Essay On Family Tension

An extremely common theme from my interviews was the tension felt from family and peers. From very early on children are taught what is expected from them as either a male or female. Now at first, this might seem like a simple concept of just how someone raises their children, but there is more to it than that. Britney, during my interview with her, said how she felt that “gender expectations are just stereotypes.” This is a great example of gender stereotyping through socialization. Tension is caused by my interviewees’ differing views from the people they have tension with whether it is family or friends. The older of my two interviewees, Ahmed and Bernadean, had a stronger sense of tension between them and family members. Sexism,

This demonstrates how sex does not completely dictate who male/female people receive their tension from. Different time periods have different social and gender issues. Through the three people I have interviewed, beginning with older to younger, it seemed to progress from family tension to tension more from peers than anywhere else. Family and peer groups are two major agents of socialization. Britney may not realize it, but her deviation from the standard norms of what feminine gender expectations are because she mentioned in her interview that she has no brothers. With the absence of the males in her family, the male gender expectations must be somehow fulfilled in the family when her dad is not present. This could be an entirely new factor as to why her tension about gender expectations come from peers instead of her family. Although this contradicts my hypothesis, it is important to include because it adds a whole new perspective for me into socialization based on family structure. Ahmed, even though from a different yet similar society in many ways, derives his tension from wanting to be able to support his family as the male gender expectation expects the male to be the breadwinner. Society dictates that he financially

My hypothesis is derived from in lecture when we began talking about the change in gender roles in the present versus only a handful of years ago. However, tension and gender expectations from my interviewees allow me to assume that not only do gender inequalities occur, but play a major role in how women and men see each other in society. Age also affected how people see each other in society and is supported by how my interviewees’ answers stacked up to one another. Those older in age have more tension about following gender expectations from their family, most specifically immediate family members. Different age categories cope with tension and expectations differently. As demonstrated by the older of the 3 whom I interviewed, she copes by fulfilling what is expected of her as a female and to align with feminine expectations. The 20-year-old however, only partially fulfills the expectations even though in theory he could completely fulfill what he believes is expected of him by getting a job. Britney, who is the youngest person I interviewed, is aware of the expectations yet copes with them by ignoring them instead of