Culture And Gender Roles

Culture has always been posited to be a way of life. Intrinsically, culture determines how an individual acts, relates and approaches other individuals in their societies. Culture plays a big role in determining the activities in which an individual engages in within their setting. Through implication, culture gives roles to gender; roles which must be met. This constitutes gendering. Society expects different mindsets and conducts from men and women. Gender socialization is the predisposition for men and women to be socialized differently. Men are raised to conform to the male gender role, and women are raised to conform to the female gender or role. A gender role is a set of behaviors, attitudes, and personality characteristics expected and
This is not the case with a girl. Parents tend to become over protective with their female child than is the case with the girl child. The girl child is also expected to act in a polite manner to symbolize grace which would mean that upon growing up, this child will avoid careers and employments that put this grace in jeopardy (Marks 1996). Jobs such as managerial positions will mean that the woman will have to be aggressive a concept that she is new to since society expects that she will employ grace in all her engagements. The man on the other hand is expected to be brutal, curt and straightforward. This makes it for the man to participate in those occupations that will grant him authority as it gives them opportunity to exercise control and aggression over employees, especially other male workers (Polatinsky & Esprey 2000). The competitive nature of man, a concept of childhood where as a male individual, a boy would be expected to compete and grasp glory at the expense of the other male counterparts would translate to the boy being more ambitious than the woman to gratify their need for glory and the sense of competitiveness in them hence a man would reflect those values such as selfishness which is aimed at competing with their peers. The woman on the other hand feels no need to compete because in childhood, should she have competed with the brother, it would have
Each community has its sages and stories revolving around the origins of the people and their activities in the past. These stories showed the activities which people engaged in during the medieval days (Huttenlocher 1991). From these stories, children are able to establish and identify with the roles that are expected of them. In the Alexandrian age for example, men were trained to be soldiers, sculptors and their bravery was celebrated. Women were left behind during war to look after the children and run the household. When one is exposed to such stories at an early age, he grows up with the understanding that as a boy it is wrong to stay back home for whatever reasons regardless of whether their female spouse is also working (Carr 2004). While women on the other hand, are taught to stay at home and take care of the children. Also, some jobs – such as those of the security discipline – that would mean the woman staying out late tend to be shunned by individuals of the female sex. This is because they have built it around themselves the craving for security away from the night within the comforts of their homes (Gondolf & Hanneken 1987). On the other hand, a man’s intrepidity is tested by his assurance and calmness in the face of potential danger lurking in the dark of the night. Hence, the male individual feels little need to run back on upon the setting of the