Gender Norms

In every society and culture, there are those definite activities, behaviours and attitudes that are expected to be expected to be displayed by either men or women in that setting. Gender norms are social roles and standards which men and women in a certain setting such as culture are supposed are supposed to conform to. They are the behaviours and attitudes that the society defines men and women with. Both men and women are expected to display different personalities in terms of attitudes and behaviours. They are the roles that are generally acceptable and appropriate to the society basing on the people’s gender. For example, the society expects women to be feminine in nature through behaviours such as politeness, kindness and charity. Moreover, the society perceives women to be neat and accommodating. On the other hand, men are regarded to be masculine, aggressive and dominating (Geary &David 1998). 

Generally, gender norms are categorized into four major divisions. Personality norms are concerned with a person’s traits and characteristics. They focus on dimensions such as emotions where women are portrayed and perceived to be weak and emotional, often susceptible to factors such as heartbreaks and hurt. On the other hand, men are described to be strong and bold, and insensitive to emotions, hardly anxious nor worried. Domestic behaviours and roles are more concerned with the roles played by the different gender, such as cooking and washing are accustomed to women while men are supposed to do repair works and other tasks that require more physical and mental activity. Occupation norms, on the other hand, are concerned with the career paths and choices for a different gender. Careers such as nursing and teaching are considered feminine while technical jobs such as piloting and engineering are considered masculine. In addition, physical appearance traits are norms and perspectives that focus on the general physical body appearance. Most cultures regard women to be thin and beautiful and wear tight dresses and make-ups. Men, on the other hand, are expected to be muscular and are less concerned with tight pants as compared to women (Costa, Paul, Terracciano & Robert 2001).

Gender norms in America are highly emphasized and people are expected to learn and reflect the various roles as assigned to their specific gender. Just from their tender ages, our culture impacts children with the various roles and tasks that they are supposed and expected to perform even after they grow up. When young girls play together with boys, they assume the roles of teachers and office secretaries while boys play as soldiers and fighters. This reinforces the occupation norms where such children are hinted at the kind of careers they should pursue in future. When such children grow up, girls become the caregivers and they pursue careers such as nursing and teaching. Boys, on the other hand, pursue careers such as military careers and engineering careers (Geary &David 1998). The career assigned to girls and women, in general, relates to the wellbeing of the people while those assigned to men are tough jobs that require aggression in both physical and mental aspects.

In addition, the American culture reinforces the personal traits of different individuals as shaped by their differences in gender. The various advertisements on TVs and the characterization of movie stars teach a lot about the expectations that the cultures hold towards the behaviour and attitudes of people based on their gender (Deere, Diana & Magdalena 2003). Most advertisements that seek to promote natural beauty use female characters and emphasize various beauty aspects such as skin texture and complexion. They may describe other aspects such as hair length and texture. These advertisements create the images in people’s mind about how a typical woman should be.  In addition, characters in movies are used to portray the culture’s men’s expected attitude, personality and behaviours. Most male characters in movies are expressed as bold and masculine, with less affection for emotions and feelings (Geary &David 1998). These expectations are often known to lower the self-esteem of individuals especially women because they offer a bar for perfection and provide a basis from which people can compare themselves from. 

While cultures determine the quality and behaviour of their persons, different cultures have always regarded different gender with different obligation. Moreover, cultures’ expectation has always varied from places to places. The obligations and expectations that a culture dictates and commands conformation from its members might be valid only to such people whom it operates and defines. This is partly because different cultures have sometimes had contradicting ideas and only people who understand such culture can be able to conform to it. For example, while maintaining eye contact when communicating is highly valued and advocated for in American culture, the same maintenance is devalued and discouraged in Eastern cultures (Costa, Paul, Terracciano & Robert 2001). 

In conclusion, it is evident that culture plays such an important role in shaping the behaviours and attitudes of people. Cultures will determine which tasks people will engage in and which ones the same people will not. American culture has perfectly defined gender roles which it continues to reinforce through various possible ways such as displaying the roles of women and men in movies and films, a common source where people can emulate and imitate behaviours and characteristics. However, different cultures associate same roles with different genders and foreign people may not conform to the characteristics as described by such foreign cultures (Deere, Diana & Magdalena 2003). It is always recommendable to individuals that they observe their cultural gender roles which will make them feel wanted in their society, and respect the attitudes of other people who might have come from different cultures as them.

Works Cited

Costa Jr, Paul T., Antonio Terracciano, and Robert R. McCrae. “Gender differences in personality traits across cultures: robust and surprising findings.” Journal of personality and social psychology 81.2 (2001): 322.

Deere, Carmen Diana, and Magdalena León. “The gender asset gap: land in Latin America.” World Development 31.6 (2003): 925-947.

Geary, David C. Male, female: The evolution of human sex differences. Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association, 1998.