Gender Theories: Gender Roles In American Culture

Indian men celebrated women’s roles in food providing and child bearing in religious ceremonies (64). Indian women unlike the English women of the seventeenth century had a voice. She was treated more as an equal. Even though there was still gender separation between Indian men and Indian women, in the responsibilities they share, the women were more respected. Indian women still didn’t have easy lives.

Over the years gender roles have changed for both males and females. The duties, behaviors, and activities we perform on daily basics are different from which male and females would have performed years ago. Male gender role or there stereotypes in the United States consist of being muscular, independent, and athletic. Female gender role or there stereotypes are being caring, sensitive, and the caregiver. The gender roles for male and female have changed over the years, originally men’s duties included working all day for their family. They were the family member that brought in the income in for the family. As for the female roles/duties they would stay home, clean the house, take care of the family, and at the end of the day cook dinner.

The gender of a person is the masculine or feminine attributes of that individual with respect to the psychological and biological role in society. (Magar, 2009) A gender role can be defined as the way that a person lives in society with respect to its lifestyle. It can be argued that over time the major differences between men and women’s gender roles have faded. In the past traditional roles have been based in their society by their biological orientation. (Magar, 2009) Gender roles can also be described as the behavior and attitudes that are expected of men and women in a society. (Faqs.org, 2011) Although different cultures impose different expectations, many cultures have the same basic gender roles.

Their main job is to take the trash out and help their dads if asked. When it comes to behavior, more is expected from the girls meanwhile they boys can do whatever they want to do. The girls are expected to be modest and well mannered because God forbid that a rumor gets around in the family or the neighborhood and then everybody begins talking badly about the entire family. God forbid that your own family starts to wonder if your mother ever thought you any good because of the way you talk, or dress, and especially if you want to take a different path in life. The girls in the family will determine everything. They will determine how the rest of the family will be perceived. The girls will determined whether your mom and dad did right in raising their children based on the standards of the culture. The girls are the ones who will determine if that cultural chain will be broken or be intact for the future generation, the future generation that you girls will

In a critical analysis, India has been subjected and thrown into the fire as many continue to thrive this uphill battle of inequality and gender relation issues. Although inequality is a largely debatable issue, especially when convoluted

6. What are the gender roles in Indian culture? Women are separated from boys, and associated with nature. Masculinity and femininity are opposing forces.

In the typical Indian family, gender construction manifests itself especially in the roles of men and women in the household. As Judith Lorber so aptly put, “gender is a process of creating distinguishable social statuses for the assignment of rights and responsibilities” which in turn, creates the social differences that define a “man” and “woman” (Lorber). It is these differences that are used to construct and maintain an established gender order within the family. In the conventional Indian family, the order is such that the roles of the women in the household revolve around the roles of the men. This structure was something that I saw from an early age in my parents’ marriage. Though my parents defied the Indian norm of the arranged marriage, they still represented the quintessential model of an Indian couple in many other ways. My mother left her job to become a stay-at-home mom when I was about six years old. However, even before she left her job, she was implicitly expected by my father to shoulder most of the housework including cooking, cleaning, and caring for my older brother

An analysis of example can be derived from the aforementioned discriminatory sexist roles in India that prior to globalization highly favored the male population verses the female population. The female population in India has previously been less than second class citizens. Indian women's cultural roles have been previously defined by traditional customs that are centuries old and no longer apply in this day and age. Previous to globalization, Indian women were to take total domestic responsibility. They were not allowed formal education as the majority of teachers and pupils were male, and the chances of a female remaining chaste was slim in those settings, and related to tradition, females

This joint family, like any social organization, must face problems such as acceptable division of work, relationships and specific family roles. These familial relationships are managed on the basis of a secular hierarchical principle. In fact, all Indians owe respect and obedience to the head of the family, who usually is the father or the oldest man of the family community. In The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony and Murder by Nanda and Gregg, it is explained that, “females [are] placed under the perpetual guardianship of first their fathers and elder brothers, then their husbands.” (Nanda & Gregg 22) Thus, all the spending decisions, studies and profession, or marriage, are exclusively the responsibility of the father after the possible discussions with the other men of the family. Age and sex are the basic principles of this hierarchical system. The eldest sons enjoy greater unchallenged authority than their cadets. Of course men have more authority than women, but older married women have an important role within the family. In fact, the authority of a woman depends on the rank of her husband inside the group. Traditionally, the wife of the patriarch rules over domestic affairs and has considerable power over the other women in the community, especially her daughters- in-law.

Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex. Gender roles are never comprehensive, even within a single country, and they are always historically and culturally unpredictable. Gender roles in the United States for one cultural group likely is not true for another cultural group. Similarly, gender roles in the United States have changed drastically over the time period. Gender roles has been the historical evolution from a single family income in which only the male spouse works and generates income, to dual family income or a family in which both spouses generate family income. The shifting gender roles in the past years has been huge. It happened so quickly

I believe that gender roles are still relevant in American culture in the 21st century. There is a great statement about gender that was presented in the lecture PowerPoint Sex vs. Gender: “In our society, gender is a master status. In other words, gender impacts almost every single area of our lives, including our relationship with others. If we don’t know what someone’s gender is, then we often don’t know how to react with him or her and we get uncomfortable. As a result we like to know what people sex and gender are.” Today, however, we're less likely to stereotype though there are still narrow- minded people around.

In our culture, boys and girls are taught every day- either consciously or subconsciously- how they are supposed to act. For example, when we see commercials with military toys for boys and pretty little princesses for girls. In movies and television, men are the heroes in which they save the women. We all have heard the expression, “boys will be boys”, when they are rough-housing or playing rambunctiously. However, girls should not partake in these activities for they may get hurt and that’s not how a lady acts anyway. Therefore boys receive the message that boys are to be in charge and dominant and the girls should be submissive (socialization approach). “Society’s expectations about how to behave are transmitted to children through channels such as parents, books, television, and peer groups. In these ways, cultural differences between men and women are reproduced in the next generation. (Public and Private Families)”

Chau dhry and Ramadhan (2009), define gender as socially constructed roles and responsibilities of men and women.

Traditionally, an Indian woman had only four roles and those were; Her role as a daughter, wife, sister, and lastly, a mother. The women in today’s time however are experiencing far reaching changes and are entering into new fields that were unknown to them. They are actively participating in social, economic and political activities. Unlike the older times, women today have received higher education.

In society men and women have very difficult roles. Women are seen as burdens and just another mouth to feed, so they are then married off at young age. They are also married at this young age to support their families financially. Women also have little to no opportunities, unlike men. For example, in the movie Narayan speaks about a test he has to take in order to get into the medical field. Women do not get these types of opportunities; they are to stay in the house to cook and look after the children. Women cannot even do little things, like learn how to read. Another example of gender roles is when Chuyia asks what happens to male