What Role Do Schools Play On Constructing Gender?

Our gender has an effect on every aspect of our lives, varying from how we view ourselves and other people to how we interact in social and civic life. It also impacts the way we set our goals in opportunity areas such as education, work, and recreation. Gender socialization starts at birth then manifests through family, education, peer groups, and mass media. Gender norms are automatically placed on us, where women should learn how to be nurturing, sensitive, emotional, passive, and always hold a man’s position higher than hers. On the other hand men should be overly confident, aggressive, dominant, and view women beneath them. This paper uses various readings to show how these gender norms are supported and challenged in today’s society.

Gender roles are defined as the “widely accepted societal expectations about how males and females should behave” (Rathus, 2010).

Society’s understanding of gender roles debate about gender equity and have always been connected to the social roles that men and women we assigned to shape Americans views of education for girls and boys. What has also been affected is race and social class between females and males who attend schools. Ideas of what women and men are suppose to be and do have cut across different classifications. Ending unfairness in schools has rested on change to gender roles mainly women.

The gender of a person is the masculine or feminine attributes of that individual with respect to the psychological and biological role in society. (Magar, 2009) A gender role can be defined as the way that a person lives in society with respect to its lifestyle. It can be argued that over time the major differences between men and women’s gender roles have faded. In the past traditional roles have been based in their society by their biological orientation. (Magar, 2009) Gender roles can also be described as the behavior and attitudes that are expected of men and women in a society. (Faqs.org, 2011) Although different cultures impose different expectations, many cultures have the same basic gender roles.

Gender roles have played a major part in society. According to the book “The Psyche of Feminism” “A gender role is a theoretical construct in the social sciences that refers to a set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate

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 stereotyping and gender preferences have been a problem in society for many years. Modern day society has only just emerged from the ideology and mind-set that males are the dominant gender. However, some of this still lingers within the educational system. Hatton (1998) states that boys have been the preference over girls in the classroom as boys are more lively and interesting. Teachers rely on the good behaviour of the girls, which makes them ‘less interesting’, so that the time can be spent with the boys (Hatton, 1998). Gender is the distinguishing biological aspects of a person that considers them to be a male or a female (Davies, 1998). However, in this modern society we live in, ‘gender’ cannot so easily be labelled this black and white. In Australian schools today, the schools experience transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) young people (Ullman, 2015). This is to say that there are some young people who do not conform to what society biologically says they are. A metaphorical theory that Ferfolja, Diaz and Ullman (2015) discuss called the ‘unseen half’ perfectly places this social unjust issue of gender inequality. This theory states that diversity, individual or communities, within the educational system often undervalued or found difficult to understand are rendered ‘invisible’ in day-to-day practices (Ferfolja, Diaz, & Ullman, 2015). As recent as 1979, women were

For example, what is being taught who teaches us, and how they teach us? Schools are like old factories that distribute gendered individuals, which imply that women and men are different and unequal (205). A great example of how gender inequality is perpetuated through the education system can even be rooted by how the classroom is designed. Areas are sex segregated by invisible but real boundaries; everything is divided to where girls should play and where boys should play. The way boys are girls are treated by their teachers displays the inequality, boys receive more attention from their teachers just because they are more impulsive, reckless, and loud, and how they don’t challenge girls as much as boys (Kimmel 208). Also, how boys are still imposed to act more like girls in the classroom, they have to stay calm, raise their hands; classrooms are more feminize (Kimmel 213). At the same time, something that is very much active is how when boys put girls down as they often do at that age, teachers ( females usually) often ignore the situation and do nothing about it. Teachers also urge boys to try harder, by constantly encouraging positive support. Overall, the traditional gender stereotypes that girls are good and boys are bad still exist today (Kimmel

Gender has been a big issue in society. Sex is biological, and it is through sex that gender is produced (which according to West and Zimmerman, “gender, we said, was an achieved status: that which is constructed through psychological, cultural, and social mean” (West and Zimmerman 1987, 125) - in other words, it is the categorization of both sex to act in a certain and acceptable way by the society, also known as norms) and can be recreated through human interaction and social life. All of this is being constructed by our environment; Inequality is being formed through identity. Everything all begins from when we are born. In society, it is believed that boys are tough while the women are believed to be soft and nurturing. There

Gender can sometimes be seen as biological characteristics humans have, when in fact it is the social characteristic ones society deems either masculine or feminine. Sex, on the other hand, is the biological differences in humans, for example, hormones and sex organs. People usually play gender roles in society, otherwise known as gender ideology. Gender ideology is when men and women have certain attitudes regarding their ‘fixed’ roles, responsibilities and rights. Throughout history men and women have been socialized to play these expected roles that have been placed on them due to their sex. In my own personal life I have encountered many instances where I have been socialized in relation to sex and gender.

The book Learning to Be Gender points out a serious question of gender norms in our society in which both men and women should behave appropriately in their desire gender. For instance, we learn how to act, talk and dress up like our gender. Then when we grow up and have kids and

For a long time the people of the world have been divided and identified as either male or female. The differentiation on the basis of a person’s gender has also developed gender roles that are what the society expects the men and women in the community to do. When growing up a child is taught to behave, dress or think according to the expectations the society holds on his gender. The society derives the expectations of gender from everyday norms and acceptable standards that are created by the community. The ethnicity of a person plays a role into creating the behavior expectations of men and women from the culture and traditional beliefs the community holds. In most societies, the men are expected to show masculine behaviors such as dominance, strength, aggression and others. The women on the other hand are expected to exhibit feminine behaviors associated with subordination, nurturing and passivity (Grusec, 2014).

In many cases the classroom reinforces gender stereotypes perpetuated by society. This can be found in the materials used for instruction,

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.

Over the past few years, there appears to have been exponential growth in discussion surrounding gender identity and the role educators ought to have in gender alignment. Multiple groups in BC have clashed over the issue, resulting in national media coverage. The proposed SOGI curriculum, for instance, has sparked a heated discussion between those for and against it, prompting Chilliwack school trustee Barry Neufeld call allowing children to choose their gender “child abuse” (Global News). The other side of the argument saw bi-partisan MLA support in favor of the new curriculum (Abbynews).