Gender Roles: Undermining the Female Gender
From birth, everyone was assigned a certain gender and are socialized to conform to certain gender roles based on their biological sex. Gender roles are standards created by society. Masculine roles are usually associated with dominance, strength, and aggression, while feminine roles are associated with nurturing, passivity, and subordination. This is where the term “gender inequality” becomes a major issue because to society men are supposedly the predominant gender, which then leads others to believe and treat women as the subsidiary sex. Women throughout history have endlessly worked to earn their rights, while men basically have everything offered to them. Recent laws have given women more freedom and rights, thus convincing people that gender roles are no longer a problem. Regardless of what society has convinced people, women still do not have equality because of gender roles.
In this world, men have been seen as the superior sex and women have been considered the subordinate group. Clearly, gender roles have been set to support men. Women are not expected to have similar jobs or to have the physical strength men do, but instead they are expected to stay home, raise the kids, and take care of household needs. Men, being the strong ones, are the only ones required to have a job and do the heavy lifting. The current accepted views towards women’s roles create female inequality because women are being undermined just because
Women have been downgraded and mistreated because of their gender. From birth, Women and Men grew up with very different rules to follow. Men were raised to be the head of the house and do work for a living. Growing up as little girls, women were taught to raise their kids and make food for their families. “Strong family structures were necessary because the family was the basis for all other institutions. The government, church, and community all worked through the nuclear family unit.”(“Gender and
Since the beginning of time women were never treated as equals to men. Men have always been seen as stronger and the providers for their families. Women are often viewed as the nurturers and caregivers for their family. Women’s role in society has always been to make sure that everyone is happy and healthy while, men go out and work to make sure that women have the necessities they need to keep everyone happy.
Women have virtually the same rights as men. However, the fault needing to be recognized in today’s society is the way that women are treated. Even in simple areas, such as jobs, women are put on the back burner. A woman is able to become a CEO of a company, nonetheless, she will struggle twice as hard as a man would. Even as an employee, women are statistically paid less than men are.
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.
In society “when a man offers to help, we shower him with praise and rewards. But when a woman helps, we feel less indebted” usually due to societal view of women as “mothers” (Grant np). Not all women are mothers or want to be treated that way. Their work is just as much of an energy use, help, and debt in some cases. Even highly educated women are discriminated against. “At every level of academic achievement, women’s median earnings are less than men’s earnings, and in some cases, the gender pay gap is larger at higher levels of education (“Simple np). The work of a woman is devalued, and wrongly accounted for. All help at work needs to be accounted for, “Most organizations regularly assess individual accomplishments. Why not track acts of helping as well? assigning communal tasks evenly rather than relying on volunteers can also ensure that support is shared, noticed, and valued” (Grant np). Although it may not be assigned work, any work in the workplace should be accounted for. “For example, the expectation that women more than men bear the responsibility to raise children gently nudges thousands of highly educated women out of full-time work” (Thompson np). Women are devalued due to the past values of the patriarchy. Often men are seen as head of families and providers, while that is completely incorrect. Women’s work is just as valuable
For hundreds of years, women have never been given equality, from being able to vote, to how they are able to dress. Guys are always seen to be the stronger gender or more important gender so the girls are always the ones to get in trouble if they are to do something not expected or inappropriate in the male's eyes. Men are the ones who get women in trouble. Men are the ones who can't keep their hands and eyes to themselves in most cases. Men are the reason women are seen as unimportant. Women used to not be able to do certain jobs or have certain careers because it was described as being a male only position. For example, anything in the military was completely one hundred percent off limits for a women to do unless, it was the position of a nurse which still was a very hard job to get in the beginning and women were treated like crap when doing
Gender inequality has been a dominant and consistent struggle of human culture since its existence. To this day, women constantly face oppression, unjust treatment, and less opportunities. For centuries, women have played inferior roles compared to men, especially in marriage. When a man and a woman would wed, it was understood that the woman would serve her husband’s needs and demands. Over the centuries of human existence, however, many feminists and progressive revolutionaries demanded change in the treatment of females.
Gender roles are basically “society norms” It tells types of behaviors that are considered acceptable for a person based on their sex. The expectations include of how a person should act, dress, and talk.
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).
Men and women have always had a role to own up to and mens have always been more superior than women's. Now a days no one really talks about the stereotypes between men and women and when they do it turns into a huge debate, unlike back then everyone would listen, believe and follow. Women on a daily are part of a social construct system that treats them unequally. Gender now a days for society is a common yet complicated topic to talk about. In today's society gender is a major social construct because of the theories that gender identity is not real.
Gender inequality is something that has been affecting our world for a very long time. You can see it all throughout history. From women entering the workforce for the first time, to women protesting on the street, fighting for the right to vote. The concept people don 't understand is that this is still affecting our world today. Did you know that a man who works full time earns a median of $889 a week? Do you know how much a woman makes? A woman who works full-time earns a median of $721 a week. That 's a $168 difference between males and females in the workforce. Also, what about the names that women are called on a daily basis? Slut, hoe, whore, skank, all of these judgemental names are what women are called every day, whether it 's true or not. Gender inequality is everywhere, but most people are just too blind to notice.
Gender determines the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a society deems appropriate based on one’s gender identification. Being a man or woman shapes one’s roles in society, whether in the labor market or among a family. These roles are dynamic and vary by society. Gender inequality can exist when gender roles support established injustices between men and women. Women are more susceptible to and are disproportionately affected by such inequalities (1). To challenge gender inequality, women must gain influence through a process of women’s empowerment. Empowerment has the capacity to challenge societal inequities such as gender inequality.
No matter how much one argues, there is an undeniable truth is that this is a man’s world. Women are always one step behind men because society has not accepted the fact that women are just as capable. Women are generally disadvantaged or excluded regarding decision-making and access to economic and social resources. It is critical that we acknowledge that gender inequality exists and address the power imbalances, thus allowing access to opportunities, rights and obligations in all spheres of life to be no longer dependent on sex.
Women’s empowerment is critical aspect of achieving gender equality (peacecorps.). Gender equality is a human right (peacecorps.). Gender equality is not one homogeneous phenomenon, but a collection of disparate and interlinked problems (“The Many”). In 1963, most Americans did not yet believe that gender equality was possible or even desirable (“Why”). They think they have to choose between having a career and having a family (“Why Women”). Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world (“Achieve”). However, women are frequently subjected to gender norms that limit their opportunities, defining them as mothers, caregivers, or homemakers (“Demand”). The reality is that this idea that they’re ‘natural’ gender roles pushes people into