The Shift Of Gender Roles

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 have been changing throughout the centuries with both men and women. The most and drastic change has occurred in our 21st century to women. Women are now viewed as equals in the work and home, they are able to achieve just as much as men and no longer have limits suppressing them. There have been limits put on women since the beginning of time, women were to attend to the house and children but never other responsibilities beyond that. This change in gender roles has shaped our society in numerous ways making new jobs for women and breaking through social norms. Throughout history the role of women has dramatically changed, first with women being primary caregivers and up keepers of the house to women being able to have their own careers and lastly to being equal to men and no longer being inferior to them.

When thinking of gender roles in society, stereotypes generally come to mind. Throughout history these stereotypes have only proven to be true. Major historical events have had a huge impact on the way men and women are seen and treated. In this way, women have always been secondary to males and seen as the fragile counterparts whose job is to take care of the household and most importantly, be loyal to her husband no matter the circumstance. Gender roles throughout history have greatly influenced society. The slow progress of woman’s rights throughout humanities led to an explosion of woman’s rights throughout the 20th century and that trend will only continue on into the rest of the 21st century.

During World War One, many societal norms became disrupted and thrown aside. Everything became displaced, including gender roles. People stopped fretting about a woman’s place in the kitchen when people were dying in the trenches everyday. World War One was a time of progressive change–however, it was only temporary. Both One of Ours, written by Willa Cather, and Mrs. Dalloway, written by Virginia Woolf, take place around World War One. Despite taking place around World War One, a time associated with progress, there is not a stark contrast in the roles that women were expected to fulfill. Examining these novels, it becomes apparent that the roles of women did not change as a result of the war. In fact, Enid, in One of Ours, and Mrs.

Similar to the outward portrayal of the sexes in “A New Leaf,” there is a distinct line drawn between the social roles of men and women in the work. Women are not asked to do much of anything in the social construct, left alone to beautify themselves in search of the perfect man for them. Aside from that, they are entrusted to the care of children for the family. “When he was sad, Julia made him her baby, caring for him and holding his handsome head against her breast.” [Fitzgerald 394] Men, in this work, are pictured to be providers, keepers of order, and leaders, mostly in order to impress a well endowed lady. The social structure in “A New Leaf” revolves around relationships and sex more than anything else.

The topic of gender roles is a subject that has been discussed and argued upon for several years, regarding the depiction and expectations of what it means to be a man and, conversely, what it means to be a woman. Along with the topic comes what and how society defines masculinity and femininity. Society has given men the title of being masculine due to the reflection of  dominance, strength, aggressiveness, independence , and the use of interpersonal skills. Whereas society has given females the title of being feminine for having the qualities of being vulnerable, modest, dependent, and delicate. The definitions for both genders follow behind the depiction and expectation on how one may act, whether male or female. A male wants to appear

When I was a little girl, my neighbors and I would always be outside until our parents called us in for dinner. We would be playing football, riding our bikes, playing gas station and other games you played when you were little. Even when I was younger we were all in a stereotype of what we could and not do because of the gender roles placed on each one of us. Society has told us that we need to play with the toys that they label as appropriate for your gender. That is why we see even at younger ages the commercials on the television socializes you into what a girl should play with and what a guy should play with which puts us in the gender roles that we have in society. The boy toys were the action figures, blue colored, and more violent. While the girl toys were pink, sparkly, and mostly dolls. When I was younger sometimes I wasn’t able to hang out with the boys at recess for they would say it’s a boy sport and you are a girl. Looking back now, I realize that these boys at such a young age was putting me into a category of being weak and more sensitive. We see this every day, girls being labeled as a group of being more nurturing and sensitive and boys being more masculine. This can be contributed to the fact that as we were younger we grew up with specific gendered toys that could have impacted our life into how we label each other even today.

To understand gender differences within language and society, we must first realize how our genders were divided. The division between the sexes began with the agricultural revolution that transformed human civilization that is believed to have taken place between 8000 and 7000 B.C.E. The consequences of agriculture and the ability to harvest and store food, eliminating the need to hunt and gather, were life changing. Settlements began to develop and gender roles were forming. Men would tend to the fields and the herds while women had a tendency to remain close to the homes, becoming the caretakers of the children and households. As civilization developed, the work done by the men away from the home grew to be regarded as more important than the work done by the women. Due to this newly found perception, “men came to play the more dominant role in human society, which gave rise to the patriarchy” (Spielvogel 4-5). This mindset has been fortified in human culture and has defined gender roles in societies throughout the centuries.

Since 1987, there have been plenty of change in specified gender roles and society’s attitude towards them. In the past thirty years, gender roles have changed drastically while still following traditional gender outlines. Families have become more co-operated by both parents and sometimes a third party. Work places, such as McDonalds, have changed slightly around gender role though females still can not assist in unloading trucks of supply. Relationships have become easier to manage when there are no gender roles. This paper is to discuss the changes gender role has caused in family life, work place, and the working of a relationship; this paper also discusses the attitude towards change and to what extent it goes too.

Ashley, thank you for your post. I can easily relate to how you perceived gender roles. Even though I grew up with the general idea that the male was the bread winner, my mother worked part time. However, my grandparents that were heavy influential in my life, I knew my grandmother never worked. My grandfather was the bread winner and my grandmother handled to the domestic duties of the child rearing and home. So, in essence I had to perceived notion that the males were the prominent providers in the family.

“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is a short story contained in her collection of stories written in 1983,“At the Bottom of the River.” This story is about a mother giving advice to her daughter on how to survive and succeed in the society that they are living in at about 1950-1960. The story portrays a mother’s urgent repetitive voice to save her daughter from sexuality, by teaching her how to become a good woman in the society of Antigua, a British Island. The setting of “Girl” affects the relationship of the characters by the mother dictating a way of life to her daughter and reinforcing the gender roles in society.

Now day’s gender roles are getting more and more exactable, there are girls playing football and guys doing cheer but people still think it is wrong for girl to do boy sports and guys to do something that girls do. We should just except the fact they want to do something with their lives to keep them out of trouble or even make them feel good about them selves. People theses days are so judge mental over this stuff all because of what their gender is doesn't mean they have to do what every girl or guy does, let them do what they want themselves be who you think you are do what you think is right for you.

Gender roles in any society dictates specific standards by which each individual (based on gender) is expected to act. Proper decorum based on sex, is manifested in the way men and women verbally express themselves, reason, act, and participate with each other. These differences in social expectations have impacted the way in which humanity perceives family responsibilities, job allocation, entertainment and even tangible products based on masculinity or femininity. Yet, based on the scientific principals set by Charles Darwin, evolution is inevitable. Gender roles in today’s culture seem to be obsolete. Socioeconomic factors have forced the hand of evolution, tarnishing the guiding lines of gender roles and responsibility. Society should evolve and stop trying to push the so-called typical gender roles because it can hinder the growth and development of today’s and the future’s society.

During World War One, many societal norms were disrupted and thrown aside. Everything was displaced, including gender roles.With people dying in trenches everyday, a woman’s place in the kitchen became a secondary concern. World War One was a time of progressive change–however, this change was only temporary. Both One of Ours, written by Willa Cather, and Mrs. Dalloway, written by Virginia Woolf, take place during this era. Despite being set during a time of supposed progress for women’s rights, the roles that women are expected to fulfill in these texts are still oppressive.Examining these novels, it becomes apparent that the roles of women did not change as a result of the war. In fact, Enid, in One of Ours, and Mrs. Dalloway, in Mrs.

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.