Gender Roles

Gender roles have been a hotly debated topic in the most recent years, especially the role of women in society. Women have had set expectations that they are believed to conform to, which is shown in many pieces of film and literature. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald describes the life of a man in the upper class in the 1920’s, as well as women in the 1920’s. The movie The Princess Bride, written by William Goldman, visually explains the treatment and expectations of women, and especially focuses on the “damsel in distress” stereotype.. Roxane Gay’s “Bad Feminist” explains the stereotypes against women and ways women can come together and fight these constraints. Based on these sources, societal expectations take away from each individual’s identity, forcing women to conform to society's standards. In order to fight against these expectations, women have banded together and formed movements against these standards.

In the 1900’s it was a social accepted practice to believe one’s gender restricted what an individual was cable of doing. During this time period and going back further in the past the main ideology of society was males were there to lead, provide and protect the fairer sex. Susan Glaspell uses stereotypes to disprove the notion that women are less superior than their male counterparts by having the women solve the murder of Mr. John Wright.

Gender differences are referred to what a society or culture accepts as masculine or feminine traits, which includes the accepted roles, appearances, behaviors, and activities of each individual, as opposed to the definition of sex differences, which simply refers to biological difference between a male or female. Though gender roles have changed considerably compared to the 1900s, there is still evidence this is something we still struggle with in the United States today. Despite the fact that we have the first female candidate for President of the United States, gay/ lesbian/ transgender individuals now have more courage than ever to come forward publicly, and more jobs only available to men are opening to women (military). The residue of society’s expectations of what role a “real man” or “real woman” is, is still apparent. Especially when one does not value the identities he or she is forced to adopt, hiding their true selves from everyone around them. In “The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses her illustration

From an early age, our society begins to construct gender identities. Males are pressed to learn “suitable” gender roles in accordance to the masculine expectations our society has created. This means from a very early age boys are taught what it means to be a man. Porter’s way to explain masculine socialization is through what is known as the “man box.” Inside the box is a list of socially valued expectations that compose what manhood is about. The box includes expectations/guidelines such as, “don’t cry or openly express emotions (with the exception of anger), do not show weakness or fear, demonstrate power control especially over women (aggression dominance), be a protector, do not be “like a woman,” be heterosexual, do not be “like a gay man,” be tough, athletic, and strong, do not need help, and view women as property/objects.” This idea of manhood is instilled in young boys head and continues to stay with them for the rest of their lives. A fear

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.

Up until recently, the definition of what a man or a woman should be has been defined, with boundaries, by society; males should be strong, dominant figures and in the workplace providing for their families while females should be weak and submissive, dealing with cleaning, cooking and children. Any veering away from these definitions would have disrupted the balance of culture completely. A man playing housewife was absurd, and a woman being the sole provider for the family bizarre. In Alice Munro’s short story “Boys and Girls” and Bobbie Ann Mason’s “Shiloh”, conflict arises when expectations based on gender are not fulfilled by the characters.

Rigid societal gender roles have always played a part in human existence. These predetermined ideals for what either man or woman should be like have constantly created both small and large scale conflict in literature as well as real life. When these roles are at their most extreme, men are supposed to hold all of the power, while women are docile and in charge of taking care of the home only. The masculine ideal, though it may change through times and cultures, has such a grip on society that it has created a set of unspoken rules that must be followed in order for one to be considered a “real man”, and this pressure to be a “real man” has created a constant need for self-assertion of dominance. This self-assertion of dominance often displays

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 stereotypes can have many different effects, but they are oftentimes negative. Utilizing it as a basis, society can create impossibly high standards. Failure of these standards evokes a sense of guilt within people. Such results stem from a bigger societal problem, which is that people live in a patriarchy—a system in which men hold the majority of powerful social and professional positions that shape society. According to Deborah Tannen’s “But What Do You Mean?”, the speech of women and men frequently creates conflict between the two sexes. Likewise in Willa Cather’s My Ántonia, Jim Burden perceives women solely through his patriarchal view of life. Lastly, through “Kim Wilde,” Marjane Satrapi reveals that women are often bound within the gender roles set by society. While many lenses can add to one’s perspective, gender has a stronger influence; therefore, people must actively attempt to view life beyond the single lens of gender.

