What Does It Mean to Be a Male or Female in Todays Society? Essay

As individuals, we are all given assigned aspects that define us. Race, gender, and social class are just a few of the characteristics that make us who we are. We also choose to take on certain aspects that reflect our own interests such as careers, fashion, and fandom. When our chosen and assigned aspects come together, our own identity is formed. These parts eventually impact and affect each other with the idea of intersection. The interconnection of being a woman and belonging to a certain career cross and act on each other in ways that are mostly negative. Many women find being successful in their careers very difficult especially women who are based into a male dominated industry.

Throughout history, men and women have been viewed in utterly different spheres. Men have been, and still are, believed to be the hard working individual who is in charge of “bringing home the bacon” and supporting the household finically. On the other hand, women are expected to have little to say, the house spotless, supper on the table, the children bathed, fed, in bed, and educated, all while maintaining a flawless hairdo and makeup. These stereotypes seem a bit offensive nowadays, but if you really consider it, it has been and most likely will be this way for our entire existence.

Before the 20th century women stayed home took care for their kids and kept the house spotless they were forced to depend on there husbands for everything. Those years are over, it was time for us to become dependent not fanatically but in the way that we no longer had to be discriminated or seen as the weaker gender. We wanted to work in a well paid job and prove to those who had no faith in us that we are capable of doing what man can do. In this century we have changed the way they look at women with great effort they have succeeded. Women in the past have made an impact, today the number of jobs for women has increased especially in fields that are traditionally for men like in aviation. With all the issues in the

Women’s rights have improved drastically since that time but there still is a stigma that men are better than women. This type of view is wrong and shouldn’t even be thought about in the world we live into today. Woman server a great purpose in the world we live in and should be considered equal in all aspects of life. If one were to ponder this idea seriously we can see without out women no children are born. The sad truth is that women still have to fight for their rights in every aspect of their daily lives. The typical women in society makes only .70 cents for every dollar that a man would make doing the same job. One would think that one hundred and fifty years later women would be considered equal counterparts to men. “There has been progress toward greater workplace equality, but we still have a long ways to

Women have had a rough way to go for many years when it comes to equality. They face many negative things in today’s society and that is the way it has been for many years. History shows that women have been fighting for equality for decades, because many people believe they just can’t do the things that men can. There’s a website that has been helping women fight for that equality since 1966. That website is www.now.org. Before then women never really had any help. They had to rely on each other to show everyone what they could really do. Women have fought to try and end discrimination when it comes to jobs and economic justice. So the status of women throughout history has changed,

Throughout history, women have been viewed differently from men. In the 1880’s and before, women were in charge of making a happy home, her job above all was to make sure her husband was happy. Around, the 1910’s women began fighting for their right to vote and to be viewed as an equal to the janitor that works for them. Still, to this day, women and girls are fighting to be viewed as an equal and respected as men and boys are in our society.

Prior to reading the article Doing Gender, I have never paid attention to the concept of doing gender. I found it interesting how these roles go so unnoticed because they are so enforced in our society. We never stop to think or questions if an individual’s actions are masculine or feminine. For example, some of us are just so use to having our mothers cook and our dad’s do all the heavy lifting but we never stop to think why is it like this or what does this represent.

     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

As longs as humans have existed, women have been oppressed. Men were generally seen as the breadwinner, the man in the relationship, the man of the house. This theory, or belief further lead to what was known as the retro-era. The retro-era, around the 1950’s, was the epitome of gender-based stereotypes, where women were only valuable to household skills such as cooking, cleaning and housework. In more modern times, women gradually received more rights to pursue careers men would stereotypically take over. Pursuing “manly” careers, which include lawyers, actors, politicians and anything that requires exceeding cognitive function, as a woman elicits criticism. It’s clear to see women have much more limitations, restrictions and expectations than

Our world is surrounded by media. Media plays an enormous role in affecting the way we perceive gender and gender roles. Media as well as communications are known to be the key elements of how people live their life in the modern age. The media can be a very inviting place, since it has so many things inside of it that appeals to people worldwide. At the same time, the media can be a cruel, judging and corrupt area that can be scary to involve yourself with. That being said, the mass media has had its history with harsh stereotyping, particularly when dealing with women. Many people within the media view women as a gender that is only allowed to be at home, whether it is cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, or being a slave to their male counterpart. Even with women who work inside of the media are usually overlooked, bashed by their appearance and do not get an equal opportunity as men do in order to succeed in life. This has been the case for hundreds of years, but there are still a myriad of problems that women face today, whether in the media or life in general.

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

It is interesting how women's role has changed in society from generation to generation. For example, I have managed to graduate from college and accomplished things my mother was not able to do in her generation. My mother was very unfortunate, she only completed the third grade because her parents insisted that she did not need an education and that she should instead get a job. As a woman it was hard for me to attend college without my fathers support. My father is old fashion and felt that I as a woman did not need an education. I felt there was a need for me to get and education to be successful in life. In a speech title "Ain't I a Woman", Sojourner Truth gave before the Women's Right Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851, a very powerful sheech about women's rights. She argued," I have ploughed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman. I could work as much and eat as much as a man-when I could get it- and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman?". I agree with Truth's argument that perhaps society and tradition has been the main factor that has shaped peoples mind to believe that women were not capable of doing the same jobs as men. The fact is that women were and

Let me give you a scenario; It’s 3:00am. Rushing down the halls of a hospital you are on your way to support a person who is doing one of the most beautiful and complex things in life. Giving birth. You are the doctor in the room. Cutting the umbilical cord you hand the mother her child. She smiles up at you with tear rimmed eyes and you wrap the child up in a blanket and hold out to her a beautiful baby _____. Boy or girl? It doesn’t really matter which you say so long as you say one or the other, right? Within a few moments after birth and a quick scan between the legs of the child will enable you to develop a gender label for the child that they will carry for the rest of their life relevant to their sex.

Throughout today’s society, almost every aspect of someone’s day is based whether or not he or she fits into the “norm” that has been created. Specifically, masculine and feminine norms have a great impact that force people to question “am I a true man or woman?” After doing substantial research on the basis of masculine or feminine norms, it is clear that society focuses on the males being the dominant figures. If males are not fulfilling the masculine role, and females aren’t playing their role, then their gender identity becomes foggy, according to their personal judgment, as well as society’s.

The textbook identifies four approaches to gender development: biological, interpersonal, cultural, and critical. Define each theory. Then answer the following question: which of the theoretical approaches to gender do you find the most valid? Be sure to include at least two examples from your own experience as well as two scholarly sources to back up your claim.