Gender Roles And Gender Inequality

The dynamic between male and female is extremely complex. Over the course of human history, men have primarily dominated over women in nearly every aspect of human interaction and daily life. Despite the large progress that has been made in recent decades, women are still heavily subordinated by the male gender both in the workforce and in the private sphere. Examples of this domination of men can be seen in many aspects of everyday life including: interpersonal and social interaction, family, among peers, in education, and in the media.

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

Many people confuse the definition of gender and sex. “Gender, on the other hand, refers to the meanings, values, and characteristics that people ascribe to different sexes. Sex is a biological concept, determined on the basis of individual 's primary sex characteristics.” (Blackstone) Society gives social cues on the appropriate behavior for each sex. For example, women are to exert more feminine traits such as dependent, emotional, passive, innocent, nurturing, and/ or self-critical. On the other hand, men are to behave more masculine such as independent, non-emotional, aggressive, competitive,

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 have caused strain over decades to not only females, but recently males as well. There are many attributes that humans have associated with each gender, causing a divide between sexes not only with each other, but also separating the two into almost completely different species. Due to this categorizing which is placed on gender, there can be a declining value of a person or even a higher hand given to the one gender which is seen as more powerful to society.

When thinking of gender roles in society, stereotypes generally come to mind. Throughout history these stereotypes have only proven to be true. Major historical events have had a huge impact on the way men and women are seen and treated. In this way, women have always been secondary to males and seen as the fragile counterparts whose job is to take care of the household and most importantly, be loyal to her husband no matter the circumstance. Gender roles throughout history have greatly influenced society. The slow progress of woman’s rights throughout humanities led to an explosion of woman’s rights throughout the 20th century and that trend will only continue on into the rest of the 21st century.

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).

As my adolescence years approach many things began to change, or at least I thought they were changing. In my house I began to be have multiple responsibility. My mother soon started expecting me to help her clean the house and learn how to cook, while my brother was free to do as he pleased. This was when my rebellion towards my culture gender norms and roles began. As I grew up, I was told that I had to always be aware of my surroundings. That a girl/women does not walk late at night by herself because that could be dangerous. I was taught that I couldn’t be too friendly with the opposite sex because that could bring some unwanted attention. I had to cover myself and never expose too much because that could also cause the opposite sex too

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 should not be intertwined with the term sex, which refers to the physical differences in individuals. Instead, gender is the idea of being male or female, and it is well understood by the time children reach the preschool years. Differences in gender become more pronounced as children age, and societal expectations are reinforced by parents and peers. Behavioral differences may be evident since parents may treat their child differently according to gender. A big example of this is how parents may react to a child’s first

At a very young age our beliefs start developing and our values become more and more important. Those experiences that we face during our childhood shape us up to be who we are today. Family, culture, and friends influence these beliefs constantly because they are who we look up to for moral support. However, the way we perceive the world doesn’t stop once we become “adults”, we all continue to grow and learn from our mistakes and experiences. It is fascinating to see how we evolve over time and how we manage to strongly standby what we belief no matter the circumstances. At a young age I began to recognize the roles between male and female figures in a household. These traditional roles I was familiar with were not satisfying, but

In this paper I will discuss the issue of gender roles in marriage. I will be exploring the debated question of: who should lead a marriage through decision making, direction, and preference. Throughout the paper I will argue that a marriage is not centered on one figure and that it takes two people to make everyday decisions that effect the direction of a marriage along with theological gender roles in a marriage. Equal say and the establishment of roles in a marriage are crucial for a long term, happy, and successful marriage. To have a successful marriage certain roles of men and women must be me in order to produce a long and happy marriage.

Throughout centuries, women have fought for the right to be treated and consider equal next to men; though women have moved passed most gender discrimination from society the issue of inequality of women and gender roles still lingers within our social institutions. We allow those in higher classes to hold so much privilege that they use their power to enforce social controls in order to place individuals who are devalued into a controlled category of difference. Father Roy Bourgeois was a priest for forty plus years in the Catholic church, believing and preaching his religious doctrine that specifically cut out the role of women in higher positions within the church until he decided that he did not believe in inequality of women or condemning those placed in categories of differences like gender. While he explained how the different institutions socialized him to consider that this way of life was “normal,” I realized how much my schools and religion have controlled my ideas, feelings, and judgment of others based the beliefs they valued.

“Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender.” According to united nations population fund “gender equality is a human right. Men and Women are entitled to live with dignity and with freedom from want and from fear. Gender equality is also a precondition for advancing development and reducing poverty: Empowered women contribute to the health and productivity of whole families and communities, and they improve prospects for the next generation” Individuals may experience inequality in many different ways. Inequality may exist in the workforce, within family, in education, in health, in politics and in society more generally, for instance expressed through violence. However, inequality is