Your daughter looks so beautiful and your son is so strong!"
Shouldn't you be playing with dolls and not trucks?"
Have you heard either of these sentences before? Have you noticed that gender roles in society can influence how a person describes other people, even babies? People will say a baby is pretty if they think it’s a girl and the baby is big and strong if they believe it’s a boy.
- What are gender roles in society?
- What are the major types of gender roles?
- What are examples of gender roles?
- Are gender roles important?
- How can we change gender roles?
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 are the expectations, stereotypes, and behavior expected of people because of their gender. These expectations come from societal norms.
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.
Gender is not binary, meaning just male and female. There are now a plethora of other terms that people can use to define their gender so that they don’t feel restricted in the gender binary. Some of these terms are agender, genderfluid, transgender, and nonbinary. However, despite the wide variety of words people can use to identify, this explanation will be mainly centered around male and female gender roles since our society is founded on those. This note is not to discredit other genders but rather to write about the patriarchal societal roles that are so heavily based on the stereotypical “male” and “female.” This explanation will also assume that people are in heterosexual relationships since those relationships propagate gender norms the most.
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.
Hyperfeminine is essentially overdoing all the female stereotypes to be the most “feminine” person you can be.
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.
Hypermasculine is over-stereotyping “male” characteristics such as strength, sexuality, and wealth.
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.
An egalitarian society believes that everyone is equal, should be treated the same, and have access to all equal opportunities.
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.
Have you ever opened the car door for a woman (or got a door held open for you)? Have you ever paid for a woman’s meal on a date (or had your meal paid for)? Have you ever been courteous to a woman (or received it)? All these examples would not exist 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.
Notice how there’s no type of gender role where the woman is the head of the household and the main source of income? Given how societies are based upon the centuries-old notion that men have all the power, it’s still not feasible to speculate on a female-run society.
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).
Were you gifted toys that aligned with your gender stereotypes when you were a child? Probably.
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.
Alas, this is the impact that gender roles have on our society. They force people to act hyperfeminine or hypermasculine and then ridicule those who don’t and be who they want to be.
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.
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.
Gender Roles in Society - Key takeaways
- Gender roles are the expectations, stereotypes, and behavior expected of people because of their gender
- There are three main types of gender roles
- Traditional: the man works and the woman takes care of the children and the house
- Egalitarian: the man and woman are equal in everything
- Transitional: the man works and is the breadwinner but the woman can work if she wants to
- Gender roles are influenced by someone's parents, the media, someone's friends, and someone's peers
- Gender roles can cause people to face discrimination if they are doing something outside of their gender role
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