Gender Differences Between Male And Women

Men and women have always had their differences, but do those make their lives easier compared ? Both sexes have certain aspects to overcome the opposite sex, yet neither is better than the other. A woman comes into the world and is expected to act certain ways, to follow certain rules, and to be as feminine as she can just be, otherwise man comes into the world and is expected to be strong and being able to do everything only because he is a man. The idea of getting together and planning to become a family should equal both men and women, family is something that both should speak and express their oppinions. Though often times happen when man and woman meet each other, and

In today’s society from a young age boys and girls are raised socially different, known as gender socialization. A gender role is a set of behaviors, attitudes and personality characteristics expected and encouraged based on an individual 's sex. Sex is a person’s biological status referred to as female, male or inter-sex. However, gender is related to attitudes, feelings and behaviors that a given culture associates with biologically sexed bodies. Cultures differ about what is appropriate for males and females for example, from the moment boys and girls are born they are dressed differently. In some countries, the color pink is immediately associated with girls, while blue it associated to boys. Parents unconsciously reinforce gender

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.

Once a child is born, he or she learns to view the world based on the behaviors of others. The child’s primary caregivers, usually the parents, and others present in the child’s environment, such as siblings, peers, teachers, and even the media, contribute to the development of the child’s perception of himself, those around him, and society overall. This concept is called socialization. “The way we are, behave and think is the final product of socialization” and it is through socialization that we “learn what is appropriate and improper for both genders” (Crespi, 2004). This concept of gender socialization leads to the inescapable

Home life is a core area that can be the biggest influence on ones opinions of gender roles. The content of the article “Parental Influence on Children’s Socialization to Gender Roles” written by Susan Witt introduces where stereotypical gender association derives. Gender roles can easily be adopted through the household and when children are placed in an environment where it is easily transmitted through the parents’ then that child will follow their parents’ influences (Witt, par. 1). Schooling, media, and society are also large influences on children at a young age to behave a certain way. Self-concept is also a large chunk of the way children see themselves when they begin to grow and criticism from parents can be a large influence on shaping that child’s perspective (Witt, par. 3).

Sometimes, parents tend to raise their sons and daughters differently based on their genders. Joyce J. Endendijk et al. states that, “Parenting girls would be more likely to focus on, for example, affiliation and interpersonal closeness, whereas parenting boys would be more likely to focus on, for example, assertiveness and dominance, because these characteristics are important to succeed in their respective roles as homemaker or economic provider” (299-300). The way that children are parented is heavily influenced on the beliefs of the parents themselves, and the more stereotypical the parents are, the more likely they are to parent this way. It is shown that parents are more physical with boys than girls when it comes to controlling them. Some examples of these are “[...] grabbing, pushing, holding, physically redirecting, or spanking” (Kochanska, Barry, Stellern, & O’Bleness, qtd. in Endendijk et al. 300). In turn, this can increase the possibility of boys becoming aggressive later in life. A test is done in the Netherlands of households with two parents and children between the ages of 12 months and 3 and a half to see their gender socialization. 299 families of 156 boys and 133 girls were tested. At time 1, the children were an average of 3.01 years old, mothers were between the ages of 25 and 46, fathers were between the ages of 26 and 63, and the parents were together (Endendijk et al. 302-303). Participants were asked whether words such as “management” or “children” were more masculine or feminine to them. Words involving careers were rated as more masculine than feminine. They were also given a computer task with congruent blocks where participants had to “[...] sort career attributes to the male category and family attributes to the female category, and incongruent blocks in which participants have to sort career attributes to women

Sex is defined as “the average, reliable, biological differences between males and females” (Auleb 1). One biological difference between males and females is in external genitalia: males have penises whereas females have vaginas. Sexuality refers to one 's sexual orientation, sexual behaviors, and capacity for sexual feelings (YourDictionary.com). Someone who is not sexually attracted to anyone may identify themselves as asexual. And sexual identity is one 's conception of themselves in terms of to whom they are sexually and romantically attracted, if they experience sexual or romantic attraction at all (Wikipedia.org). Someone who is attracted to people regardless of gender may identify as bisexual, or as pansexual if they do not adhere to the belief that there are only two genders.

