Influence Gender Roles

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.

Study on gender role stereotypes has shown that there are several negative effects of stereotyping. The study on how gender role stereotyping effects children is not as prevalent because most believe that it doesn’t matter, since children are just forming their stereotype so children do not care. However, some psychologists have done some research on it, and from their research found out that children used a mixture of moral and social conventional reasoning

Gender roles govern the way that most of the world’s population interact with one another. Many African cultures uphold deeply patriarchal gender roles which dictate how women and men interact with one another. Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie, a staunch feminist, gives readers a look into Nigerian gender roles in her short story Birdsong. Her writing in Birdsong and her TEDtalks explore and expose how these gender roles are harmful and how important it is for many stories of young women of color to be heard.

Education and employment go hand in hand now a day in order to become financially successful in life. These are two unmistakably major parts of society today. In order to become successful a good job is needed, and in order to get the job a good education is needed as well. But women especially need to emphasize more in these two subjects than men; due to past gender discrimination which brought on Equal Employment Opportunity Laws and challenges dissimilar from men’s: such as physical problems which effect their earnings, and that change their education habits.

In today's society people are judged because of stereotypes. Our community seems to assign specific roles to specific genders. These roles include what both women and men can and cannot do. Gender roles enslave people and force them to be what others want them to be.

Many things can affect the way children behave. The different type of parents and environments. Children only know what they have been taught. If boys were raised around a single mother and older sisters than he may be more feminine than other little boys. Also, if girls are raised around mostly boys they may be more masculine or a tomboy. These types of children could be seen as different and not as acceptable as the typical children. The different type of parents will raise their children to like certain things in which already putting them into their gender roles (Golombok, 1993).

Society today places many ideals when it comes to proper behaviours regarding gender roles. These are considered societal norms that are widely debated and controversial. Society has created a norm, which encompasses specific expectations and rules that change the daily lives of men and women, giving them specific tasks and behaviours to abide by. These standards are known as gender roles, which are defined as distinguishing actions, thoughts, and feelings of males and females. Gender roles are said to be a result of nature, which is a natural process, every male or female is to follow. On the other hand it can be a result of nurture, which changes ones way of thinking and adapting their lifestyle to fit their environment. Either way gender roles are a part of someone’s life from the moment of their birth, as they develop, and long after that, this proves that gender roles are influential to a person’s life and development. This essay examines how media such as music, family life, and different parenting styles encompass gender roles and teaches behaviours regarding them. Therefore, gender roles define males and females are a result of nurture and not nature.

People often think of feminism as an issue that pertains only to women, but these people are not looking at the big picture. A large part of the inequality feminists are trying to rectify are the stereotypical gender roles the patriarchy has built for men and women, and unfortunately for a man, this may mean conforming to a sort of toxic masculinity. Not only are men expected to be emotionally shut off, they are also expected to be more inclined to anger and violence than women, and if they do meet this expectation, they are often excused of it with a simple “boys will be boys,” making it seem okay. If they happen to veer from the strong, loud, angry stereotype, they open themselves up to being seen as weak or girlish, which in this society, seems to be a horrible insult. While the danger of toxic masculinity to women is well known, the unfair standards and effects on men are often overlooked, even though they are damaging as well.

In society, whether you are a male or female there are certain expectations attached due to your gender and the sex you were born with. Society deems what is acceptable and what is the norm throughout the years and it changes as time goes on therefore those norms change as well. Throughout living, individuals are shaped by how society depicts them to be whether it is voluntary or not and are found to be deviant when they prefer to not follow those standards. Despite having adjustments during the course of time, there will still be some kind of model for the standard female and male as norms change with the general public. Some of the things that society glues onto gender are the standards and expectations that are forced upon the sex you were assigned to and or the gender you identify as. These could also be stereotypes that develop after a series of constant indicators that lead to the same outcome, such as ‘females needing to be nurturing’ and ‘males needing to be strong’, after hearing this repetitively, it begins to stick and those who are opposite of that will receive the brunt of the judging. Therefore, stereotypes and acts of deviance will shape how contemporary society assesses gender and sex as well as the different experiences individuals will undergo.

The roles that are forced on children from an early age tend to be outdated. For instance, in her article for Health Guidance, Holly Brewer states that “From the beginning, boys are taught to be tough, to be protective, and to defend themselves,”(para. 5). Boys are told that they have to be strong and be the leader. This is not only demeaning to boys, but also girls. Who’s to say that boys can’t be sensitive or girls can’t be tough? Additionally, children feel pressured to act a certain way because of gender roles. Psychologist, Dr. Eric Mayor wrote “In the (psycho)sociological literature, the term ‘sex’ refers to the genetic and physiological differences between women and men, whereas the term “gender” refers to the experience of being male or

What are gender roles? “The role or behaviour learned by a person as appropriate to their gender, determined by the prevailing cultural norms,” (Oxford Dictionaries, n.d). Both males and females have been put into categories that describe what that specific gender should behave and even how they should look like. Over the past fifty years, this criteria for men and women have become a little more loose and has some improvement. Even with that, it is still challenging people all over the United States. Having such high focus on gender is hurting Americans because of stereotyping, equality between genders, and future generations are at risk.

Myers (2013) states that, “There are many obvious dimensions of human diversity- height, weight, hair color, to name a few. But for people’s self-concepts and social relationships, the two dimensions that matter most – and that people first attune to- are race, and especially gender” (p. 162). Gender is defined by Myers (2013) as “the characteristics that people associate with male and female” (p. 162). Gender roles are the public images of being male or female that a person presents to others. Culture is what is shared by a large group and transmitted across generations- ideas, attitudes, behaviors, and traditions (Myers, 2013). Although much of what is learned about gender comes from one’s culture we also learn much of it through our genes and our predisposed biological sex. In most cultures across the world men and women are treated unequally and this inequality is sanctioned by custom and law (Kinias & Kim, 2012). Multiple factors influence the ways in which men and women combine work and family roles (Perrone-McGovern, Wright, Howell, & Barnum, 2012). These factors can include culture, genes and socioeconomic factors. Throughout many generations there have been many changes in cultures across the world and gender roles have changed, especially in western societies. More men are staying at home as “stay-at-home dads” and more women are going out and getting jobs outside of the home. Gender roles are influenced by a combination of both culture and genes.

In short terms, gender roles essentially are social expectations that prescribe how both genders are supposed to act, think, speak and engage with other individuals. Gender roles impact the way families function whether it’s traditional or non-traditional. As said by Wienclaw (2015), even though the 21st-century has shown a continuous change in the way gender roles apply, some basic traditional gender roles are still active in a lot of families. To elaborate, the basic traditional roles for males are dominant, aggressive, strong, speedy and successful. The basic traditional roles for females are sensitive, submissive, emotional and intuitive. Every generation has their own expectations as to how each gender should act, but today’s society is more open-minded than those in the past. Gender-roles are common, mainly because of socialization which starts right after birth. During the adolescent stage, children conform to gender roles that rest on their biological sex. According to my family, all of them followed the traditional gender roles but later in life, some of their roles shifted to non-traditional.

Why is this is so necessary to focus on gender roles? Both males and females have been put into categories that describe what that specific gender should behave like and even how they should look like. Over the past years this criteria for men and women have become a little more loose and have improved. Even with that it is still challenging people all over the world. Having such high focus on gender is hurting Americans because of stereotyping, equality between genders, and future generations are at risk.