Gender Roles essay

Document Type:Essay

Subject Area:English

Document 1

Societies play a significant role in influencing individual behavior and attitudes. A gender identity differs from one society to another and depends on the way in which individual members in the society assess the roles of males and females. Gender identity can be shaped by cultural backgrounds, religion, ethnicity groups, and family values. “Gender is created in all cultures” (Colombo 472). Gender is learned since it is a structural feature and its sociological significance is that it is used by the society to control its member’s behavior. For instance, girls are supposed to perform house chores such as washing, cooking while boys are supposed to perform other roles “Wash the White clothes and hang them in the clothesline” (Kincaid 469). According to Kilbourne, women were seen in “dehumanizing ways” in the society.

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Women are supposed to undertake all the caregiving responsibilities in the society. Girls are expected to be emotional, careering, sensitive, and compassion while boys are expected to be strong, intelligence, rational, independence, hardworking, and aggressive. Schools are the secondary socializing agents. Nowadays, girls surpass boys in terms of educational achievements. They perform better in both sciences and mathematics than boys. Societies expect different behavioral patterns between both genders. Differences in gender roles could be seen everywhere in the society including workplaces. A social construction of gender is another way of manipulating the society and promoting inequalities in the society (Kilbourne 464). Therefore, there is need to uplift gender barriers between males and females in the workplace. There is great pressure in the society to conform to the gender roles and differences.

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