Gender Roles in Society

Gender Roles in Society: Meaning

Teacher. Doctor. Nurse. Plumber. Secretary. Automotive technician.

When you read these jobs, did you assume what gender of person worked that job? Society tells us that traditionally women are in nurturing professions, such as a teacher or a nurse, and men are in intelligent or physical jobs, such as doctors, plumbers, or technicians. This instance is just one example of the wide impact that gender roles have on our lives.

Gender roles can be expectations about someone’s personality, job, appearance, behavior, and even voice! Since modern society based itself upon older cultures where the men did all the work while the women stayed home and raised children, these elements are still prevalent today. Of course, there are cultural differences within subgroups of American society, so this is discussing general gender norms.

Fig. 1. Traditional gender role for a woman.

Major Types of Gender Roles

There are three main types of gender roles in American society.

Traditional Gender Roles

As you might guess by the name, traditional gender roles are the stereotypical roles that society expected out of people 100 years ago.

Traditional gender roles expect women to be polite, nurturing, and caring for the house. Women are to listen to their husbands and, in most cases, not work so they can take care of their children. In the traditional gender role, women are to be hyper-feminine.

We can look at this definition now and know that not having children doesn’t make you any less feminine, but in traditional gender roles, it is crucial.

Fig. 2. Traditional gender role for a man.

For men, traditional gender roles expect them to be aggressive, the sole caretaker of the family, and not show emotions. These men are hypermasculine.

While society has evolved in understanding that men can be feminine, women can be masculine, and people don’t have to fit into these predetermined roles, these previous ones still influence the current expectations.

Egalitarian Gender Roles

The theory of egalitarian gender roles is based on the concept of an egalitarian society.

In egalitarian societies, this concept refers to social classes and gender, but here we’re just going to focus on gender. Here, women and men in relationships would work, take care of the house, and raise their children.

For some feminists, egalitarian gender roles are their end goal – people are treated the same, regardless of gender. However, some women might not want to be in a society with egalitarian gender roles.

Even though we don’t think of these examples as negative things (such as the pay gap), they are more instances of the genders not being treated equally. In a society with fundamental egalitarian gender roles, everyone would open their car door, pay for their meals, and not focus on being polite to people of the opposite gender. This would be a welcome change for some, but others benefit from non-egalitarian gender roles.

Transitional Gender Roles

The final type of gender role is the transitional gender role. You can think of transitional roles as stepping stones between traditional and egalitarian roles.

In transitional gender roles (and assuming a heterosexual relationship), the man is still the primary source of income. Still, the woman has more freedom outside the traditional position to pursue a career outside of homemaking.

While countless women have careers, companies, and children, this is the type of gender role that American society is most in line with. Typically, the man is still the breadwinner while the woman can work she can until she has to sacrifice part of her career for children.

Fig. 3. Nontraditional gender role for a woman.

Gender Roles in Society: Examples

Can you think of any examples of gender roles? Remember, gender roles can be the physical job or part that the person is expected to play, but also stereotypes that influence our view of a person.

• Girls play with dolls and boys play with trucks

• Gender reveal parties where pink means the baby is a girl and blue means the baby is a boy

• Girls wear skirts and boys wear pants

• Women in education and men in STEM

• The woman needs to be saved by the man

• A man can’t show his emotions while a woman should

• Men should love sex while women should be inexperienced sexually

• Girls are good at reading while boys are better at math

• Women shouldn’t speak out or raise their voices otherwise they'll come across as loud and whiney while men should, getting viewed as powerful

Impact of Gender Roles on Society

Unfortunately, gender roles’ stereotypes and impacts transcended our lives before we were even aware of what a stereotype was. From childhood, we get conditioned to act in ways that align with our gender, making it challenging to have preferences outside of the gender norm (and even more difficult for those who are not cisgender).

Since it has been ingrained in us since we were children, it makes it harder to understand the problems until we are older. The older generations condition the younger generations with the traditional (and transitional) gender roles, perpetuating the cycle.

Impact of Gender Roles on Society: Defying Gender Roles

Additionally, what happens when you defy gender roles? If you’re in a job that’s unexpected for your gender – like a woman in construction or a man in fashion – do people make fun of you? Are you not accepted by your peers? Not understood by your parents? Since American society was built upon traditional gender norms, it’s more difficult to break those norms.

Fig. 4. Nontraditional gender role for a man.

The same concept can apply to other areas outside of work, such as college majors (women in STEM and men in education), athleticism (it can make boys uncomfortable if a girl is faster than them), and clothing. While it is your passion or pride, acting outside the gender roles can cause people to be upset.

Changing Gender Roles in Society

So now that you understand gender roles, do you have any thoughts on how to change them? A change in gender roles has to be a gradual process, given how heavily society was founded upon them.

To change gender roles, you need to understand some outside societal influences that impact the continuation of gender roles.

• Parents: Someone's upbringing is influenced by how they view gender roles. If a person is raised in a conservative, traditional home, they will most likely have traditional gender views. However, if someone’s parents are more liberal and unconventional, they would likely impart more modern gender views on their child.

  • Family: Family refers to extended family outside of the people who the child lives with. If a family only buys and exposes the child to toys or opportunities in line with their gender stereotypes, that can influence the child’s perception of gender norms.

• Friends: Peer influences are an extremely important part of our lives. Typically, we surround ourselves with people who share the same interests and views we do, reinforcing the preexisting beliefs.

• Media: Media is a huge influence that often can’t be controlled by parents. Depending on what the child is exposing themselves to, traditional gender roles can either be encouraged or discouraged. Media can include the news, social media, TV shows, movies, and the internet.

By further understanding these influences and their impact, people can begin to change gender roles in society.