets fired for talking about how women should act, and how they will amount to nothing without an education. In both of these stories, men and women act differently than the stereotypes put on them by their

Following Voicu and Strapcovas (2008) research, I employ explanatory, deductive research to study how religious beliefs affect attitudes towards women in the household. Also, I will be using empirical background data, and cross-sectional studies. During this section of my paper I will explain all the studies and researches used to determine if my hypothesis is correct.

In today’s society, there are many types of viewpoints between both females and males on many things in life. Most of the viewpoints would have to go towards the males, because people view them to do so much in life. One main example of this would have to be the male’s role in relationships. To society, everyone sees the male’s role to be the one to protect his loved one as well as provide for the both of them and their family. Society also sees that the man’s main role is to be the “man of the house” when it comes to relationships and not letting their wives do much. Males are even seen as fearless and not afraid to show any emotions. This can make young people absorb that the men are the individuals that have to do everything in a relationship which can cause them overdo things or it can cause young males to not even want to do these things because it is overwhelming for them as an individual.

There are billions of people in the world with many different ethnicities, backgrounds, religions, and beliefs. There are many families with their own characteristics and ways of running their home, whether they are Hispanic, Native American, or African American. Perhaps they are in upper class or maybe they live below poverty. They could be a Muslim or Catholic and perhaps they believe education is not the key to success, but the real key is hard work. Regardless of these variations, one factor that plays a role in all aspects: gender. When a person is born, they are automatically dressed in either blue or pink. The newborn is either boy or girl. Have people thought about why girls wear dresses or why boys wear jeans and sneakers? There is more to what culture tells us, when it comes down to how we play our gender roles. It is really about how our bodies are naturally made that determines our gender role. It is not, society that tells a person they can be a mother because only women can give birth to children. It is not culture that makes men stronger or bigger, it is hormones and the natural structure of males to have more muscle

In terms of shaping a child the family unit is where this begins and has a great influence. Open discussions between family and child gives opportunity to speak about things such as sexuality, relationships, and religion can be helpful in forming their identity. A child who is raised in a family that is very united can build their confidence. Families who participate in activities such as family chores, camping or community service can help children in their adulthood by using the skills they’ve learned or practiced. Childrens political choices can be shaped by open duscussions that take place with their families. Such discussions can challenge children. Gender role can also be influenced by family. The way parents view gender roles most likely

Gender roles are a stereotype of what society deems acceptable for boys and girls to behave. The social norms for young girls are for them to like dolls, kitchen play sets and pink, and young boys should like truck, building things and toys tools.(Golombok,1993) When the boys and girls do not match the typical roles they are seen as unusual. At an early age boys are to be seen as more aggressive and dominant and girls are to be seen as dainty and delicate. Some parents will unintentionally put their child into these roles because this is what they were taught also. Should children at a young age be expected to fall into these simple roles? Are children taught to be in these roles? Will these created simple

Society today places many ideals when it comes to proper behaviours regarding gender roles. These are considered societal norms that are widely debated and controversial. Society has created a norm, which encompasses specific expectations and rules that change the daily lives of men and women, giving them specific tasks and behaviours to abide by. These standards are known as gender roles, which are defined as distinguishing actions, thoughts, and feelings of males and females. Gender roles are said to be a result of nature, which is a natural process, every male or female is to follow. On the other hand it can be a result of nurture, which changes ones way of thinking and adapting their lifestyle to fit their environment. Either way gender roles are a part of someone’s life from the moment of their birth, as they develop, and long after that, this proves that gender roles are influential to a person’s life and development. This essay examines how media such as music, family life, and different parenting styles encompass gender roles and teaches behaviours regarding them. Therefore, gender roles define males and females are a result of nurture and not nature.

Women: soft, emotional, loving, motherly, and a supporter. Men: aggressive, hard-working, fatherly, leader, strong, and inexpressive. These two genders are very different and are in fact opposites. When women try to break the stereotype, it does not typically go well. There is a borderline within gender that should not be crossed. In a 2004 film entitled “Million Dollar Baby” directed by Clint Eastwood he is trying to define the rules of gender. Eastwood creates a movie where the main character is a female and the female is trying to dominate a male dominated sport, boxing. The movie “ Million Dollar Baby” portrays that Clinton Eastwood is trying to protect male masculinity in the sporting world

In her paper on the biological differences in cognition between men and women, Doreen Kimura suggests that the social differences between genders arose out of biological necessity (Kimura 46). Even so, it is difficult to argue that social factors do play a large part in gender in society today. A closer look at both biological and social perspectives will reveal more about the processes that determine gender roles.