Gender roles in society essay

Gender roles in society essay

 · Gender roles have a very dominant place in our society. Different families and cultures emphasize different roles for men and women. However, masculinity seems to dominate throughout the world. Women’s role in society is always changing but femininity never seems to rise above its masculine blogger.comted Reading Time: 6 mins  · The way gender roles have different expectations and create different opportunities for women and men often creates a system known as Patriarchy. Patriarchy is more than just sexism, because it is the concept of a whole society where men are the leaders and hold the power, whether it comes to government or the household. In a system where Gender roles are one of the most dangerous roles that society faces today. With all of the controversy applied to male vs. female dominance in households, and in the workplace, there seems to be an argument either way. In the essay, “Men as Success Objects”, the author Warren Farrell explains this threat of society as a whole

Gender Roles And Norms In Modern Society: [Essay Example], words GradesFixer

Each society has binary oppositions as in masculine and feminine roles and the established values have little to do with nature and everything to do with culture.

Moreover, the ideals and distinctions of masculine and feminine activities and behaviors are reinforced and redefined through powerful social norms of any particular period. In Medieval and early Modern Europe societies, gender roles were clearly defined by the strong prevailing social structure of the period and were constantly changing because of historical circumstances. For example, in the Greek ancient city of Sparta, masculinity as an ideal was strictly associated with the characteristics of being physically powerful, gender roles in society essay, loyal warriors while femininity was related to marriage and procreation.

By the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, social norms began to associate masculinity with professional skills and education while women were limited in these domains based upon their gender. With this framework in mind, this essay will examine and analyze gender roles beginning with Medieval Sparta through the early Modern Europe period and how masculine and feminine roles were continually being redefined because of historical circumstances.

Masculinity as an ideal in the Greek ancient city of Sparta was exclusively based upon boys growing up to be strong, obedient, and loyal warriors because Sparta was a warrior society. In the film documentary entitled The Spartans, Narrator Bettany Hughes explains how the boys of Sparta reached these lofty goals. She states that when boys reached the age of seven, they began agoge—a term meaning a type of military training—that the city-state controlled.

The agoge taught boys survival and fieldcraft skills as a means to protect the city-state from invasions. This type of male custom had to be performed because the city-state believed this was the only way to ensure warriors formed a complete and unbreakable bond with each other and united the city-state, gender roles in society essay.

At the age of twenty, Hughes states that males received their rite of passage to warrior status and he now has acquired the privilege of going to the common mess and sharing a syssitia, a common meal, with the other seasoned warriors. While masculinity was associated with physical strength and loyalty, gender roles in society essay, the ideals of femininity in Spartan society focused on taking care of the household duties while also spending countless hours perfecting their bodies and oratory skills through vigorous drills and training.

Accordingly, Hushes asserts that Spartan women boasted about how they were as physically fit as their male counterparts and flaunted their oratory skills when out in the public area. However, married woman did not have permission to live with her husband until his active military service ended at age of thirty. Femininity was associated with economic power because women controlled all of the household finances while their husbands were away preparing for war.

The gender roles in ancient city of Sparta were strictly defined because being a male meant that he must learn male dominant traits in order to become a stout warrior whereas femininity solely focused on the need for procreation. During the High Middle Ages, although France was considered a warrior society, gender roles in society essay, the path to adulthood for noble boys was dissimilar to that of Spartan boys.

In Constance Bouchard text entitled Strong of Body, Brave and Noble, she explains that once a gender roles in society essay reached between the ages of six to eight, he too spent the rest of his childhood not at home while learning masculine traits One choice was to have their son become gender roles in society essay member of the clergy. If his parents selected an ecclesiastical life, the boy would begin his religious training around the same time as a modern boy would start elementary school Bouchard Parents also had to decide whether they wanted their son to grow up to gender roles in society essay a monk or be a member of the secular clergy.