Puritan and Early American society separated the male and women gender roles into two categories; men owned and undertook all the responsibilities while women were not allowed to posses anything leaving them with the job of keeping the household in order . Gender roles helped establish family structures due to the fact that families in the 1800’s were essentially the basis for all the institutions. For instants, institutions like the government, church, and the community relied on the gender roles to keep their associations in routine. Women and men were almost always separated for day to day tasks or meetings arranged by their towns. Quaker meetings were just one of many communities that separated the men to discuss judicial

Gender roles are a conflict in our daily lives that seem to affect the lives of mostly women, and sometimes men too. The roles of many male and females in our society may be different, but why should one have an advantage over the other? The world seems to evaluate males and females differently weather it is for employment, education, and many other situations in life. One's gender should not be a factor of how they should be treated throughout their lifetime, meaning there should not be any opposing attitude or decision towards a human being based on their gender. Gender should just be the state of being male or female to avoid the possibility of causing gender bias. Both males and females should be looked at, and treated equally

relation between how a person behaves and their biological sex. This has lead to roles that women and men must follow if they want to be identified with their sexual apparatus.For example Lee(2016) explains that ” Women have customarily filled more care giving roles that require them to display expressive characteristics such as nurturance compassion, and dependence. As a result, the most instrumental “masculine” gender role has been associated with higher status than the most expressive “feminine” gender role” (p.6). This is a clear description that showss how people classify each other and how different,but settled outcomes are expected from these two different genders.

In the twenty-first century, western culture frequently dismisses the concept of men and women holding highly distinguishable traits that denote respective functions in society. Such movements insinuate that the objective of absolute equality between the sexes has been met, despite history presenting an entirely contrasting view of gender roles that have perpetuated inequality in the minds of mankind. In order for one to fully comprehend the continual battle that women have fought against the stereotypes that history has tried to allocate for them, a distinction must be made between the terms gender and sex. According to Monash University, “Gender describes the characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine,” while, “sex refers to biological differences; chromosomes, hormonal profiles, internal and external sex organs.” Due to the evident physical differences between men and women, society formulated the ideology that men were intelligent, courageous, and determined. Women, contrarily, were more governed by their emotions and were expected to be modest, compassionate, and pious. Therefore, as there is a clear variance between the aforementioned terms, one can notice that the cultural construct of gender spawns from the biological distinction of sex, and that women are deemed socially inferior because they appear naturally inferior to men. Because such principles were essentially rooted in the structural process of society, similar to the

Dating back to Victorian era, one of the most distinct differences between male and female status in the society could be identified. The 19th century categorized femininity and masculinity with completely opposite set of characteristics. A feminine woman was seen as an innocent and passive female, who was significantly dependent on a man, whose image was a complete opposite to a woman. Masculine man was defined as an active, strong and independent male (Brannon, 2008, Gender-psychological perspectives) The Figure 1 shows to what extent biological differences between two sexes were emphasized. The dress of a

Gender stereotypes have been an epidemic plaguing society on international level since the beginning of civilization. In the United States of America, these norms have prevented both men and women from fully reaching their potential within society. The issue stems from tradition parenting methods and a deep-rooted history of raising boys and girls to see themselves differently; each with specific roles within their culture divided by a fine line between the two sexes that should not be crossed. Parents need to see the harm of enforcing such rules and how teaching both sexes the same core lessons will be the most beneficial for their children. The question of whether boys and girls should be raised the same is not black and white: it is a conglomerate of various issues that have built up and grew overtime. However, it is the solution to eradicating the toxic culture of gender roles and must be solved with new parenting techniques that embrace children for their unique selves, rather than their sex.