Gender Roles During The Years Men And Women Essay

1. Why did Cato object to repealing the Oppian law? What was the basis of his objections?

Gender can be defined as “sex roles” which are conditions that one considers to be for men or women. People tends to mistake it with sex or thinks that they are both the same. We discussed about the patterns of gender which how the authors of The Kaleidoscope of Gender describes it as “regularized, prepackaged ways of thinking, feeling, and acting” (Spade and Valentino,2017). It becomes an identity for us. We believe that there is and can only be two genders, being masculine for men and feminine for women. These roles has been forced onto us since birth: blue for boys, and pink for girls. You can see the roles being push onto a person throughout one’s life, but we don’t notice it since it’s “normal” to us.

Our gender has an effect on every aspect of our lives, varying from how we view ourselves and other people to how we interact in social and civic life. It also impacts the way we set our goals in opportunity areas such as education, work, and recreation. Gender socialization starts at birth then manifests through family, education, peer groups, and mass media. Gender norms are automatically placed on us, where women should learn how to be nurturing, sensitive, emotional, passive, and always hold a man’s position higher than hers. On the other hand men should be overly confident, aggressive, dominant, and view women beneath them. This paper uses various readings to show how these gender norms are supported and challenged in today’s society.

Throughout the history of society, women and men both have faced the constricting roles forced upon them, from a young age; each gender is given specific social and cultural roles to play out throughout their lives. Little girls are given dolls and kitchen toys, little boys are given dinosaurs and power tool toys, if one was to step out of this specified role, social conflict would ensue. Contrast to popular belief, sex is a biological construct, and gender is a social construct specifying the roles men and women are to follow to be accepted into society as “normal”. The effects of gender roles have had on women have proved harmful over the decades. Although the woman’s involvement in society has improved throughout the decades,

Gender roles of diverse cultures have differed immensely throughout history. The evolution of gender roles first began in the Paleolithic Age and then began to transform with the transformation of the Paleolithic Age to the Neolithic Age. Women in Mesopotamia, India, Greece, China, and Rome were not treated as equals and viewed as inferior to men. Cultures like Egypt and Persia had similar laws for women and treated them with more respect out of any of the other cultures.

There is social roles and then there is social issues. From a very young age, as soon as a child reaches the capacity to understand, they are taught that they are ‘male’ or ‘female’ and that one should follow the social norm (role) that society has placed out for them. A male can only be strong, profound, masculine, stern, and emotionally controlled. While a women should only be nurturing, gentle, and sensitive. This is all before we even reach puberty, which largely created a (social) issue over the course of our generation. It makes it hard for people to find their identities in society. “All the worlds a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits, and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts” (William Shakespeare, Act 2, Scene 7, P. 6).

Gender roles have played a major part in society. According to the book “The Psyche of Feminism” “A gender role is a theoretical construct in the social sciences that refers to a set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate

Gender is one of the most heated terms in the English language during the 21st century, whose role seems to be constantly changing, always on the move, reflecting new updated meanings for society. Gender roles often portray the fairness and justice of any given society, hence the more equality genders reach, the more advanced and sophisticated the society is considered to be. They also suggest a set of rules that males and females have to follow and play their parts in order to define genders. However, the ambiguity of society’s confinement, like an invisible hand around everybody’s neck, draws attention to the artificiality of what we define as “acceptable” behaviors.

Gender roles have been changing throughout the centuries with both men and women. The most and drastic change has occurred in our 21st century to women. Women are now viewed as equals in the work and home, they are able to achieve just as much as men and no longer have limits suppressing them. There have been limits put on women since the beginning of time, women were to attend to the house and children but never other responsibilities beyond that. This change in gender roles has shaped our society in numerous ways making new jobs for women and breaking through social norms. Throughout history the role of women has dramatically changed, first with women being primary caregivers and up keepers of the house to women being able to have their own careers and lastly to being equal to men and no longer being inferior to them.

Gender roles describe the normative expectations of a culture group regarding the position that both sexes should hold in society. It also refers to the division of labor tasks, differences in behaviors, preferences, abilities; personalities that society expects of specific genders, (Kaiser, C. R., & Miller, C. T. 2009). It concerns the processes of how gender roles socialize and interact with each other in society as a whole and as an individual, (Stockard & Johnson, 1980; Thomas, 1986). Gender role deals with identity and at times are conceptualized as the acceptance and identification with social roles and behaviors associated with

Prior to the 1960s and 70s in the United States, roles were defined based on someone's gender, family structure, and sexual orientation. Women were to be in domestic roles in a family by raising the children, housework, and attending the husband's needs. Women were discouraged to pursue higher education and few were supervisors in the workplace. The family was to be composed of a husband, wife, and children. The husband was the patriarch and therefore, whatever he decided went.

When looking at gender roles and the effects they have on society, one must ask why society still seemingly follows them. They are roles or behaviors learned by a person as appropriate to their gender, determined by the prevailing cultural norms. These norms have a very influential role in society, whether it is recognized or not. They can lead to the separation of genders on both physical and mental level, while also tearing down both in the process. Although there are many side effects and consequences of gender roles, the reasons why society chooses to still abide by them are quite extensive.

When contemplating the topic of gender role and its impact on identity one cannot help but realise that these gender roles have a huge part to play on a person’s identity. As gender is a combination of male and female it gives way for a number of characteristics to accompany each sex making them different from each other. This has an important position to play on identity which Kath Woodward stated in her book “Questioning Identity: Gender, Class, Nation” where she said “Without difference there would not be such thing as identity”. (Woodward, 2000, pp.51) Unfortunately, however, with these differences there are inequalities. In this essay I would like to elaborate on this further by looking at the meaning of gender and how it impacts

Gender roles and expectations leave a massive, indirect impact on people of western culture. It can limit both genders as to what they are socially allowed and not allowed to do. While most believe that the roles appear natural, it is only because it is how they are raised to believe, not because of biology. It is completely okay to believe and stick to gender roles on one’s own terms, but the issue lies when the individual is oppressed or harassed for straying from the subjective social construct of standards. It affects a lot of western culture, making different people be able to obtain different professions, wear certain clothing choices, have dominant or passive roles in relationships, and be accepted as either more assertive and

Society has clearly defined boundaries between what is considered to be male or female. The development of an individual’s gender role is formed by interactions with those in close proximity. Society constantly tells us how we should look, act and live based on gender. Family, friends and the media have a tremendous impact on how these roles are formed and the expected behavior of each gender role.