Alternatively, if parents decided on the aboy being a member of the secular clergy, then they would send him to a house of canons Bouchard Once the boy reached his teen years, he was then given a chance to make his own final decision regarding his lifelong commitment to the church, but rarely did a boy growing up in a church setting choose to leave for a secular life Bouchard The other masculine noble role in France was to become gender roles in society essay term meaning knight Bouchard By the end of the twelfth century, incorporating the art chivalry expanded the definition of noble masculinity in France.

The chivalry virtues included: being a humble Christian, showing politeness toward women, having gentle and refined speech, and possessing skills in dancing, singing and hunting Bouchard Being a noble male in France in the High Middle Ages required gender roles in society essay warrior the same warrior attributes of that of Spartan as well as the art of chivalry in order to adhere to noble social norms of gender roles in society essay era.

Noble feminine ideals in medieval France were similar to Spartan society regarding procreation, but noble feminine identity also included learning and executing a new set of domestic skills. Consequently, noble girls had to be educated in castle management from the very moment they were old enough to follow their mothers to the kitchen, gender roles in society essay, to the treasury, and to the grain store bins because when a noble girl did marry, which was at an age a lot younger than her male counterpart, she might suddenly become the lady of the castle Bouchard Furthermore, if noble girl received a courtly education, her feminine traits would also include the ability to sing and possibly even play a musical instrument.

Clearly, in medieval France the hegemonic role of noble women as the loving and devoted homemakers was the norm. During the early modern witch-hunts, many Germans feared that the practice of witchcraft was destroying the social fabric of any given community. For example, a male interrogator had to have extensive knowledge of the types of probing questions to ask the accused witch and when to stop the questioning process to ensure a guilty plea was forth coming from the accused witch.

Femininity, on the other hand, was equated with fertility and motherhood. As a result, women were not allowed to learn professional skills, such as being a guild, an interrogator, gender roles in society essay, a doctor or any other profession. When natural philosophy made headway in eighteenth century, the belief in the occult began to wane, and the masculine role of the middle and upper classes moved more resolutely into the intellectual sphere. Therefore, gender roles in society essay, masculinity was associated with knowledge because membership into academics was men only.

Moreover, obtaining a formal education was a means of social mobility. As a result of this theory accepted by male European society, the study of science became a male only domain. Women, on the other hand, were not permitted in the professional and educational spheres based upon their gender, and the majority of the male society expected them to adhere to their proper station as mothers and nurtures.

The reason behind the matter was that they did not fit because they were not members of the academies, not part of the canon, and not respected as standard works. Moreover, because they were not allowed to attend universities, women could not read or write in Latin which was the official language for written observations.

The end result is that women were limited in the intellectual sphere because they were just that—women. The history of Medieval Sparta through the early Modern Europe period demonstrate the key binary oppositions of each society that served each one have never been perpetual. Moreover, each society had distinct sets of standards for the roles of feminine and masculine traits and had gender- specific expectations that men and women had to adhere to in order to fit into societal norms.

Free Essays Topics Essay Checker Hire Writer Login. Free essay samples Gender Gender roles in Society. Gender roles in Society 6 June Hire verified writer. Gender roles in Society Essay Example. Related Essays. Are Gender Roles Defined by Society or by Genetics?

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Gender Roles in Society

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Gender roles in Society Free Essay Sample

 · This relate to the Social Construction Theory as society (as a social entity) is setting up gender roles within a community that is out of human control. With word’s such as “passive” and “masculine”, society is determining roles and behaviour even out of human control  · The way gender roles have different expectations and create different opportunities for women and men often creates a system known as Patriarchy. Patriarchy is more than just sexism, because it is the concept of a whole society where men are the leaders and hold the power, whether it comes to government or the household. In a system where Roles Of Gender Roles In Society Essay. Gender Roles in Society Gender roles are very prevalent in today’s society. Gender roles are a set of societal norms dictating the types of behaviors which are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for people based on their actual or perceived sex or sexuality