Gender RolesFor many years society has embraced the idea that the difference between men and women were biologically determined. Thou through traditions, media, and peers we act accordingly to how others view us. Each individual has pressure placed upon them based on their gender. Our sex is determined by genetics while our gender is programmed by social customs. Some theories interpret that a women is tender and a loving mother while on the other hand men are aggressive hunters and are the dominant one of the family.
People who support this theory seems to believe that men and women are happier when fulfilling the roles nature determined for them. Women are to be nurturing and men are to be providers by nature. An individual gender role is molded through socialization. Individuals learn the ways, traditions, norms, and rules of getting along with others. A person environment has a big influence on the roles deemed accurately for men and women.
Parents, media, teachers, and peers are important socializing agents for teaching the young their gender roles. Children are viewed through Gender-Colored glasses by their parents that focus on gender differences that do not exist. Meaning that a glass is clear and depending upon what you want to see through it is what you will see through it. Most children are raised with the belief that girls are pretty in pink and boys are rough and tough in blue. As infants grow older, their parents notions about gender stereotypes continue to influence how parents treat their children.
Mothers and fathers tend to look at their baby girls as more fragile than their boys. There area several reasons for the differential treatment, but one can only assume that parents want their boys to be tough, and their daughters are to be neat and very lady like, in their behavior. Parents treating their infants differently are displaying socialization. Socialization is the process by which all people learn what is expected of them through their interactions with others.
The household chores that are assigned by our parents are one way to shape a childs gender role for the future. In many households, boys do the taking out trash, mowing the grass, shoveling the snow, and what the parents feel like are manly duties. While girls, clean the house by doing the dishes, cooking, babysitting the younger siblings, and other stereotypic womanly duties. As individuals we define who we are in terms of our gender. Media also plays an important role in the socialization process for young and old people. In the Early days T.
V. sitcoms portrayed women as housewives and men as the breadwinners (workforce). For example, Leave it to Beaver was a T. V. show were June Cleaver( the mother) stayed at home all times and never disciplined the children. Were as Ward Cleaver (the father) was the dominant one who worked and disciplined the children.
Now, the sitcoms are completely different as far as the gender roles that each parent plays. For example, whos the Boss were Angela was a successful businesswoman and provided for the family and Tony was the housekeeper. Commercials are another way that gender roles are displayed in society. When you see a car commercial for a mechanic most of the time the mechanic is a man.
But when you see a commercial about cleaning products for the house normally a woman is the face you see. In other words, the media can help break the barriers on how gender roles are portrayed in society. The more that women represent strength on T. V.
will also encourage them to build their self-confidence. However, not intending that traditional ways are bad, but the era has changed by who the individual is and not by their gender. A teacher is an important key element in the educational system as well as a role model. Some teachers hold traditional gender stereotypes about their students views of what is expected of them.
Many children develop social skills while in school. A peer group is away for children to interact with others whom we share a similar status or similar values and behaviors. We as kids hang around with friends whom we can learn from as well as master the things we already know. By the time adolescence kicks in the friends are very strong influences in a young persons life. Most teenagers strive for more acceptance and approval from their friends than they do for that of their own families.
Through friends children learn that others share problems, conflicts, and complex feelings, and this may be helpful for each individuals to express how they feel. One of the first impressions with adolescence is the similarity in dress and behavior. Young people generally dress to impress their friend. Interaction that takes place at this time helps reinforce their conceptions of gender roles. Girls look at their mothers and assume that being a lady is wearing dresses to be femine. But on the hand boys usually like to wear comfortable clothes so they can get dirty and play rough.
Many times boys feel that dress clothes is uncomfortable. The differential in roles on the basis of sex is probably the most determinant of social behavior. Students self-consciously see themselves and define their roles by their teachers expectations and behavior. Teachers treat genders differently.
For instance, when girls need help the teacher often required that the girls come to them, which increased the girls dependency on adults. However, for boys teachers never required them to approach the teacher for assistance (Males/Females Roles 38). Furthermore, girls do not have problems with asking for help because they have been molded to rely on others, but men who are viewed as so superior will tend not to ask questions because they are to be inflexible and strong. One of the most important features of our lives is gender roles and norms. It is important because females were once looked at to have children and to get married in order to fulfill herself as a female.
On the other hand, males should be aggressive and successful when needed in a situation, and be self-reliant and tough. These are extreme variations in male and female behaving by species and often within species depending on their environment. In many cases teachers in the classrooms are women and being women they bound very well with the children. The patience and nurturing coming from a women teacher helps children develop what roles they are to uphold in society. Where many times male teachers do not come into effect until higher grades. Men are more structural and they provide necessary discipline that adolescence needs in their teenage years.
By this a child can develop how he/she follows rules and regulations or how they unify with society. When a person learns how he/she should behave in society and accepts it, then they can be rewarded by positive approval, acceptance, and admiration. When one has a particular role he/she have certain privileges and obligations associated with that particular role. The roles of men and women and the social rules that dictate appropriate behavior for each are not shaped by biology itself.
Determining that biology only plays apart so much and also your environment. Productive work is shared by men and women now, but for women it is primarily defined in terms of their maternal and family role. For women who participate in productive activities beyond the housekeeping has tended to bring women a greater measure of equality, but the load gets heavier from them to carry job, household, and children. Lately the outlook has changed on women dedicated their lives to homemaking. Jobs were initially generated for men because they were strong. But now the barrier is being broken and socially accepted for who they are and not for the role they are to play in society.
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