gender roles

Examples of gender roles in the following topics:

• Gender and Sociology

  • From birth, children are assigned a gender and are socialized to conform to certain gender roles based on their biological sex.
  • Gender roles are based on norms, or standards, created by society.
  • The socialization process in which children learn these gender roles begins at birth.
  • Each agent reinforces gender roles by creating and maintaining normative expectations for gender-specific behavior.
  • Cross-cultural studies reveal that children are aware of gender roles by age two or three; at four or five, most children are firmly entrenched in culturally appropriate gender roles (Kane, 1996).

• Influences of Culture and Gender on Personality

  • Both culture and gender are important factors that influence the development of personality.
  • Personality psychologists are interested in understanding the role that culture plays in the development of personality.
  • Ideas of appropriate behavior for each gender (masculine and feminine) vary among cultures and tend to change over time.
  • While many gender roles remain the same, others change over time.
  • Gender roles can determine which traits are considered positive or desirable.

• Development of Gender Identity

  • Gender identity is a person's subjective experience of their own gender; how it develops is a topic of much debate.
  • After this "peak of rigidity," fluidity returns and socially defined gender roles relax somewhat.
  • Social factors include ideas regarding gender roles conveyed by family, authority figures, mass media, and other influential people in a child's life.
  • Another factor that has a significant role in the process of gender identity is language; while learning a language, children learn to separate masculine and feminine characteristics and unconsciously adjust their own behavior to these predetermined roles.
  • Apply social-learning theory and gender-schema theory to the context of gender identity development and the gender spectrum

• Discrimination Based on Sex and Gender

  • Discrimination based on sex and gender contributes to harassment, unequal treatment, and violence against women, girls, and transgender and gender non-conforming people.
  • Sexism or gender discrimination is prejudice or discrimination based on a person's sex or gender.
  • It has been linked to stereotypes and gender roles and includes the belief that males are intrinsically superior to other sexes and genders.
  • Currently, transgender individuals are not protected in 33 U.S. states from being fired for being transgender or not conforming to gender norms.
  • Describe the forms of gender-based discrimination that exist in society today

• Aggression: Harming

  • In psychological research about gender, the general pattern is that women are more likely to internalize, and men are more likely to externalize. 
  • Whether this sex difference in aggression is a result of nature (such as biology, genetics, or hormonal differences) or nurture (such as gender roles and socialization) continues to be debated.

• Cultural Influences on Sexual Motivation

  • Though biology plays an important role, the way in which sexual motivation is expressed and acted upon is highly influenced by culture.
  • With the advent of patriarchal societies, gender roles around sexuality became much more stringent, and sexual norms began focusing on sexual possessiveness and the control of female sexuality.
  • Different cultures, however, have established distinctive approaches to gender.
  • This illustrates how large a role society plays in shaping people's views when it comes to the acceptable and unacceptable behaviors and attitudes towards sexuality.
  • Analyze the ways in which the expression of sexuality is influenced by gender and culture.

• Human Sexuality and Culture

  • Though biology plays an important role, the way in which sexuality is expressed and acted upon is highly influenced by culture.
  • Sexuality is also separate from gender identity, which is a person's sense of their own gender, or sociocultural classification (i.e., man, woman, or another gender) based on biological sex (i.e., male or female).
  • It is also distinct from—although it shapes—sexual orientation, or one's emotional and sexual attraction to a particular sex or gender.
  • With the advent of patriarchal societies, gender roles around sexuality became much more stringent, and sexual norms began focusing on sexual possessiveness and the control of female sexuality.
  • Different cultures, however, have established distinctive approaches to gender.

• Defining Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

  • But have you ever been asked to provide your sex and your gender?
  • Gender identity is a person's sense of self as a member of a particular gender.
  • Individuals who identify with a role that corresponds to the sex assigned to them at birth (for example, they were born with male sex characteristics, were assigned as a boy, and identify today as a boy or man) are cisgender.
  • Those who identify with a role that is different from their biological sex (for example, they were born with male sex characteristics, were assigned as a boy, but identify today as a girl, woman, or some other gender altogether) are often referred to as transgender.
  • Sexuality may be experienced and expressed in a variety of ways, including thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviors, practices, roles, and relationships.

• Gender as a Spectrum and Transgender Identities

  • Viewing gender as a spectrum allows us to perceive the rich diversity of genders, from trans- and cisgender to genderqueer and agender.
  • This social dichotomy enforces conformance to the ideals of masculinity and femininity in all aspects of gender and sex—gender identity, gender expression, and biological sex.
  • In the United States, the gender spectrum was formed as an extension of the limiting gender binary that viewed man and woman as the only two gender options.
  • The gender continuum (sometimes referred to as the gender matrix) is an extension of this gender spectrum that includes additional gender identities.
  • A continuum is multidimensional, allowing third gender, fourth gender, fifth gender, agender, or genderless options, as well as many other possibilities and combinations; it is thus a more accurate reflection of the true diversity of human genders.

• Gender Dysphoria

  • Gender dysphoria is a controversial diagnosis characterized by a person's discontent with the sex and gender they were assigned at birth.
  • Many people who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria identify as transgender, genderfluid, or otherwise gender non-conforming in some way; however not everyone who identifies as transgender or gender non-conforming experiences gender dysphoria.
  • In 2013, the diagnosis was renamed from "gender identity disorder" to "gender dysphoria" after criticisms that the former term was stigmatizing.
  • In order to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a person must experience, for at least 6 months, a noticeable difference between how they experience/express their own gender and the gender which they were assigned at birth.
  • Gender dysphoria exists when a person suffers discontent due to gender identity, causing them emotional distress.