The Gender Theory Of Men And Women

The dynamic between male and female is extremely complex. Over the course of human history, men have primarily dominated over women in nearly every aspect of human interaction and daily life. Despite the large progress that has been made in recent decades, women are still heavily subordinated by the male gender both in the workforce and in the private sphere. Examples of this domination of men can be seen in many aspects of everyday life including: interpersonal and social interaction, family, among peers, in education, and in the media.

The story happens in 1961. This is the post war period when the market is prospering at the time. New ideas, such as dressing freely comes up as the economy grows. A&P is in a small town located in northern Boston, far away from the big cities. People there are not ready for the changes in the way people dress openly and in mindsets. People’s values in Sammy’s community are conformed. As Sammy points out that: “we’re right in the middle of town, and the women generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out of the car in to the street.” Women in this town should not wear revealing costumes to public places. This is not only people’s values, but their policy. When three girls dressing in bathing suits show up in A&P, they get condemned by the manager Lengel. Lengle, the lower class in society, is the representation for conservative in the town. As a manager, he supposes to put customers’ need in the first place. However, he puts his personal value above business’s principle. He reprimands Queenie that: “We want you decently dressed when you come in here” (749). “It’s our policy” (749). It is obvious that people are under strict supervision in this town. They are not allowed to dress what they want, but should follow the town’s dressing standard. Therefore, Updike creates a conserved setting that helps to reinforce the theme of conformity versus personal

In the excerpt “Why Do We Make So Much of Gender?”, from his 1997 book The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy, Allan Johnson argues gender through identity and culture. Johnson starts out by expressing opposition on how women are looked at through a patriarchal society and not the biology from which they came. He mentions the feminist argument that women in a patriarchal society are “oppressed” and that this comes from social order (545). He goes on to point out, the focus should be on raising children to adulthood rather than worrying about reproduction. Although, I agree with Johnson’s arguments, there are things in this world that cannot and should not be changed.

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.

“I was young and dumb,” said Kim Spight, a forty-year-old FedEx sales manager who became pregnant her freshman year at Howard University. Ms. Spight had the mindset to succeed so instead of dropping out of college to raise her daughter, she kept studying until she received her masters degree and now manages a 12-person sales team in Dallas. Meanwhile, her daughters father continues to work odd jobs and live at home with his mother (Cauchon, 2013). Can you believe at one point in time this reality wasn’t heard of or seemed impossible to achieve? Gender roles continue to transform year after year in relationships where men have began welcoming in the ideas of being a stay at home dad while the mom is the breadwinner. Women have the capability of climbing up the ladder in the workplace and even a little change has swept through different cultures. Let’s take a leap into the past to see just how gender roles have transformed history in the workplace, culture, and marriage.

Men and Women have many different life experiences that allow their literature to be different from each other. Gender plays a really important role in society. From the day we are born, we are instantly given a blue blanket if we are a boy or a pink blanket if one is a girl. In society, we are told that we can be whoever we want to be, but many people especially women are criticized if they want to endure a path that is similar to a male. In literature, authors are able to express from their real life experiences and have that help them create stories. Many women authors write from the viewpoint of how men have power and are generally categorized as feminist. Male authorities may not want to lower their role as a man and relate to women because they do not feel like they are being “real” or “powerful”. Everyone views things differently and literature is a very good way to pick apart how females and males think similarly and different to one another. Although Feminism and Gender Roles have changed and men and women are more equal, by taking a look at the play “Poof!” by Nottage and article studies on these criticism one can see how they are still present in today’s society from the past.

Fairy tales have been around for generations. They are a way to express the idealistic realities of society. In most fairy tales, the roles of men and women reflect the way men and women are portrayed in reality. Many cultures believe that women are to be seen and not heard and that the only necessity for them is to take care of the house and raise children to repopulate society. Fairy tales originated from oral tradition. These stories were passed down and here eventually written down. As known as a result of oral tradition the stories were changed to fit the audience and make storytelling more interesting. According to MPhil Kings, there are several broad classifications of types of fairy tales. There are animal tales, ordinary folktales, jokes and anecdotes, formula Tales and Unclassified Tales. For the most part, I will be looking at Ordinary Folktales.

