Gender Roles and Society Amy M
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The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Sociology School Faculty Scholarship Sociology 8-2003 Gender Roles and Society Amy M. Blackstone University of Maine - Main, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/soc_facpub Part of the Gender and Sexuality Commons Repository Citation Blackstone, Amy. 2003. "Gender Roles and Society." Pp 335-338 in Human Ecology: An Encyclopedia of Children, Families, Communities, and Environments, edited by Julia R. Miller, Richard M. Lerner, and Lawrence B. Schiamberg. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN I-57607-852-3 This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sociology School Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Gender Roles and Society 335 Additional structural conditions such as women Risman, Barbara J. 1998. Gender Vertigo: American Families in Transition. London: Yale University with high levels of education and high income- Press. earning potential might be necessary prerequisites Thompson, Linda. 1993. "Conceptualizing Gender in for such families to exist (Risman 1998,101). Gay Marriage: The Case of Marital Care:' Journal of and lesbian couples also are less likely to organize Marriage and the Family 55: 557-569. their lives in gendered ways because they do not Walker,Alexis J.1999. "Gender and Family have the ease of creating gendered patterns of be- Relationships:' Pp. 439-474 in Handbook of havior on the basis of a person's sex category. Re- Marriage search has found that lesbian couples are more and the Family 2d ed. Edited by Marvin B. Sussman, Suzanne K. Steinmetz, and Gary W. Peterson. New likely to share housework since obviously one per- York: Plenum. son is not delegated to the housekeeper role on the West, Candace, and Don H. Zimmerman. 1991. "Doing basis of her sex (Baber and Allen 1992,207). Gender:' Pp. 13- 3 7 in The Social Construction of Gender is constructed in individual, interac- Gender. Edited by Judith Lorber and Susan A. tional, and structural ways to create environmen- Farrell. tal constraints and opportunities that usually ben- Newbury Park, CA: Sage. efit men more than women. Gender does not, however, affect families' lives in isolation. More re- Gender Roles and Society search is beginning to explore how gender inter- Gender roles are based on the different expecta- acts with other characteristics such as race, ethnic- tions that individuals, groups, and societies have of ity, sexual orientation, and social class to affect individuals based on their sex and based on each diverse family experiences (Coltrane 1998,8). For society's values and beliefs about gender. Gender example, unlike European American middle-class roles are the product of the interactions between women, working-class women and women of color individuals and their environments, and they give historically have had much stronger ties to the individuals cues about what sort of behavior is be- workforce because of the necessity of their in- lieved to be appropriate for what sex. Appropriate comes to their families' economic well-being. gender roles are defined according to a society's Thus, their experiences as wives and partners may beliefs about differences between the sexes. be different from their European American mid- Understanding the term "gender roles" requires dle-class counterparts. Current research also finds an understanding of the term "gender't''Gender" is that factors such as race and social class affect a social term that is often confused with the term women's experiences of mothering (Walker 1999, "sex:' Sex and gender are different concepts. Sex is 448). Since gender is constructed, these findings a biological concept, determined on the basis of are what one would expect, and they serve to make individuals' primary sex characteristics. Gender, more complete our understanding of all the factors on the other hand, refers to the meanings, values, that create gender. and characteristics that people ascribe to different Aine M. Humble sexes. Ann Oakley (1972) was one the first social See also: Contemporary Men's Movement; Gay and scientists to distinguish the concept of gender Lesbian Studies; Gender Roles and Society; from the concept of sex. According to Oakley, gen- Sex-Role der parallels the biological division of sex into Stereotypes; Work and Families male and female, but it involves the division and References and Further Reading social valuation of masculinity and femininity. In Baber, Kristine M., and Katherine R. Allen. 1992. Women other words, gender is a concept that humans cre- and Families: Feminist Reconstructions. New York: ate socially, through their interactions with one Guilford. Blaisure, Karen R., and Katherine R.AlIen.1995. another and their environments, yet it relies heav- "Feminists and the Practice of Marital Equality" ily upon biological differences between males and Journal of Marriage and the Family 57: 5-19. females. Because humans create the concept of Coltrane, Scott. 1998. Gender and Families. Thousand gender socially, gender is referred to as a social Oaks, CA: Pine Forge. construction. The social construction of gender is Komter, Aatke. 1989. "Hidden Power in Marriage." Gender demonstrated by the fact that individuals, groups, & Society 3: 187-216. and societies ascribe particular traits, statuses, or Lorber, Judith. 1998. Gender Inequality: Feminist Theories values to individuals purely because of their sex, and Politics. Los Angeles: Roxbury. yet these ascriptions differ across societies and cultures, and over time within the same society. Gender Roles and Society 337 Gender roles are the roles that men and women lies is one way that men experience greater power are expected to occupy based on their sex. Tradi- in society than women. Because men are expected tionally, many Western societies have believed that to be the primary breadwinners for their families, women are more nurturing than men. Therefore, women often find themselves to be in poverty if the traditional view of the feminine gender role their marriages dissolve. In this example, a femi- prescribes that women should behave in ways that nist perspective would assert that men tend to are nurturing. One way that a woman might engage hold more power in their marriages than women in the traditional feminine gender role would be to since men are less likely to lose power or social sta- nurture her family by working full-time within the tus if their marriages dissolve. horne rather than taking employment outside of Gender roles can be linked to expectations of the home. Men, on the other hand, are presumed by males and females in realms outside of the family traditional views of gender roles to be leaders. The as well, such as work (Williams 1995).In the work- traditional view of the masculine gender role, place, men and women are often expected to per- therefore, suggests that men should be the heads of form different tasks and occupy different roles their households by providing financially for the based on their sex (Kanter 1977). Even in the early family and making important family decisions. twenty-first century, many corporations operate While these views remain dominant in many from a perspective that favors traditional beliefs spheres of society, alternative perspectives on tra- about gender roles by, for example, offering ditional beliefs about gender roles have gained in- parental leave benefits only to mothers and deny- creasing support in the twenty-first century. ing such benefits to fathers. In addition, because Different disciplines offer a range of perspec- the traditional perspective toward gender roles re- tives on gender roles. An ecological perspective on mains predominant in many corporations, the po- gender roles suggests that gender roles are created sitions that women and men hold within corpora- by the interactions between individuals, commu- tions are often segregated by sex. Women are more nities, and their environments. That is, while indi- likely to be expected to work as secretaries, and vidual people play a role in constructing gender men are more likely to be expected to work as roles, so too do the physical and social environ- managers and executives. Also, men are presumed ments within which people operate. A biological to be more ambitious and task-oriented in their perspective on gender roles suggests that women work, while women are presumed to be more in- have a natural affinity toward the feminine gender terested in and concerned about their relation- role and that men have a natural affinity toward ships with others at work. the masculine gender role. The biological perspec- As these examples demonstrate, gender roles tive does not, however, suggest that one role holds are sometimes created on the basis of stereotypes any inherently greater value than another role. A about gender. Gender stereotypes are oversimpli- sociological perspective toward gender roles sug- fied understandings of males and females and the gests that masculine and feminine roles are differences between them. Individuals sometimes learned and that masculine and feminine gender base their perceptions about appropriate gender roles are not necessarily connected to males' and roles upon gender stereotypes. Gender stereotypes females' biological traits. Sociologists study the tend to include exaggerated or erroneous