Gender And Gender Roles In Society

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

Growing up, genders learn right from wrong and how they are supposed to act as their specific gender. Boys, are usually taught how to be aggressive but gentle. Playing video games, wrestling and riding four-wheelers is okay for them to do. They were taught not to be mean to girls, wear pink or to express their sadness. Being a boy was not that hard to manage, for girls it was a little harder. Girls, are usually taught how to be compassionate and elegant. They helped around the kitchen, played with Barbie’s and played dress up. They were taught not to do anything a boy would do. If either were to step out of their gender role they would be looked down upon and would be reminded of how they should be acting. In today’s society that is still a

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.

In present day all around the world, society has certain expectations for the actions and behaviors of males and females. There are many factors in our everyday lives that contribute to the gender norms that society has set. This essay will discuss how situations in life can play a part in how people treat other people based on their gender. It is believed that males are the leaders of our world, but in present day woman can do as much as men can do. From The Journal of Marriage and Family, Hu states, “Differentiated gender roles in adulthood are rooted in one’s gender role socialization. In order to understand the persistence of gender inequalities in the domestic sphere, we need to examine the gendered patterns of children’s housework time.”(2015, P.1). Gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females that they must be taught. These roles define how females and males are viewed in society, their household, and workplace. In The Journal of Sports behavior by Hardin, he states, “Although gender role differences from biological and “Natural” exists in popular consciousness, research has long demonstrated that instead, many are long time socially constructed… Individuals understand their gender because they are given names and treated in particular ways, such as dress in pink for girls and blue for boys, that reflect social construction of gender. Bandura's social cognitive theory is key in understanding the factors in socialization”(2009, P.3). Bandura's theory of of social cognition is that behavior, environmental events, and cognitive factors are the main keys that shape attitudes and actions of an individual. Although, gender roles play a very big part in our society, specific genders are treated differently while dealing with peer influence, media influence, as well as employment.

Gender Roles can be defined as roles society expects people to play on account of their sex life. Like all roles, gender roles are made up of sets of expectations, so they can be thought of as sets of expirations, so they can be thought of as sets of expectation that are attached to sex.(pp: 220 John E. Farley & Michael W. Flota).

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

Gender roles are determined by both societal culture and the result of biological makeup. Media as an impact on the decision of what your role will be in society. Your decision on what you want to be is formed through the span of grown and observing what happens in society. Your biological makeup can also guide what you gender role is because it categorizes you into male or female.

To understand gender differences within language and society, we must first realize how our genders were divided. The division between the sexes began with the agricultural revolution that transformed human civilization that is believed to have taken place between 8000 and 7000 B.C.E. The consequences of agriculture and the ability to harvest and store food, eliminating the need to hunt and gather, were life changing. Settlements began to develop and gender roles were forming. Men would tend to the fields and the herds while women had a tendency to remain close to the homes, becoming the caretakers of the children and households. As civilization developed, the work done by the men away from the home grew to be regarded as more important than the work done by the women. Due to this newly found perception, “men came to play the more dominant role in human society, which gave rise to the patriarchy” (Spielvogel 4-5). This mindset has been fortified in human culture and has defined gender roles in societies throughout the centuries.

Gender socialization often begins early once parents are shown the sex of their child; from then on, baby showers are planned according to gender “appropriate” colors, which are often pink for girls and blue for boys. Even differences in how children are spoke to can be picked up easily in Western cultures. Girls are called pretty and sweet, whereas boys are handsome and strong. Ultimately, the way children learn to identify with their gender culture is in part due to not only family and friends, media, schools, and religion, but also from the toys that may inexplicitly advertise gender expectations. Gender-typed toys may be bought for children as a way for parents to encourage and reinforce gender-appropriate behaviors. However, recent debates have engulfed toy manufacturers and major retailers, which has brought about changes in toy design and marketing in an effort to make reflect more realistic and gender neutral options.

“Gender stereotypes begin the second a baby’s gender is found out” (Brewer). Initally, society assumes that girls will love pink, frills, and anything girly. For boys, the color blue as well as being tough and in to sports is an immediate stereotype. Not every individual, no matter the age, is a typical person.

“Practically everything in society is assigned a gender—toys, colors, clothes and behaviors are just some of the more obvious examples…through a combination of social conditioning and personal preference” according to Noel Merino. A person’s identity is shaped by certain toys, colors, and clothes that either boys or girls should play with or wear. The most common is the color blue for boys and the color pink for girls. According to Susan Witt, “Gender role socialization, which almost always includes some degree of gender role stereotyping, begins at birth… As children grow and develop, the gender stereotypes they are exposed to at home are reinforced by other elements of their environment and are thus perpetuated throughout childhood.” Witts makes a great point that gender stereotyping begins at birth with the certain types of toys and clothes he will probably received. Susan D. Witt writes

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.

Gender roles and gender division in biological perspectives were an issue in global societies. Even in today’s societies depending on the geographical areas around the world, gender roles are socially divided. However other geographic countries completely equal, such as Iceland. Laws such as a third gender option at birth, then decision followed by the child. The third gender option would be judged negatively in some other geographic parts of our globally social societies. What kind of impact do gender roles have on our society? There has been many changes in gender roles recently. Feminist approach would say we have come far, however gender roles and gender division still exist in societies today.

Today we live in a world that continually stresses to us that, "All men are created equal." While this sounds great at face value, further inspection tells us that this is far from realistic and sadly may never be. One can examine any aspect of society whether it be race, religion, language, level of education, sexual orientation or economic status and notice that there are numerous characteristics and factors of identity that enable others to treat others differently. This truth may not be pleasant or make one feel all warm and fuzzy inside, however it is our society’s reality, however dismal it may be. Even if the statement above as to the equality of all men were true, how about women? Clearly women have made tremendous strides towards

Males and Females no matter the age face gender stereotypes everyday of their lives. As we are brought up we are taught to be our own individuals with our own ideas, but society tends to break that down. When we think about school, Gender Stereotyping doesn’t really come to mind, but if you think about it that’s where is all begins. In school, they have “dress code”, wear everyone falls under, meaning you can’t just wear whatever you want. Also, in schools when it comes to activities boys are pushed more to do outside activates compared to girls that do inside activities. Overall kids themselves start to separate themselves into two categories, boy with boys and girls with girls. Even though males and females are different, we should still take the time to teach kids that they aren’t put into two separate categories, but that they should be the person they want to be.