The Importance Of Gender Roles

Study on gender role stereotypes has shown that there are several negative effects of stereotyping. The study on how gender role stereotyping effects children is not as prevalent because most believe that it doesn’t matter, since children are just forming their stereotype so children do not care. However, some psychologists have done some research on it, and from their research found out that children used a mixture of moral and social conventional reasoning

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.

Gender roles are basically “society norms” It tells types of behaviors that are considered acceptable for a person based on their sex. The expectations include of how a person should act, dress, and talk.

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.

GENDER ROLES ARE SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED Gender and sex are commonly mistaken for the same thing however, gender refers to “the attitudes feelings and behaviours that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex”. (APA, 2011) Whilst sex “refers to a person’s biological status and is typically categorised as male, female or intersex”. (APA, 2011) Since gender refers to the acts and behaviours of a person gender roles are basically a set of social norms (including behaviours and acts) that are based on an individual’s sex.

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 govern the way that most of the world’s population interact with one another. Many African cultures uphold deeply patriarchal gender roles which dictate how women and men interact with one another. Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie, a staunch feminist, gives readers a look into Nigerian gender roles in her short story Birdsong. Her writing in Birdsong and her TEDtalks explore and expose how these gender roles are harmful and how important it is for many stories of young women of color to be heard.

According to Oxford Dictionary, gender roles can be defined as, “the role or behaviour learned by a person as appropriate to their gender, determined by the prevailing cultural norms”. Throughout history we can see that cultural

Gender roles are separate patterns of personality traits, mannerisms, interests, attitudes, and behaviors that are regarded as either male or female by one 's culture. Gender roles have also existed with respect to interpersonal behavior (it still common for men to ask women for dates than vice versa). (pp: 221 John E. Farley & Michael W. Flota).

“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.

In today’s society, there are many types of viewpoints between both females and males on many things in life. Most of the viewpoints would have to go towards the males, because people view them to do so much in life. One main example of this would have to be the male’s role in relationships. To society, everyone sees the male’s role to be the one to protect his loved one as well as provide for the both of them and their family. Society also sees that the man’s main role is to be the “man of the house” when it comes to relationships and not letting their wives do much. Males are even seen as fearless and not afraid to show any emotions. This can make young people absorb that the men are the individuals that have to do everything in a relationship which can cause them overdo things or it can cause young males to not even want to do these things because it is overwhelming for them as an individual.

By definition, gender roles are specific functions and expectations that have been set by society based on gender. These predispositions influence the actions and reactions of an individual. One’s gender significantly affects day to day decision making and long-term aspirations.

In every human culture, one of the first organizing principles we learn as children is the distinction between males and females, to which we continue to expand on this knowledge of what societal tasks or roles are socially acceptable of each sex (Bem, 1981). A prejudice against women has been documented in research since the 1960s, more specifically when women fail to comply with gender stereotypes. For example, when women possess uncommon gendered specified characteristics or professions, it is not considered gender appropriate behavior (Basow & Silberg, 1987). While women dominate the profession of teaching in elementary schools or middle schools, males dominate the profession of full-time faculty at degree-granting post-secondary institutions by 53%, whereas women account for 44% of full-time faculty (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2015). The faculty that is considered in the statistic previously mentioned included professors, associate professors, assistant professors, instructors, and lecturers (NCES, 2015). Students’ experiences with various educators throughout their education may instill implicit biases, and these biases may be influencing the perceptions of what students define as a “good” educator (Arbuckle & Williams, 2003).

Culturally, the concept of masculinity and femininity has created gender roles. Within these gender roles, males are expected to be masculine while females should be feminine. Also, these roles dictate how they should look, dress, and behave. Ethnically, these gender roles differ. For example,

Gender and the ways gender is portrayed in society varies from culture to culture. Gender roles have changed drastically, especially during the 20th century and continue to evolve to this day. For years now there have been preconceived notions about genders and the roles each one should play in society, home, workplace, etc. Most times gender roles are associated with stereotypes and previous gender roles. Gender role plays different parts in religion, culture, society, time periods, countries, etc. Women rights and power varies in time and location and it is very interesting to look at the events, cultures, and customs that were taking place in that particular time period to get a better idea of the gender role concept.