Gender Roles and Stereotypes

has not been well studied. Children of six years or so see the traditional male jobs to be held at a higher status than the typical female jobs. It takes an older child to know that, for example, only men have been presidents and that males are held in higher esteem than females. Children around 8 to 10 years of age are also aware of gender discrimination.

Because of gender role rigidity, children around five years of age are more punitive toward a peer who, for example, plays with a toy associated with the opposite sex. This did not get worse with age but, in fact, got better with age. In groups of children, there tends to be a “gender enforcer” who most limits what boys and girls can play with. This person is suggested to be more sexist than other children, even in preschool.

Children also make negative judgments about peers that engage in gender-atypical behavior, particularly boys who do so. Most studies do not see an association with this phenomenon before the middle elementary school with increasing negativity as a child gets older.

Children at age three years will be selective toward having same-sex peers. There is favoritism and exclusion of peers from gender stereotypic activities, such as baseball and ballet, even though the same children recognize that excluding an opposite-sex child is wrong. There is more rigidity in preschoolers than there is in older children about exclusivity in certain gender-related groups.

GENDER ROLES AND STEREOTYPES

So far, we have looked at how children develop gender identity and gender roles. Now we will talk about gender roles in adults, within different cultures, and with regard to religion. A person’s gender role is the social role they play that determines what is appropriate and acceptable for their sex. Usually, gender roles are based on preconceptions about what is masculine and what is feminine. This varies significantly from culture to culture.

No one knows what role biology and sociology play in determining gender roles. Gender socialization refers to the way in which a person acquires their gender role. Some cultures recognize androgyny as a third gender. This is a person who has features of

both genders. Interestingly, many transgender people do not see themselves as a separate gender but simply as being men or women. One’s gender role is different from one’s gender identity.

As we have talked about, there are social construction theorists, who believe that social conventions determine gender behaviors. There are also evolutionary theorists who believe that evolution determines gender behaviors. The term patriarchy is based on male dominance and is seen out of many agricultural societies.

There are several theories on gender roles. A researcher, Talcott Parsons, created the model of the nuclear family, which was prominent in the 1950s when the model was created. There were two models of gender roles, one of which involved complete segregation of social roles, while another involved total integration of social roles. Most couples in today’s society have a relationship that is somewhere between the two extremes.

A Dutch researcher, Geert Hofstede, studied the effects of gender on culture. He said that the terms, masculinity and femininity, are related to the differences in sexual behaviors between men and women. Masculine cultures expect men to be competitive, ambitious, and assertive—attracted to fast, big, and strong things. Feminine cultures see an overlapping role between men and women so that men do not have to be competitive and may strive for other things besides material success. Feminine cultures are more collaborative and collective, while masculine cultures are more individualistic. In feminine cultures, the goal is quality of life and care for others; in masculine cultures, the goal is success and achievement.

John Money studied intersex children in the 1950s to see how these children grew up. The conclusion of the research was that a child’s chromosomes, gonads, and hormones did not automatically determine the child’s later gender role. Much of this research has since been criticized, mostly because he was involved in some false reporting.

The concept that gender is unrelated to sex was promoted during the 1980s. These views indicated that a person can have the sex of one type but the gender of another. This reinforces the idea that gender roles and gender identity are two different things.

There are influences of biology on gender traits, however. Studies of children born with adrenal hyperplasia, who have excess male hormones, show that female children with this issue are more likely to have masculine traits. Children who have an XY chromosome pattern but were intersex because of a 5-alpha reductase deficiency, were considerably more likely to be male at the time of adulthood.

The culture and the era both determine gender behaviors. There have been some cultures, for example, where homosexual relationships were accepted. There are also cultures where men are not expected to hold back their emotions. In the Middle Ages, women were assigned to the roles of healing and medicine but this was quelled after the witch hunts in Europe and by the institutionalization of medicine.

Gender norms are important in religion as well. The Bible states the appropriateness of male and female hair lengths. In some religions, such as Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox churches, only men can be priests or deacons. Protestant and Pentecostal religions see females in leadership roles as largely acceptable.

Gender roles in Islam center mainly on the family unit and are largely traditional and conservative. Muslim women are expected to dress modestly and the laws of these countries reflect a masculine perspective. Nevertheless, the mother is revered in this culture.

In Hinduism, the deities are often androgynous compared to other religions. Even so, the culture is contradictory regarding women. They value a woman’s fertility but female sexuality per se is felt to be more destructive and dangerous than men.

Marriage also influences gender roles and equality. The media and culture depict the acceptable roles for those in a married relationship, although for practical reasons, most couples learn to work out their roles among themselves. Men rank youth and beauty more highly than women, while women value social status and finances more highly than men.

Certainly, society has changed and is changing rapidly. About a third of wives now make more money than their husbands and there is increasing access for women to get an education, such as internet-based college, which has resulted in women getting better educated. More men are involved in raising their children than ever before.

There are differences in communication styles between men and women, with women being more expressive in their language. Women understand nonverbal cues better than men and laugh or smile more than men. Men are taught to suppress their emotions and to be less expressive. Men show more dominant body language, such as eye contact and interpersonal distancing, more than is true of women. There are distinct communication cultures for men and women, just as there are for gays, older people, African Americans, and disabled individuals.

Men are more likely to express their sexual interests than women and are better at communicating their sexual desires. In general, men are less inhibited by various social norms regarding the expression of their sexual desire. Women are more indirect in showing their sexual desires than men. Women, however, are more direct in offering refusals for sex, even when men are not compliant with their refusals.

Gender issues are important in politics. While there have been marked increases in women running for political offices, only about 20 percent of major offices are held by women. The aggressiveness of a female candidate is seen as a masculine trait, which favors their likelihood of political success. Women are seen as better on poverty and women’s rights, while men are seen as better at handling foreign affairs and crime.

There has, of course, been big changes with regard to women’s rights. Women were given the right to vote with the Nineteenth Amendment and began working in industry from the beginning of the Twentieth Century. This drifted back to involve the nuclear family of the 1950s and 1960s. Now, women make up half of the workforce and are often the major breadwinners in the family.

There is also a men’s rights movement that has been advanced since the early 1970s. There are men who feel that men are discriminated against, disadvantaged, and oppressed, particularly when it comes to issues like domestic violence, reproductive rights, and family law. Men are also discriminated against in areas related to compulsory military service and health policies.

There are distinct differences between men and women with regard to sentencing for certain crimes. Men and women are equally involved in criminal behavior involving minor property issues and substance abuse offenses but men are more likely to be