Gender Theories: Gender Roles In American Culture

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

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

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.

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.

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 affect the way we view males and females in society. According to Public and Private Families an Introduction by Andrew J Cherlin, “sex” is described as the biological characteristics the distinguish the difference between man and woman such as their reproductive organs and hormones. “Gender” is described as the social and cultural characteristics that describe the difference between men and women. Gender roles in the United States have changed more for women than for men due to the asymmetry of gender change which is the bigger change in woman’s lives than males.

Society created the standards and/or the norms for the bases of gender roles. Within the United States, alone, the masculine role is related with authority, strength, and aggression were as the feminine role is associated with being dependent, nurturing, and submissiveness. (Gender role- Social and behavioral norm that is generally considered appropriate for either a man or a women in a social setting or interpersonal relationship.)

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

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

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.

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.

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

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