Gender Stereotypes and Roles

Maria Lebron

  Gender is determined socially ; it is the society meaning assigned to a male and female. Each society emphasizes particular roles that each sex should play, although there is a wide latitude in acceptable behavior.    

Gender is used to describe those characteristics of women and men, which are socially constructed, while sex refers to those which are biologically determined. People are born female or male but learn to be boys and girls who grow up into women and men. This learned behavior makes up gender identity and determines gender roles.                                                                                                                                                
     According to the text "Sociology Matters" male babies get blue blankets; females get pink ones. Boys are expected to play with trucks, blocks and toy soldiers; girls receive dolls and kitchen goods, boys must be masculine-active, aggressive, though, daring and dominant-but girls must be feminine-soft emotional,sweet, and submissive. My daughter who is seven years of age, is currently enrolled in boxing classes which would be considered masculine and for boys, but in todays society many people have the option on playing the roles they choose too. This video clip is a perfect example.

    In the old days, it was so simple: Men hunted and women raised the kids.Then we moved out of caves, invented gender studies, and learned a bit about genetics. This video from back then shows  how there was always doubts that women could not do a mans job and a man could not do a womans job.                                                                                                                                                              

These pictures shows how todays society changed. A woman is capable of being masculine and completing a mans task and a man is capable of being feminine and doing a womans job.