Gender Changing Gender Roles

Over the years gender roles have changed for both males and females. The duties, behaviors, and activities we perform on daily basics are different from which male and females would have performed years ago. Male gender role or there stereotypes in the United States consist of being muscular, independent, and athletic. Female gender role or there stereotypes are being caring, sensitive, and the caregiver. The gender roles for male and female have changed over the years, originally men’s duties included working all day for their family. They were the family member that brought in the income in for the family. As for the female roles/duties they would stay home, clean the house, take care of the family, and at the end of the day cook dinner.

The division of gender roles is deeply rooted in society. Throughout history men have taken upon the role of independent financial providers plus of course protectors, whereas women have been portrayed as loving wives and mothers, responsible for raising the children as well as housework. Although females and males are far from being equals, the differences between genders are incredibly smaller than in the past. Unfortunately, mass media still use gender stereotypes believing they are well known to their viewers and help them understand the content of the message they are trying to get across.

​​Gender is defined as whatever behaviors and attitudes a group considers proper for its males and females. Unlike sex, gender is something that we learn from the day we are born. “Young children begin to acquire gender role stereotypes at about the same time they develop gender identity and by the age of 3 or 4 most children” (Amanda Youmans). Peers, community, media, religion and our upbringing all play a role in the understanding of our culture and what is considered acceptable for males and females. When the sex of a child is revealed, they are automatically placed into a gender specific role with certain expectations. There are things in this world such as colors, toys, media depiction and taught behaviors that play into these gender roles.

When a person is born, they are either male or female. Before they are born, their parents are going to set goals and expectations for them. Sometimes parents will name their child after a famous celebrity hoping they will be just as great as them. Each gender will have different ways they should live their life in order to stay within their gender role. Some will meet the expectations and other will not. That does not make them look less of their gender, they will just be expected to meet them. Over the years, some gender roles have submerged and others have risen above. They will be able to show how the gender roles are supposed to be in jobs, education, and marriage and also how they can benefit from stepping out of the gender roles.

Throughout history, gender roles have been the foundation that determines the course of a civilization. These gender roles have undergone a change over time. It is important for every society to re-evaluate its preconceived ideas of gender and determine if that is still the norm for their society. When people think of gender roles we typically have set stereotypes in our head of what that means. Much of the time, what we believe, is not what is actually true. It is often argued what is right and what is wrong.

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.

Gender roles once played an important role in marriage in the 1950’s. There was expectations for what a man should do compared to a woman. Women were supposed to stay home and take care of their husband and kids, while men were supposed to go out and make money for their families. Women were expected to want to be stay at home mom’s, and if they did work they had to work and still take care of their families. The husbands were not expected to help out.

In her story, Girl, Jamaica Kincaid points out many stereotypical roles of the average woman in the Caribbean. The roles that these defining roles that the women take on might seem rather explicit. They seem rather sexist and do not give women the power to depict what she can and cannot do herself. Nevertheless, Kincaid’s story gives these women the empowerment and freedom that so rightfully deserve. “this is how you iron your father’s khaki pants so that they don’t have a crease; this is how you grow okra-far from the house…this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard” (43).

The role of women and men changed throughout the American history. Many people have different beliefs about the roles that women and men should have. In the 1800’s men would go out and work while women stayed home and take care of the house. In this current time it could be the opposite. Some women still stay at home while men go to work, some men stay at home while women go to work, or sometimes both the man and the woman in the household work.

Men in the American society are considered to be responsible for taking care of their family financially. They take their jobs as sole providers very earnestly. They also have the responsibility for guiding their family. Although they may listen what their wives have to say, they make the final decisions. In addition, men did not do chores and household duties. Women were expected to be in charge of running the household. Mothers did the laundry, cooked the meals, and cleaned the rooms. They also took care of the children, giving them the care and attention that was required (“Gender Roles in Society: Definition & Overview”). The biological and social evidence so far suggests that even when there is no external pressure, women and men tend to liberally choose varying roles in marriage and in society. And even when doing the identical jobs, men and women tend to approach things in a different manner than men. These different approaches often do follow the orthodox view of men taking a more intellectual and authoritative approach while women take a more emotional and relationship-oriented approach (“What are the Roles of Men and Women toward Each Other and in Society?”). In conclusion, the labor intensive and more prominent occupations that men hold, in comparison to the caring and maternal roles that women hold is what distinguishes men and women in the

Throughout history, women have been treated as a subordinate. Especially in marriage, women have been taught to think of themselves merely as housewives as their ultimate achievement in life. With this, “Patriarchy is the prime obstacle to women’s advancement and development” (Sultana). The broad principle of men being in control keeps women dominated and subordinate. Patriarchy is characterized by current and historic unequal power relations between women and men whereby women are systematically disadvantaged and oppressed. Accordingly, the male-dominated system existing today forces women to merely accommodated in it in a variety of ways. Traditionally, men went to work and women stayed home to take care of the children. With this, the ideas that the woman’s place was in the home and the glorification of a very traditional role for the woman emerged. Women were celebrated as being pure and submissive while the man’s role was a more aggressive, greedy, competitive one. Many traditional norms follow a basic rule that men are dominant in status and power, so they should be the protective provider, while women should be obedient and

Gender role is a set of socio-culturally embedded behaviors and attitudes that are identified for men and women (Wood & Eagly, 2010). Gender stereotype roles are changing in the US with shifts in the society’s structure and understanding of gender/sexuality (Gardiner & Kosmitzki, 2010; Tucker, 2005). With such changes in gender role, different issues have surfaced. Among many issues and challenges due to changes in gender role, this paper focuses on implicit forms of discrimination that appear to be more reverent today and a consequence of having less concrete gender expectation. Furthermore, this paper briefly discusses ideas to which may help overcome issues that are results from changes in gender role. Yet, first, gender stereotype role

Societies today are highly affected by the way people are believed to act. Gender roles are created by society, and they are a way to define how a gender should or shouldn't act. In “Answers” by George Singleton, there is a husband and wife thinking about getting divorced, and they begin answering questions in a book, and realize that the other turned out to be less manly or trustworthy, than they believed to be. In “Public Relations” by George Singleton, a man and his wife are out eating with his boss and his wife. While eating he gets fired for talking about how women should act, and how they will amount to nothing without an education. In both of these stories, men and women act differently than the stereotypes put on them by their

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.