Sociology as Essay

Gender socialization is us teaching our children what is expected of their gender. Most usually keep girls close and encourage boys to run off and go on their own little adventures. We dress them in different colors, and even have this role that show men as big and strong and a lot of the time women are nice or pretty and just stay out of the way. This isn't my opinion of how it should be, but it's how society tries to tell us we are supposed to be.

In this essay, I will assess the strengths and limitations of unstructured interviews for investigating the effect of material deprivation on educational achievement by using Item B and my own knowledge. Material deprivation is the idea that a lack of money leads to disadvantages, Item B gives an example of ‘low household income, poor housing and a lack of work space in the home.’

Prior to this class the term gender to me was associated with male and female, that they grow up into the image the caretaker wants, and then the replica is cut lose to stand on their own. However, after class discussions the term Gender studies has taken on a life of its own. It is an interdisciplinary study devoted to gender identity and gender representation of society. It looks at inequality amongst men and women in both the public and their private spheres. Now as I look back upon my childhood when I had to remain indoor to cook, clean, wash, and iron I can identify how I was gender role socialize base on my sex as female. Although, at that time I did not see it as socialization, to me it was unfair and unjust, because I always taught my brother got the easiest and coolest chores. Even though he use to complain about his chore he never use to envy what I did. It was also

Masculinity has always been a topic of debate. Many wonder what it means to be masculine, but is there really a single definition to this term? Men are taught to believe that only certain characteristics are definitive in proving their ‘manliness’. Of course this fluctuates between one culture and another, however, most cultures encourage men to display the same characteristics which include not crying, being aggressive, amongst other traits.

Much research on helping behaviour can be criticised as being ethnocentric, conducted in the USA alone. Thus, the studies are rather limited in terms of the lack of variety in the people studied. Latane and Darley were the first to systematically investigate the circumstances under which bystander's are/are not likely to intervene to help others, and promote pro-social behaviour. However, we must be cautious not to generalise the findings to other cultures. We cannot assume that the same circumstances apply equally to any human population.

Gender is set so thoroughly in our actions, beliefs, and desires, so that to us it appears to be completely natural (Eckert and McConnell, year/pg. unknown). A major part of gender identity is understanding the difference between sex and gender. Sociology shows and explains the major differences between sex and gender (Tischler, 2011, p. 247). While sex refers to the physical and biological differences between men and women, gender refers to the attributes of masculinity and femininity that are based on biological distinctions (Tischler, 2011, p. 247).

Gender roles are introduced to an individual since infancy by his or her family and their cultural norms. As a result, the family plays a crucial role in the gender socialization that strives to impart behaviors and attitudes that are characteristics of either a masculine or feminine gender. According to the sociologist Crespi, “Gender socialization is a more focused form of socialization, it is how children of different sexes are socialized into their gender roles and taught what it means to be male or female” (Crespi). This becomes more evident when considering the toys, clothing and in the way a baby or child is addressed or treated by his or her family as well as other individuals. Benokraitis also points out

One mark of gender socialization is the configuration of gender identity, which is one’s distinction of oneself as a man or woman. Gender identity molds how we judge others and ourselves which then impacts our actions. For instance, gender distinctions are present in the possibility of drug and alcohol abuse, violent atmospheres, and depression. Gender identity furthermore has an predominantly powerful effect on our emotions about our exterior reflection and our body image.

Gender socialisation commences at birth, parental conditioning and expectations are confirmed with the introduction and expectations that girls play with dolls and boys play with trucks and cars. Girls are seen as the homemakers whilst boys are guided more towards building, climbing and rough and tumble play. This continues at primary school where girls are encouraged to wear dresses for their uniforms and boys shorts or long pants. Boys are chastised if they cry and therefore learn to hold back their emotions. This could result in excess anger and frustration manifesting into aggression and possible labelling of the child (UNICEF, 2015).

Socialization theories propose that children gain gender differences at young ages by socializing with peers, parents, teachers, siblings, and any other immediate family. These gender differences can range from preferring certain colors over others, playing with certain toys, and anything that could potentially be labeled as male or female (sports, games, careers, etc.). Gender differences can be harmful if children decide to push against them but they can also have no effect. It greatly depends on the child and the environment that the child lives in. For example, if a girl genuinely likes the color pink, participating in ballet, or other things gendered towards girls, then that is not a problem as long as she knows that she can do anything a boy can do too. However, if a girl is raised in a house where she is forced to participate in ballet even though she wants to play soccer, this can cause resentment and can have damaging effects. This essay is looking at two theories of socialization in particular: gender schemas and modeling and imitation. They are both very important in understanding how socialization theories function.

Gender socialization is the process of learning the social prospects and behaviors connected with one 's sex. According to gender socialization there are so many reasons why males and females act in different ways: they learn different social roles. For example, girls learn to do different household chores such as: how to cook, how to clean, how to do sweep, how to take care of family etc and boys learn to work outside, how to earn money, how to rule the world etc. The effect of family, school, media, society, interaction between two people are the reasons of gender socialization. Sometimes gender roles lead to inequality such as according to,“We should all be feminists” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, she shared a story from her childhood

As children are raised, they learn about their society and their place in it, which includes suitable behaviors which correspond with their gender identities. The socialization approach to gender differences among children views gender identification and behavior as being based on children’s learning that they will be rewarded for behaviors which are considered appropriate for their sex, but not for those behaviors appropriate to the other sex. (Cherlin 2009) In this essay, I will argue my partner and I’s view of the importance of a less structured approach to teaching children to “do gender”, while also explaining the way in which gender roles will be negotiated in my future family.

Gender socialization is when societal factors influence the way we treat and expect boys and girls to be. Typically, society expects girls and women to be polite, nice, beautiful, fashionable, happy, able to cook, clean, and much more. For boys and men, the expectation is that boys should be strong, aggressive, tall, smart, assertive, competitive, and the list goes on. Society wants each person to act according to these roles and stereotypes as well as influence and promote these roles as much as possible. Including through marketing genderless items like toys to specifically for a boy or girl. As much as I hate gender roles and love to

Gender socialization is socialization but for just gender roles. So girls can only do girly things and boy may not because it’s just for girls and vise versa. Girl are to not participate in male games because it’s a guy thing. A few examples would be two brothers playing wrestling because that’s what they watch on tv and the sister that wants to join older or younger but can’t because mommy and daddy said she couldn’t. You might wonder and ask why and at times you can get responses like: “she’s a girl she can’t play with boys that dangerous” “it’s a boy games, you’re just a little girl why don’t you play with you baby doll” “little girls don’t play that you can get hurt” but the problem they don’t see is even though yes it’s possible she can get hurt to so can the two other kids.

Socialization also affects how a child views gender. As a child grows the person that they learn the most from is their primary care giver. That can be a parent, grandparent or other family member. Primary caregivers provide different cues for their children depending on their gender. For example, they will be gentler with girls than they are boys. Boys are not encouraged to cry. Thus, they teach their girls to be soft and their boys to be tough. Boys and girls are also told to play with specific toys. Boys are not allowed to play with dolls, but girls are. Another person important to a child’s socialization are their teachers. They can encourage children to participate in gender specific games. Lastly, a child’s peers also act as a socializing agent. They provide “gender role norms” and that influences what the child plays, how they act, and what they like (133-136).