Final Draft

Does society play a role on gender roles and gender stereotypes and did they change over time?

Gender roles and stereotypes are not a very easy conversation to have. It may make people very uncomfortable. What exactly are gender roles? “Gender roles are learned behaviors by a person as appropriate to their gender, determined by the prevailing cultural norms.” Society determines gender roles, what males and females should and shouldn’t do such as how to think, speak, dress and so much as to how they should act. These roles are usually adopted during childhood and normally continue into adulthood. Gender roles influence both genders in almost every aspect of their lives. These roles are social constructs developed over time as a way to organize societal tasks and are not based on natural human behavior.

Many gender role stereotypes that we know today were not always present. They are basically new “trends” in human society that come and go. This is because social expectations of both genders change over time. Sara Bobolts, a writer for The Huffington Post, explained how several common gender stereotypes changed over time and how gender stereotypes, even basic ones such as the basic blue as a symbol for boys and pink as a symbol for girls, are new concepts. In the 1600’s high-heels for example, were seen as a “sign of masculinity”, and were specifically for men. This proves that the stereotypes that connect with “traditional” gender categories were nothing like today’s stereotypes. Gender roles and stereotypes can pretty much be whatever we want it to be, and clearly we’ve wanted it to be many different things over the years.

At one time school teachers and secretaries were all male. Yes, that’s very true unfortunately. The term “women’s work” is based on the idea that women are just naturally less qualified than men for most roles in the workforce. According toBobolts, at the turn of the 20^thcentury, an estimated 85 percent of clerical jobs were filled by men earning twice the salary of women with the same exact role. Around the same time, teaching was also dominated by men, until this field became feminized and men backed away.

Another stereotype that started in 1898 that was unusual and eventually broken was, cheerleading. Cheerleading actually started out as a boys’ club because it was too “masculine” for girls. “The reputation of having been a valiant cheerleader is one of the most valuable things a boy can take away from college,” states a 1911 article in The Nation.Cheerleading helped prepare students for leadership roles in their future. It was not until the 1920’s and 1930’s that females were actually included in cheerleading squads and not until the 1960’s that the activity was finally dominated by females.

Women were traditionally associated with nurturing, more than men. Therefore, women were then viewed to behave in ways that were nurturing. For example, one way they “should” act was nurturing her family by working full-time within the home rather than an outside job.  Men on the other hand are “theleader”. They were viewed as the head of the household by providing financially for the family and making important family decisions. However this has changed in the twenty- first century. Some still argue that a woman’s role is to stay home and let the man due the “leading” however statistics prove that “women make notable gains in professional and managerial occupations. In 2016, more than one in three lawyers was a women compared to fewer than one in ten in 1974” states Mark Dewolf in “12 Stats About Working Women”.

Some may argue that women were meant to do certain things, and men are meant to do others due to biological and physical differences. However, clearly throughout history and to this day society has been going against that idea proving that this stereotype is wrong. Women can do things men do and men can do things women do. Society has been slowly but surely proving this in many ways. Women now have been involved in positions that women just a century ago would never have dreamed of.

Gender roles and stereotypes are not, and should not be, clear-cut categories that are applied to everyone in society. This can have many negative effects such as the belief that those who don’t fit perfectly in to the set of “rules” might be flawed somehow which usually leads to their being discriminated against or mistreated. For example a women can be discriminated against and mistreated in a male dominated field such as construction jobs, mechanics and sports. Also, another stereotype that can have a negative effect is that men should make more money than their partner. This leads many males to feel resentful of their partner if they earn more than they do. However, attaching a man’s worth to his pay check is very unfair. A study from the Pew Research Center found that forty percent of American families main income came from the mothers, and thirty seven percent of those are wives who make more than their husbands.

“Women should look flawless” is usually ingrained in a girls brain from a young age. We now live in a society where women are surrounded with advertisement about beauty products and perfect models through television and magazines. These images send the message to women that their worth is tied to their looks. This gives women a lot of pressure to look flawless which affects women emotionally and can lead to many negative outcomes. According to the Daily News, a survey showed that “fifty eight percent of women said they look better with their makeup, twelve percent said they wouldn’t be desired as much without it.”

Some may argue that only the men take charge of the money in households. This was true in the 1980’s. However, a study that compared data from 195 college students in 1983 to data from 191 adults in 2014 stated that women and men were believed to be more equally engaged in financial roles in 2014 than in 1982. In 2014, both female and male were equally believed to take over financial obligations such as make major decisions, and handle financial matters.

