Gender Roles

1. Sex is defined by your body parts, your chromosomes and your hormones. Gender is what is learned through your family and through society. For example, we associate gender with colors. Pink is for girls and Blue is for boys. We associate gender with toys: Ex Girls play with dolls and boys with trucks and balls.

2. I can’t remember anything specific of myself doing gender, but I can recall a Christmas that my aunt bought my son (who is her God-son) a doll. It was a little boy who said his prayers at night. My husband had a fit. He insisted that my son could only use the toy “only when he is going to bed and will be saying his prayers”. We argued and argued over this “doll”. Somehow, this doll mysteriously disappeared after a month. I wonder who is to blame.

3.

A) Interviewing was the method used to collect data. The study population was 44 middle school children in a mid-sized southern city.

B) The limitations that they encountered were that there were time constraints.

C) Most of the “tweens” showed an understanding that men and women were equal, but they displayed the opposite when it was put to the test. On page 346-347, they explain how they did a test where each student would have cards on male, female, or both and show job categories. Many of the students showed that there wasn’t equality between men and women.

D) One example explained that “girly-girls” were preoccupied with appearances in contrast to “tomboys”. One girl wanted to wear high-heeled shoes all the time. “Tomboys” were described as being athletic, etc.

E) I honestly believe that gender is learned through family and through society. We tell our girls its ok to cry, and to our boys we tell them that boys shouldn’t cry…they should be tough. Girls are usually given earlier curfew hours because parents are more concerned for their safety than their sons. Not that they aren’t worried…but they just feel more comfortable knowing that their “little girls” are safely in the house. Girls gossip…we say it’s their nature…but if boys do it…they are “acting” like a girl. Family and society define gender.

4) – 5)

1. False In the year 2000, 64.6 percent of mothers with children younger than age 6 were part of the labor force.
2. False The number of working mothers with children ages 6 to 17 increased by 15 percent between 1975 and 1980.
3. False During the period 1995 to 2001, the number of working mothers with children younger than age 6 increased by more than 5 percent.
4. True In the last five years on the chart, the percentage of working mothers with children younger than age 18 decreased.
5. True The number of working mothers with children younger than age 6 went above the 50 percent mark for the first time between the years 1980 and 1985.
6. False The number of working mothers with children ages 6 to 17 has not been below 70 percent since 1980.
7. True The number of working mothers with children younger than age 6 decreased between 1997 and 2001.
8. False In 1955, fewer than one-fourth of all mothers with children under age 18 were part of the U.S. workforce.
9. True Working mothers with children younger than age 6 have always made up a smaller percentage of the workforce than those who have children ages 6 to 17.
10. True In the year 2001, more than three-fourths of all mothers of children ages 6 to 17 were part of the labor force.

6) I think women are doing very well. We still have a lot of hurdles to overcome, such as equal pay in the workforce, but overall I think we are doing quite well. Just look at the offices we hold in the government. Who would have thought a woman would become Secretary of State, or a Supreme Court Justice. Although we may be few in number, we have a presence, which 20-30 years ago was never a consideration.