Women 's Gender And Gender Roles

Many people don’t know the difference between gender and sex. Sex is anatomical and biological. Gender role can be defined as a person’s inner sense of how a male or female should feel and behave. Culture and society are two important factors in relation to this particular topic. This implies that various societies and cultures may produce children and later fully grown men and women who may have diverse perspectives of a man or a woman’s place or role in the world around them; this is often determined by their culture’s gender stereotypes. Gender roles are the products of interactions between individuals and their environments, and they give certain cues about the behavior that is acceptable based upon their sex. Members of the society must learn the appropriate way for them to behave and what is actually expected of them as well as others. These roles are also based on norms or standards created by society.

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.

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.

“I think we 're struggling with trying to redefine various positions at this point in history. To allow freedom for women, freedom for men, freedom from those sharply defined gender roles “ (Fred Ward). I agree with this quote because in today’s society gender defines the roles of what a male and a female can do. What is gender? Gender, according to the Merriam Webster dictionary, is the state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones). The term gender is only used when we describe how men and women are different in a society but the actual term that really defines a man and a woman is sex. Sex, according to the Merriam Webster dictionary, is either of the two main categories (male and female) into which humans and many other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions. The differences of gender roles are something that is seen in many cultures. It can be seen in families, society, in occupations, and in politics. This can be related in the field of psychology because these can create a general notion of a person and what they are supposed to do and how they should behave, or in other words what a person can create in his or her mind is stereotypes. Some stereotypes on gender are according to www.healthguide.org some of the gender stereotypes are that women should have clean jobs. That means that women should not have a job like a being a sewage worker or a miner. Another

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.

Men collectively choose to receive psychological help less than their women counterparts. The sex distinction in help-seeking behavior occurs even when both women and men are equally afflicted. If male help-seeking behavior is to be increased, the reason for its neglect must be considered. Increasing our awareness of factors that may deter men from exploring psychological guidance may help in accessing reluctant men, allowing them to see past their preconceived ideology of masculinity.

“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.

Gender socialization often begins early once parents are shown the sex of their child; from then on, baby showers are planned according to gender “appropriate” colors, which are often pink for girls and blue for boys. Even differences in how children are spoke to can be picked up easily in Western cultures. Girls are called pretty and sweet, whereas boys are handsome and strong. Ultimately, the way children learn to identify with their gender culture is in part due to not only family and friends, media, schools, and religion, but also from the toys that may inexplicitly advertise gender expectations. Gender-typed toys may be bought for children as a way for parents to encourage and reinforce gender-appropriate behaviors. However, recent debates have engulfed toy manufacturers and major retailers, which has brought about changes in toy design and marketing in an effort to make reflect more realistic and gender neutral options.

Even though women have pave through and have been recognize and now obtain high paying jobs and positions once only occupied by men. There are still issues with how women and men are depicted. In today’s society, it’s all about the electronics and technology and many see the media in the electronics. The media tends to use gender roles all the time commercials, movies, and etc. The media has a part also in the forming of the gender roles. An example is when you see commercials of little boys or girls; there’s a difference between both advertisements, girls commercials are more passive and pink, and the boys are loud and blue. Children are exposed to this media, which influences the forming of their gender role.

Remember the 50s in America, how men were the predominant head of the household and women were expected to cook, watch their kids, and clean? This is an excellent example of gender roles, and how they control some aspects of life. Gender roles according to multiple sources are, the way people behave, what they do and say, to express being a female or male. (“Gender Identity”, Blackstone, "Gender Spectrum"). They are forced upon an individual from the day that person is born even in the most trivial of terms of putting boys in blue clothes and girls in pink. Throughout that person’s life from then on, they will face everyday cultural expectations to act according to their sex. Gender roles can often be confused and hurtful, many stores have moved away from assigning products to a specific gender, but not only can gender roles affect behavior, it plays a huge role in transgenderism.

