Gender Roles

The “gender role” refers to a theoretical construct in society that refers to the set of social and behavioral norms

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

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 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

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.

The sex role theory states that, when young males and females are younger they socialise in different ways, resulting in young males being more reckless and neglectful. There are several sociologist and different versions of the sex theory. Edwin Sutherland stated that the gender difference when it comes to socialisation is very obvious. Girls are treated with more supervision and control, while boys are treated not as strict as the girls and are emboldened to take more risk to be tough, which makes boys more inclined and a higher tendency of committing crimes. Talcott parsons believes that there are clear gender roles in a nuclear family, where the father performs the instrumental role which portrays him as a leader and provider, while the mother performs the expressive role of providing emotional support and talking of the children.

Finally from the learning approach we seem to understand that gender identity and role as a set of behaviours that are learned from the environment. The main way that gender behaviours are learned is through the process of observational learning. Children observe the people around them behaving in various

Gender roles are set in place during childhood. Little boys are discouraged from playing with baby dolls and keeping house. Meanwhile little girls are given these toys as soon as possible. The notion that men are the breadwinners of the family is taught at a very young age.

Gender role socialization is the process that explains the gaining social beliefs and attitudes that related with one’s sex. Based on Sociologists they defined that female and male perform differently, from which they acquire different social roles.

Gender is the characteristics of people as females and males. During preschool years, children begin to fall into their cultures gender roles. Gender roles are the expectations that society has in regards to how females and males should think, act, and feel. Two social theories that are central to children’s gender development are psychoanalytic theory of gender and social cognitive theory of gender. Freud proposed in the psychoanalytic theory of gender that children develop a sexual attraction to their opposite-sex parent, but eventually loses this attraction causing them to identify with their same-sex parent. In the social cognitive theory of gender, children’s gender develops through the rewards and punishments from their parents for gender-appropriate behavior. Both theories rely heavily on the influence of parents. Moreover, children in both theories learn about gender roles through observation. They adopt the sources characteristics and imitate what they see. In contrast, social cognitive theory contains other sources from which children learn gender roles such as culture, school, peers, etc. Also, psychoanalytic theory believes that children are aware of their gender much earlier, while social cognitive believes that children become aware through the negative or positive experiences they encounter. Bandura believed in reinforcement, while Freud took a biological approach.

Gender roles are defined as "socially and culturally defined prescriptions and beliefs about the behavior and emotions of men and women" (Anselmi & Law, 1998). Gender roles are not biological. They are learned through social interaction (Baur & Crooks, 2014). They are the behaviors that society deems appropriate and acceptable for men and women in a society; and from a young age, people are taught by everything and everyone around them how they are supposed and expected to act (Baur & Crooks, 2014).

There have been many theories and studies in support of the development of gender identity and gender roles. One major theory was the one put forward by Bandura and his social learning theory.

== == == Such as, Identification theory, which is: 1. Sexual attraction to the opposite sex

A gender identity formation theory that exhibits a completely different way of thinking is gender socialization theory. Karen Wells (2015), explains that gender socialization theories originated from general theories of socialization which suggest that children learn how to be functional members of society through daily experiences and arising issues in addition to formal training. Wells (2015) highlights that gender socialization focuses on socialization into appropriate roles depicted by gender - this varies drastically from the theory of gender performativity. For example, gender socialization theory assumes that children learn what is considered to be culturally appropriate for their gender by using others as role models, imitating and eventually internalizing the role model’s behaviours and attitudes (Hill, 2002 citing Ickles, 1993 as cited by Wells, 2015). Patricia Adler (1992) describes gender socialization as the internalization of “idealized gender images”. As a result, this creates a socially constructed right and wrong for each

Social learning and Gender-schema has been two theories that have been rambling the minds of many. One thought that runs through my mind is how do children develop their roles of identities? Many say that the reason why a girl acts like a girl and boy acts like a boy is because the punishment that they have received for doing certain things, as well as the rewards that have been given to them as they do good. “This theory states that children learn their gender roles by receiving rewards or punishments, and throughput observations and imitation” (Zoe Jackson 2014). If a little boy walks into a toy store and picks out a barbie doll that first reaction that a parent might give is a loud “no”, this might trigger the mind of the little boy and he will come to a realization that what he has done was not a good thing. Rather if it is a little girl that did well in school her reward might be a doll. A little boy might get punished for liking or even playing with something that