Transcript Chapter 4 Contemporary Gender Roles

Chapter 4
Contemporary Gender
Roles
Chapter Outline
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Understanding Gender and Gender
Roles
Gender and Gender Socialization
How Family Matters: Learning Gender
Roles
Gender Matters in Family Experiences
Constraints of Contemporary Gender
Roles
Gender Movements and the Family
Gender Roles
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A gender role is the role a person
is expected to perform as a result
of being male or female in a
particular culture.
Gender-role stereotypes are beliefs
that males and females, as a result
of their sex, possess distinct
psychological and behavioral traits.
Gender Roles
Gender role attitudes are beliefs
regarding appropriate male and female
personality traits and activities.
 Gender role behaviors are actual
activities or behaviors that we or others
engage in as males and females.
 Gender identity refers to being male or
female.
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Gender Differences
Men and women are more similar than
different.
 Innate gender differences are generally
minimal.
 Differences are encouraged by
socialization.
 Within any society there are multiple
versions of masculinity and femininity,
one of which comes to dominate our
thinking about gender.
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Gender Theory
The idea that social relationships are
based on socially perceived differences
between males and females that justify
unequal power relationships.
 The key to creating gender inequality is
the belief that men and women are
opposite in personalities, abilities, skills,
and traits.
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Social Learning Theory
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Emphasizes learning behaviors
from others through rewards and
punishments and modeling.
This approach has been modified
to include cognitive processes,
such as the use of language, the
anticipation of consequences, and
observation.
Cognitive Development
Theory
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Asserts that once children learn
gender is permanent, they
independently strive to act like
“proper” boys or girls because of
an internal need for congruence.
How Parents Socialize
Children
Four very subtle processes:
 Manipulation
 Channeling
 Verbal appellation
 Activity exposure
Gender Role Socialization
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Parents, teachers, and peers are
important agents of socialization
during childhood and adolescence.
Ethnicity and social class also
influence gender roles.
Traditional male roles
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Emphasis is on dominance and
work, whether for whites, African
Americans, Latinos, or Asian
Americans.
A man’s central family role has
been viewed as being the provider.
For women, there is greater role
diversity according to ethnicity.
Traditional Female Roles
Among middle-class whites the
emphasis is on being a wife and mother.
 Among African Americans, women are
expected to be instrumental; there is no
conflict between work and motherhood.
 Among Latinos, women are deferential
to men generally from respect rather
than subservience; elders, regardless of
gender, are afforded respect.
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Changes Affecting
Contemporary Gender Roles
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Acceptance of women as workers and
professionals.
Increased questioning of motherhood as
a core female identity.
Greater equality in marital power.
Breakdown of the instrumental/
expressive dichotomy.
Expansion of male family roles.
Limitations of Contemporary
Gender Roles: Men
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The provider role limits men’s
father and husband roles.
Difficulty in expressing feelings.
A sense of dominance that
precludes intimacy.
Limitations of Contemporary
Gender Roles: Women
Diminished self-confidence and mental
health.
 Association of femininity with youth and
beauty creates a disadvantage as
women age.
 Ethnic women may suffer both racial
discrimination and gender-role
stereotyping, which compound each
other.
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Difficulties in Changing
Gender-role Behavior
Each sex reinforces the traditional roles
of its own and the other sex.
 We evaluate ourselves in terms of
fulfilling gender-role concepts.
 Gender roles have become an intrinsic
part of ourselves and our roles.
 The social structure reinforces
traditional roles.
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Social Movements
Dedicated to Changing
Gender Roles
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Gender-reform feminism
Gender-resistant feminism
Movements designed to emphasize how
gender overlaps with other bases of
oppression, like age, race or class.
Profeminist men’s movements
Most current men’s movements attempt
to reconnect men with families.