Gender

Gender

Flashback to the 1950s: You have a normal suburban family, 2 kids, a husband, and a wife. The husband goes to work 9-5 Monday through Friday, and the wife stays home and cooks and cleans the house. The kids go to school and come back and the mom makes them do their homework.

Fast forward to our decade with the same family. The husband still works 9-5 and the kids still go to school. Now though the wife is able to go to work and provide for her family just as much as the husband is. Over time we have seen the opportunities for women grow exponentially. No they’re still not completely equal to men but they are much closer than before.

No woman still don’t make as much as men but a lot of the times it seems that women still run the house hold. Especially in the media. Think about the shows and movies that you see on TV. “Men might "wear the pants" but women are the ones who tell them which pair to put on (Hogg, 2007).”

Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/205447#ixzz1eYqig3Tf

Gender is defined by our book as the socially learned expectations and behaviors associated with members of each sex. Over the centuries the roles of genders have changed just like I mentioned above. But where do these expectations come from?

“The first and one of the strongest influences on a person's perceived gender role is his or her parents. Parents are our first teachers--not only of such basic skills as talking and walking, but also of attitudes and behavior. Some parents still hold traditional definitions of maleness and femaleness and what kind of activities are appropriate for each (Advameg, Inc, 2011).”

Another big one that I’ve noticed is from the media. Commercials are pictured in commercials to be super well girly. Men are pictured as the stereotype to like sports, drink beer, and go hunting/fishing. It makes us, the viewers, seem like that’s how we need to be so we fit our lives to make sure we fit into those stereotypes.

As our generation becomes older and more and more of us become parents there has been a change in the way we push our gender socialization onto our kids. The individualism that defines our generation is more or less letting our kids decide what they want to be. Whether or not a boy wants to be a “sissy” or a girl wants to be a “tom boy” is irrelevant  because of the fact that our generation is much more accepting of homosexual tendencies than that of our parents or even generations before them (Carlson, 2002). I’m not saying its everyday for the LGBT community is a walk in the park but it’s much better than it used to be.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/5341/acceptance-homosexuality-youth-movement.aspx

This article from the Gallop Poll helps back me up.

Overall, the gender roles will continue to change over time. Woman will take a bigger role in the workplace than they are now. Eventually I think woman will run the world equally in comparison to men. I don't think that the views of men and women will change necessarily but the world will be more open to "tomboys" and "sissies". It's another sign of our changing culture.

References

Read more: Gender roles, Information about Gender roles http://www.faqs.org/health/topics/8/Gender-roles.html#ixzz1eYjryWmZ

Gallup Poll

http://www.gallup.com/poll/5341/acceptance-homosexuality-youth-movement.aspx