United States Gender Roles

Throughout history, women have been regarded as of lesser value than men particularly in the public sphere. This is the result of gender stratification. Gender stratification refers to the issue of sexism, “or the belief that one sex is superior to the other” (Carl et al., 2012, p. 78). The theory that men are superior to women is essential to sexism. Sexism has always had negative consequences for women. It has caused some women to avoid pursuing successful careers typically described as “masculine”—perhaps to avoid the social impression that they are less desirable as spouses or mothers, or even less “feminine.”

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

For centuries now, women have been bombarded with an infinite amount of conflicting and overwhelming messages about what it means to be a woman and which behaviors are considered appropriate, especially regarding sexual behavior. Traditionally, women have always been defined in relation to men. Men are seen as strong, while woman are seen as weak. Men are superior and women are their subordinates. This is exemplified by the fact that “masculine” traits such as strong, non-emotional, and competitive are considered socially desirable traits, while “feminine” traits such as docile, emotional, and passive are not. We evidently live in a society that is not only sexist, but also undoubtedly racist. The white woman typically appears as virtuous and pure, while the woman of color typically appears as unclean and tainted. If the woman of color also happens to be poor, she appears as being even more worthless. Therefore, in the United States, femininity as a concept is inextricably linked with concepts of race and class. In the present paper, I discuss the effect that this is having on women and their sexuality, the events that have paved the traveled path towards gender equality, and current issues plaguing women today, such as the attack on our reproductive rights and our value as women.

Gender plays a substantial role in how Chicanxs and Latinxs live their lives in the United States. Despite that both men and women who identify as Chicanxs or Latinxs, have had a very rough time feeling accepted and respected in the United States, gender is one of the many factors that contributes to how these individuals live out their lives. Hegemony in gender roles contributes to the different lifestyles both at work and in society of Chicanx and Latinx men and women in the way that women and men are expected to live up to the traditional gender roles. The living experiences of male and females differ greatly based on their gender; this goes to say for both Chicanx and Latinx men and women born in the United States of immigrants.

The lives of women in America have been impacted by socially constructed gender roles that have limited their growth as individuals and their roles in society. Since the mid-19th century women have been involved in social action to fight gender constraints, internalized sexism and the backlash from men who have not wanted to lose their privilege and control.

Gender roles are sets of societal norms dictating what types of behaviors are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable based on their sex. The concept of gender roles are quite simple, yet can be very biased towards both genders. Men and Women are equal enough to where a woman and a man can do whatever their mind wants to accomplish. Believing that you can do anything you want will always help you to succeed in life. I do not believe in there being such things as "male jobs" or even "female jobs." Having gender roles is very comical. At the end of the day, as long as the job is completed, who cares what gender it took to get it done. How effectively do you feel, that the US could be ran, if gender roles were never an aspect

It seems like beliefs and facts are interchangeable in American society today. That being said, there are many examples of this in contemporary American society such as the belief that crime is rising, the age of the earth, and child vaccination. Although these issues are perplexing to many in this country and worldwide, we are going to focus the fact that a good percentage of the American population does not believe that rising global temperatures is caused by human activities when ninety seven percent of climate scientists believe it to be true (NASA, n.d.). Public opinion in the United States has increased dramatically in the past ten years in the belief of this fact, but there is still a good percentage of the population that still believes

In my opinion, I think that it is definitely more accepted for women to assume traditionally masculine roles than for men to assumes traditionally feminine roles in the American society. I think that this first began during WWI, when men were sent to war and women took over jobs that men held before they were drafted. This showed that women were able to leave the home and hold their own in a workplace setting- and to this day women are still out in the workforce working alongside men in all types of jobs. Women are even applauded as brave when they take roles as the 'bread winner' for the family and are successful in jobs where they are the boss/CEO/manager. Though sometimes this does backfire on women, because some people will judge them because they aren't at home 'taking care of their family' and judging them for other people raising their children if they are in day-care while the mother is at work. People also call women who are in charge 'b**chy' or 'bossy', because they do not like a woman as their superior.

Society expects men to be brave and strong. They are expected to be in charge of their families by making the most important decisions and supporting them financially meanwhile, women are dependent and cannot achieve much by themselves. One can go back to after 8000 BC and see that men hunted animals meanwhile women stayed at home to care for their children and gather fruits and plants (Reilly). All of the early imposed leadership expectations have been a part of what has shaped the gender expectations in the present society. Even though men and women are capable of performing the same tasks, traditional gender roles keep both genders away from gaining social equality. One can see a difference when both genders are compared in education, employment, child care, domestic duties, and marriage. Although women have made many advances leading up to the amount of equality present in the 21st century, men still manage to have more rights and do not have to fight for equality.

The topic of gender has been of great debate for quite some time. Talks of social constructs used to segregate genders based on the concepts such as race, biology, and tradition and have people conform and believe in these ideas of gender. The very idea has shaped what society considers gender and gender roles, “the cultural expectations imposed on men and women to behave in ways deemed appropriate for their gender” (Ciccarelli, White). These beliefs control the perception of oneself and others and often these expectations are branded with stereotypes. Gender roles uphold sexist, misogynistic, and racist viewpoints that withhold individuality and so forth should be dismantled to have true gender equality and acceptance.

“Family, a group of individuals connected by either marriage or blood, is the most elementary social, economic, and residential collective unit in most human societies” (Xie, 2013). Family is a vital aspect of every human being’s life. The importance of family is learned at a very early age and it is a factor that applies to all situations. It reflects ethical values and morals of a culture and of a nation as a whole. Every culture has its own interpretation of the meaning of family.

During the 18th and 19th century, patriarchy has been responsible for designing women’s role in society. Throughout history, men have been deemed as superior while women have been regarded as inferior. Society has this ideology that women are the sole laborers of a household; they were not granted the same privileges as men. In addition, women have been negatively affected by stereotyping. Women have been portrayed on television as being submissive to men. The depiction of women on television portrays the implications of a societal view of women. From a man's perspective, an ideal woman is a housewife who does all the household duties herself. However, over the years, studies have shown that gender roles have slowly advanced. Women began

     Femininity and masculinity are topics that have been debated over in our society extensively, through psychological research and day to day interaction with people. Children learn from their parents as well as society the concept of “feminine” and “masculine.” The majority of people tend to believe that these conceptions are biological but I believe it is more cultural. From birth, female children are shaped by society as being sweet, caring, loving, and delicate and usually associated with the color pink. While male children are shaped by being tough, aggressive, and competitive and associated with the color blue. As these children grow, the boy is given a football to play with and the girl a

Growing up as a child with parents that were both fairly busy with work I often found myself sat in front of a television either waiting for the day to begin or to end. I remember watching shows and seeing how the boys always seemed to be more outspoken, hyper-masculine and the leader in a given situation while the girls were always the passive ones who were depicted as shy followers. Now that I am older I find myself watching even more television, allowing me to see how the media depicts men and women in society. For example, The Big Bang Theory, in its earlier seasons, it only had one female lead, Penny. Her character was very stereotypical in the sense that she was the scattebrained neighbor. The way that men and women are portrayed has

Today we live in a world that continually stresses to us that, "All men are created equal." While this sounds great at face value, further inspection tells us that this is far from realistic and sadly may never be. One can examine any aspect of society whether it be race, religion, language, level of education, sexual orientation or economic status and notice that there are numerous characteristics and factors of identity that enable others to treat others differently. This truth may not be pleasant or make one feel all warm and fuzzy inside, however it is our society’s reality, however dismal it may be. Even if the statement above as to the equality of all men were true, how about women? Clearly women have made tremendous strides towards