Men and women are sexually dimorphic: they possess characteristics that differ on average for males and females of a given species. These attributes can be physical, but are also seen in behaviour. This is also known as a sex difference. Given that differences in behaviour between the sexes have long been the subject of social discourse , it is paramount to examine to what extent these differences are dependent on society, or whether they have a basis in biology. Here, it is beneficial to observe the behaviour of children, instead of relying on self-reporting- this provides empirical evidence for a sex difference. They will not have been exposed to as many potentially gender-shaping stimuli as adults have, and so their observation can provide more accurate results when examining phenomena that cannot normally be seen. Therefore, it is also of particular use to investigate why some children show more gender-typical behaviour than others. As all behaviour is controlled by the brain, the terms “sex” and “gender” will be used interchangeably, despite some convictions that the term “gender” has more social connotations than the term “sex”.1

These norms can be learned through simple observation, such as how children of different sexes act in television commercials and what behaviors are reinforced by parents depending on their child’s biological sex. As children grow up, their knowledge on gender norms and judgments on which norms can be violated generally increase (Blackmore, 2003). Gender role norms can in turn help develop their identity

Coltrane and Adams argue images of others and we are largely developed by gender stereotypes, which provide a baseline for cultural differences between men and women. It has also been argued that early cognition about gender is influenced more by the overall delegation of gender in society rather than the gender portrayal occurring within individual families said by O’Brien. Researchers remain interested in the topic of gender largely because of its pervasive influence on social attitudes and behavior of an individual, as well as evidence that children's perceptions of gender limits their options open to them.

The introduction also included a short reminiscence of the history of gender. It was indicated, as I mentioned earlier, that prior to the feminist movement of the 1970’s there was very little to research in dissenting gender norms. With the advent of women in the workforce the role of women in every aspect of life was altered and our world was coerced into a debate on the purpose and roles of each gender. Although men have been largely unaffected by these strides taken by female activist, there have still been subtle impacts such as more housework or less work hours because of the ability to live in a double income household. With this change we see a continuing shift in the younger generations. The researchers hypothesized there would be a strong positive correlation between the parents’ gender schemas and their offspring’s gender cognitions.

The debate whether the idea of gender differences is a social construct or not plays a significant role in many sociological theories. In North American society, it is evident that there are certain roles imposed on boys and girls according to their gender. These gender roles are forced upon children from their birth until they eventually accept and follow the social standards. This socialization of gender roles can have several effects on the child as these ideologies are intensified through the most significant agents of socialization: family, educational institution, and media. Despite several research indicating egalitarian societies to evade societal norms relating to gender roles and expectations, this concept is still prevalent worldwide

Also institutions, parenting, and media affect the gender development idea (Hackman, 2013). The following examples which are obtained from scholarly work show these effects. Gender-based Harassment: in schools male students hurt other male or female students in order to show their aggression and masculinity (Martino, Wayne and Pallota, 2005). Body Image: due to social interactions boys and girls have different perceptions of body image: "girls typically wanted to be thinner, boys frequently wanted to be bigger"(Cohane and Pope, 2001). The last but not the least example is Education which was very interesting for me. Teachers playing the most crucial role in children’s education and also their gender socialization at schools (Garrahy, 2001). Although in standard test the overall score of boys and girls where close, their scores in some different aspects were different (American Psychological Association, 1994). Scholars believe the mentioned difference is because the teachers treat their female and male students in different ways. For example, teachers allow their male students to speak in class without raising their hands (Garrahy,

Dr. Laura Allen has spent years studying the brain tissue of both boys and girls. She said, "As I began to look at the human brain more and more, I kept finding differences, and about 7 or 8 of the 10 structures that were actually measured turned out to be different between men and women" (Men, Women). Basically, it is best to always try to learn about human nature, that way we can educate people to prevent them from misusing the information. She claims, "knowledge we get is better, we can alter our education system for more equality" (Men, Women).

In our society we have different views of how a women should behave as oppose to a man. The issue is that the majority of our population views one side as being the correct way to describe a man, or a women, and will counteract to any others perspectives that do not match with the standard view of gender. But how did we begin to adapt to these gender roles? In most cases, the people who raised us will have the most influence on how we categorize a women and a man. A girl or a boy will learn the “appropriate” way to behave by observing how their parents interact in the household and outside of the household. A child can take these observations with them into their adolescents and even adulthood. In addition, parents are a child’s best guidance, but a child’s siblings, whether they have sisters or brothers, can also have a major influence on a child’s behavior. Studies focused on how siblings, a mother’s way of speaking to their children about gender, and parents ways of accepting their sons and daughters behavior can affect how they perceive gender roles.