gender

Gender Roles

For 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 child’s 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, an...

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...s 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.