Many of these changes in roles were caused by major times in history such as The Depression and World War II. Women were forced to take up jobs that were done by men. World War II provided many opportunities for American women to enter jobs that had never been open to females, specifically in the defense industry. Women faced challenges in overcoming cultural stereotypes against working women while still being able to take care of their children. World War II changed the type of work women did and the volume in which they did it. Five million women entered the workforce between 1940 through 1945. Due to the departing soldiers that meant more job opportunities for women. Job opportunities were provided to women that were previously thought of as exclusive to men specifically the aircraft industry, which was mostly taken over my women by 1943. Women also helped on the battle field with many important tasks such as repairing airplanes, and driving trucks. This was a major breakthrough for women stereotypes and roles. Women were viewed differently and were valued more.

Clearly many gender stereotypes have changed due to society, however, some haven’t changed. An example of a stereotype that hasn’t changed is men protecting the women and children. Men were always viewed as the source of protection for women. An example that proves this is in the movie “The Titanic”, the women and kids were put onto the rescue boats first proving that the men made sure that the women and children were safe.

Society influences the roles and stereotypes of both genders. Some may say women and men are meant to do certain things and act a certain way and that it should stay like that, however, history and statistics has been proving these ideas wrong. Over time gender roles and stereotypes have changed and will continue to change over time due to many things such as economic needs. Today’s society proves that with societal differences comes different gender roles and changing stereotypes. Gender roles and stereotypes has changed drastically over time according to things such as economic needs and preferences, who knows what will change next.

 

Work Cited

• “Figure 2f from: Irimia R, Gottschling M (2016) Taxonomic Revision of Rochefortia Sw. (Ehretiaceae, Boraginales). Biodiversity Data Journal 4: e7720. Https://Doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.4.e7720.” doi:10.3897/bdj.4.e7720.figure2f.
• Morgan, Elizabeth M., and Laurel R. Davis-Delano. “How Public Displays of Heterosexual Identity Reflect and Reinforce Gender Stereotypes, Gender Differences, and Gender Inequality.”Sex Roles, vol. 75, no. 5-6, 2016, pp. 257–271., doi:10.1007/s11199-016-0613-2.
• “How Have Gender Stereotypes Changed in the Last 30 Years?” EurekAlert!, 9 Mar. 2016, www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-03/s-hhg030716.php.
• Lein, Simonetta. “4 Industries Women Continue to Dominate.” Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur, 21 Sept. 2018, entrepreneur.com/article/319259.
• “American Women and World War II.” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/rise-to-world-power/us-wwii/a/american-women-and-world-war-ii.

Reflection

Reflection Essay – Researched Critical Essay

This essay’s purpose was to choose a topic, which in this case was does society play a role on gender roles and gender stereotypes and did they change over time?

It is an essay that can be controversial and have many different opinions backed up with many different facts. This essay specifically makes use of many elements such as research, stating evidence, and evaluating. My writing may allow my fellow peers and professor to be able to understand what was stated in the articles I had researched and to also be able to have enough information to agree or disagree with either side.

When I was first assigned this summary and response assignment I knew exactly what topic I wanted to research. However, a challenge I had writing this essay was being able to find enough reliable information on my topic. At points I was really tempted to change my topic.

All in all, this assignment has helped me achieve a couple of the Course Learning Outcomes that appear on the syllabus. I was able to “explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations”. I came to learn that a rhetorical situation includes a purpose, audience, stance, genre, medium and design. These elements helped me in writing my summary and response essay in a couple ways. It helped me determine that the purpose of my writing was to explore a topic and do research and understand both sides. Also recognizing who my audience is, which in this case is my professor. I also “developed strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing”. When I was assigned this paper I had to produce an essay which was peer reviewed by my professor and a friend. I then received a couple critiques, fixed my essay, and finally turned it in. Lastly, I was able to “recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations”. This allowed me to be able to use the strategy of backing up my findings with specific facts. All these outcomes allowed my writing to be able to be perfected and easier for me to produce and for the reader to understand.

While writing this essay, my goal was to be able to explore and evaluate a topic, which in this case does society play a role on gender roles and gender stereotypes and did they change over time? I am proud of the final outcome considering the fact that I overcame the challenge of not changing my topic. I made sure my writing was able to fulfill all the assignment requirements and hopefully was able to achieve the goal of being able to explore and evaluate the topic does society play a role on gender roles and gender stereotypes and did they change over time?