Previous research has suggested that differences in gender have an effect on decision-making when multiple options were available. A study performed by Kallie Reiter examined the gender differences in decision-making when multiple options were available among college students. The researchers tested this by measuring the amount of time it took students to choose a food line to wait in at the cafeteria. 116 male students and 116 female students from two separate cafeterias on two different campuses participated in the study. The participants were unaware of their participation in this study because it was a naturalistic observation design and they were chosen by convenience. A cell phone or other type of timer were used to measure the amount

In the reading “The social Construction of Gender” by Judith Lorber she describes how gender is socially constructed. Sex is the biological difference while gender is the social and cultural meanings attached to femininity and masculinity (lecture). From the time that a child is born the doctor assigns it a gender, girl or boy, depending on its genitalia. In the reading “Naming All the Parts” it focused on how when doctors view genitalia to decide the gender they say there is a penis or there is no penis, no acknowledgment of the vagina. Gender construction begins when we start using gender markers such as naming a child a certain name, dressing it in certain colors such as pink or blue, and giving it gender based toys such as dolls for girls and cars for boys. As we get older we learn to behave in ways that are associated with hegemonic masculinity or exaggerated femininity (lecture). We are also expected to have specific careers based on our gender. Due to gender stratification, which is the ranking of the sexes in such a way that women are unequal in power, resources, and opportunities (lecture),women are more likely to have lower paying jobs, take care of children, and keep up with housework. At the same time men can earn more working the same job. We become who we become in response to the social forces relevant to society (lecture). Gender is socially constructed, but the function of gender in

Sociologist Peter Berger wrote in his “Invitation to Sociology” book that “social reality has layers of meaning, and the discovery of each new layer changes the perception of the whole.” (Berger 1963). Berger, as a sociologist responsible for helping create the social constructionism theory, is not just extending an invitation to sociology. He is already explaining how the world can be viewed by people who already are actively participating in society. This consciousness allows the layer of how people participate to be revealed, and under what circumstance do they engage in the discourse.

The gender roles of men and women are defined before a person is even born. When a parent finds out that their child is either a little boy or girl, themselves and other family members will begin the process of gender role socialization. Gender role socialization as defined in Gidden’s Introduction to Sociology is “the learning of gender through social factors such as schooling, the media and family.” (Giddens et al. 2014: 216) By buying all blue or pink, making sure the boy will have trucks and army men, and only dolls or tiny kitchens for the girl they are starting the gender role socialization process right away. Gender roles and inequality start at such a young age and is present throughout a person’s life not only by their family and friends, but also in the media, workplace and politics. Some theorists also believe that biology has no role in the differences of genders and that it is all how society treats different genders and how masculinity and feminist characteristics are defined by others. Gender inequality for women is especially common. Throughout my life I have seen through the way media portrays women, and how they should look, act and behave around men and for them. I believe that the way we have socialized women and how this gender “must act” has greatly effected how women are treated, paid less, and have gender typing in the workplace. Overall I think the way gender roles of women that are portrayed at a young age greatly affect the way that women act when

A gender role is simply a behavior that may be learned by a person that is so called “accepted” into society or a cultural normality. For example, men are known for supporting the family the most such as keeping the food on the table and being most of the income that comes into the household. Women on the other hand are normally looked upon as house cleaners, childcare givers, and less responsible jobs inside the house. Gender stereotypes are a little bit different; this is a way of seeing someone, as they appear just based on their gender. (Rathus, 2010, p. 526) Such as some men like to watch sports or play them, not all men watch or play sports but people assume so. Women are normally the ones who are seen but not heard. That is not always the case; some women like to be either the center of attention or want their voice heard, eliminating the stereotype of women being dependent on men for everything.

Gender refers to the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to either sex. Culture and biology determine the moral, intellectual, and emotional differences between males and females. Biology partially determines gender constructions of men and women. A woman’s ability to conceive or a man’s natural strength are all examples of biological gender. However, I believe a larger proportion of personal gender is formulated through cultural believes and values. Cultures create gender through social practices such as education, employment, or child rearing. These activities slot men and women into different positions of power. Traditionally, wife and mother are roles accepted by the women, the men undertake roles such as wage earner and decision maker, accepting positions that are more powerful. Women and men accept personal moral, intellectual, and emotional characteristics to suit their designated roles.

For years, women have always been inferior to men. Even the bible states, women must be submissive. During War World II, women got a chance to experience a hint of freedom. Not by choice of course. While men went off to war, women had to hold down the fort at home. This marked the beginning to pioneer change. No one foresaw this innovation until it was too late. In a society were men are superior to women, was no longer susceptible. The road towards equality was certainly not an easy one. Although many successful strides towards women’s rights have been accomplished, women still to this day, are fighting. One major concern that women have been battling with for years, is income inequality. Not only is it biased towards women, but it is discriminatory. Since the end of War World II in 1945, until 2016, why is this still an ongoing issues? In order to answer that, we must first analyze our past.

Imagine a piece of matter that continually changes its shape. This piece of matter goes unnoticed by everyone, even though it is constantly present. Now imagine this piece of matter as the definition of gender and gender norms. Judith Lorber wrote an essay called, "The Social Construction of Gender." The essay was included in the textbook, "Women 's Lives." A textbook written by Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okinawa Rey. “Women’s Lives” is a Feminist focused compilation of essays. As well as, cultural analysis of women globally. Lorber is one of many authors who wrote essays regarding gender for “Women’s Lives.