Sex Roles

The most common and traditional gender roles imply that men are supposed to be “masculine” and women are supposed to be “feminine.” Defined using dictionary.com, masculine means “having qualities traditionally ascribed to men, such as strength and boldness,” while feminine means “having qualities traditionally ascribed to women, such as sensitivity or gentleness.” The society regard that women accept what happens and allows what others do, without response or resistance, and that they require someone for financial, emotional, and other support, all of this by its nature. On the opposite side, men should have the courage to face extreme danger and difficulty, without retreating, and have the power to perform physically demanding tasks. Many social scientists are interested about studying these stereotypes. How do these gender differences occur? Is it because of the cultural influence or the biological condition? Do their hormonal differences influence their behaviors and attitudes? Does culture determine gender roles?

Men and Women have different chromosomes and the genetic structure is a decisive factor for the physical development of the human body. In earlier periods was understandable roles, man had to hunt and women were limited to the domestic sphere. Today with developed industries and suppose equality among any gender, this role should not be the reality .Gender roles are what men and woman learn as the way they are supposed to act.

Jerry Levy of the University of Chicago has found differences in the way male and female brain are arranged, in a systematic way, and he said that these differences in brain function are caused by the hormonal effect. As far as the theory that hormones or genes may control the personality traits or behaviors of each gender, so far, there has been absolutely no direct evidence that this is the case (Renzetti & Curran, 1989). Professor Steven Goldberg, Chairman of the Department of Sociology at City College of New York has written a book with the provocative title, Why Men Rule-A Theory of Male Dominance. He believes that the high level of testosterone in males drives them toward dominance in the world, while the lack of high levels of this hormone in women creates a natural, biological push in the direction of less dominant and more nurturing roles in society.

Women and men are settling into predetermined cultural molds when it comes to gender in American society. The notion that women are more emotional, and men more logical and mathematical, is mostly stereotype. Women just are more concerned than men about the quality of interpersonal relationships. Part of the masculine gender role is to be independent and assertive.

According to Hamilton McCubbin and Barbara Blum Dahl, the writers of the chapter “Sex Roles " , from the book marriage and family: Individuals and life Cycles (1985) "most differences between females and males are learned through family interactions, socialization in schools and the mass media." Men are more likely to be perceived as aggressive and competitive, women are more likely to be viewed as passive and cooperative. Traditionally, men have been viewed as financial providers, whereas women have been viewed as caretakers.

In the past decades, men were defined through their employment; women were identified with reproduction or domestic labor. In terms of gender roles, a functionalist would argue that in preindustrial societies, such as those which depended on hunting and gathering, men and women fulfilled different roles and took on different tasks because it was most useful or functional for society to do so.

Women and men communicate very differently. Communicative behaviors that are acceptable for gentlemen, for example, may be considered completely inappropriate for ladies. When women have to make a decision they will often process and look at options out loud while men tend to process internally until they come up with a solution. One of the most traditional hypothesis is the one John Gray wrote about in his book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, which essentially points to differences in brain structure, hormones, and socialization as the cause of such an enormous gender gap in communication. The attitudes and differences for men and women towards communication are starting to increasingly get better through each decade. Much of this change can be explained by social changes.

Sport on television is ruled by men and this determines men in relation to rivalry and power. When we watch TV ads we see that women are always connected somehow with ads for soap or for food products that need cooking. The men tend to be focus in any ad involving something mechanical. The media influences children into traditional stereotypical roles, because of the prevalence of such images on TV, which offers a wide range of potential role-models, both positive and negative. According to Van Evra, Repetti (1984) found no relationship between the amount of viewing time, and the amount of gender stereotyping in children. What Repetti did find, however, was that the amount of viewing was found to be negatively associated with stereotyping.

Women have had equal rights in the United States for quite a few years now but most societies are not used to women being in roles that men traditionally hold. The impact of these prejudices reach into the lives of all women as they make decisions about what to aim for, what to study, how to support themselves and their families economically, and what they might contribute to their communities at the local, national, and global levels.

As soon as a baby enters the world, it receives messages about gender. Culture dictates, at a very young age, how boys and girls are supposed to act, feel and respond to certain situations, in the United States, for example, disposable diapers come adorned in pink for girls and blue for boys. Girls study faces while men are obsessed with sports.

A women's role has changed in a impressionably way and is creating its greatest impact in our society today. Years ago, women's contribution to society was limited and managed by men. Women’s impact is simply due to the fact that they are now educating themselves. They are now involved with the improvement of their own position. Women are fighting for their rights and are slowly progressing and participating in activities that they were not allowed before; they have achieved power and now have an appetite for it.

Women find maturity younger than men for physical and emotional reasons. They are more advanced in all social skills since childhood. Girls start to show interesting in boys while they still want to play with toys.

I am young and never experienced myself marriage and the problems that comes with it, but I hope in the future the duties of a father will vary greatly throughout the world. Is important for the father to share the household tasks, be ready to help, even though it's something women are usually better at, mom and dad should share household responsibilities.

Communication between the genders has become more prevalent in society, as norms have changed. When one adds the mobility of the American population and the differences among the cultures they represent, both the importance and difficulty of effective communication increases. Men prefer just the facts, women tell the whole story.

Since scientists would have to use a lot of evidence in order to establish the male/female differences, I find hard to get in a conclusion. Males and females play very different roles and these differences are apparent in our everyday lives. These differences are not the same as they used to be. Society has changed the way it treats men and women over time. The role process depends on the education people had and that can determine the "part in a play”, in this case, real world. Gender relations are a part of the socialization process, and parents should teach their children certain important values since their beginning in the social life. Our society has seen numerous changes in these roles.