War films like 300 (2006) maintain and amplify the stereotypical roles of males and females, where males are portrayed as the ones who have to serve as defender of all. The film industry mainly classified the conventional gender roles of society into their movies; majority of films have supported some of the male and female stereotypes. In the history of the film industry, the role of men is primarily the stereotypical working class man or hero, while the roles of women are primarily portrayed as being somewhat inferior to men. In the 1930s through the 1970s, men held the leading roles in films while women played smaller roles. In terms of jobs, women were given mostly family roles and rarely were shown outside of their homes, while men had successful careers and did many activities outside of home. As women were given a more active role in society, the gender roles in movies changed. However, many types of gender stereotypes in films still exist. Men are typically portrayed to be the hero, while women are often portrayed as sexual objects. In the movie 300 and according to "8 Reasons It Wasn 't Easy Being Spartan.", the Spartan men served and protected the city of Sparta, while the Spartan women did domestic chores and were just to be there to breed more strong warriors. “Long-term effects also involve learning processes. From infancy, humans learn how to perceive, interpret, judge, and respond to events in the physical and social environment.” (Anderson & Bushman) The

In most literary works throughout history, the culture and function of a society is expressed through the text and reflects the affairs of that time period. In the Old English epic Beowulf, women seem to be relatively unimportant. Many readers argue that the role of women in Beowulf is minimal and not an essential part of the text. However, understanding the roles of women in ancient Anglo-Saxon culture is critical to be able to discern how significant women are in the epic Beowulf. Women are overlooked because there was such a focus on battle and war, and women did not aid in the fighting, so there was a greater emphasis on men. Renee Yawdaev claims that Anglo-Saxon women were still able to keep their dignity and respect by assuming

Living in today’s culture, children learn early in life what it means to be either a boy or a girl from the society in which they live. These little girls and boys get their first exposure from observing at their parents, who are t Living in today’s culture, children learn early in life what it means to be either a boy or a girl from the society in which they live. These little girls and boys get their first exposure from observing at their parents, who are their first teachers and educators. What they see mom put on or do may be very different from dad and they can quickly establish a distinction between the two. According to the Gender Schema Theory, children alter their behavior to fit in with the gender standards and beliefs of their culture, so one’s perceptions of what it means to be a male or female differ (Bem, 1983, p.603). Essentially what this means is that individuals understand and conform to gender roles by interacting with various people in their lives. Boys and girls learned how to be their specific gender based on their communication with family members, teachers, friends, etc. It defends categorizing and labeling and why such stereotypes continue in our society. I read a particularly fascinating article where researchers examined the association between parents’ gender role viewpoints on children’s own view about the choice of athletic involvement. The results of the study suggest that parents see sports as more fitting and suitable for their sons and are

We are branded with a gender as far back as the second we are born. Looking into history, the different conduct of men and women has echoed gendered perceptions of public and private space. This importance is wholly fitting; what is astounding is the length of time it took for gender to find its equitable place within sociological thinking. Despite the fact there had been effort done on ‘sex roles’ prior to the 1970s, this was on the edge to sociology’s main concern. The revival of feminism in the 1970s changed the state of affairs, thought-provoking the androcentric interpretation of the world which had triumphed for a vast period of time. It was fundamental to the feminist scheme to pawn the supposition that present changes between women and men were intended by nature. The notion of gender was implemented in order to highlight the social construction of masculinity and femininity and the social organisation of relations amid women and men. Since not every person expresses and customs the term ‘gender’ in exactly the same way. Gender as sociologists outline a ranked separation between women and men entrenched in in cooperation of social institutions and social practices. Consequently, gender is a social structural phenomenon but is also produced, negotiated and continued at the level of everyday interaction. Feminism and feminists recognise that gender inequalities happen in society and they rate chance that improves gender equality, (Belknap, The Invisible Woman: Gender,

Since the dawn of time, the male sex has been dominating over the female sex. As a result, society rewards them with a broader spectrum of opportunities. There are certain expectations and privileges that society holds and allots for each sex; with the males often “reaping the benefits” of these dispensations. In the book Sex and Gender by Hillary M. Lips, she addresses the constraints that society places on each sex through gender expectations and suggests that as a result of these limited cultural perceptions men are exposed to more openings: “change from male to female would involve a restriction of activities and horizons, whereas change in the opposite direction would involve a widening of possibilities” (Lips 402). After analyzing the implications of gender presumptions in class, I agree with Hillary’s statement. As a result of the guidelines that society places on gender through the feminist theory of Patriarchal dividend and stereotypical language, outlined by Laurel Richardson, there is often a divide in opportunity between genders. Lois Gould’s X: A Fabulous Child’s Story and Robert L. Allen and Paul Kivel’s Men Changing Men further supports Lips’ argument as it challenges the idea of typical gender roles by showing how these expectations impact an individual’s life. There are many attributes that contribute to an individual’s access to opportunities as Kimberelé Crenshaw highlights through her theory of Intersectionality and these attributes combined with gender