Intercultural Communication CHAPTER 6 Gender and Gender Inequality

CHAPTER Gender and Gender Inequality SOURCE Gender and gender inequality . 2016 ) In Sociology Understanding and changing the social world . University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing . This edition adapted from a work originally produced in 2010 by a publisher who has requested that it not receive attribution . Retrieved February 18 , 2020 , from ( Creative Commons International License ) LEARNING OBJECTIVES . Define sex and gender and femininity and masculinity . Critically assess the evidence on biology , culture and tion , and gender . KEY TERMS androgynous gender roles femininity masculinity gender gender identity Social Issues in the News September 2009 was Rape Awareness Month at the of . The coordinator of the ship Sexual Violence Prevention Center ( the group sponsoring the series of events , said they chose September because of the high rates of sexual violence committed against new women students during the first few weeks of the semester . As on many campuses around the country since the late , a Take Back the Night march and rally was the highlight of effort to call attention to violence against women . An staff member explained that Take Back the Night marches began when women decided , No , were not going to live in fear , we not going to stay inside , these are our streets . This is our community were not going to be At her own campus , she said , Its women getting together and saying , You know what , these are our lives . We own these streets like one else , we walk these streets just like anyone a very empowering kind of event and evening ( 2009 ) was the early . Susan ( a pseudonym ) a sophomore college student , wanted to become a physician , so she went to talk to her biology professor about the program at her school . The professor belittled her interest in medicine and refused to discuss the program . Women , 92 . Discuss agents of gender socialization . sex characteristics sex sexual orientation primary sex characteristics he advised her , should just become wives and mothers and leave the doctoring to men . At the same college and about the same time , also a pseudonym ) went to talk to a draft counselor for advice as he considered his options , including military service in Vietnam . said he had something very embarrassing to say and hesitated a long time before speaking . Finally explained , as if revealing a deep secret , that he had never liked to , not even as a young boy , and wondered aloud if there was something wrong with him . It was not that he was scared to , he assured the draft counselor , it was that he thought was Wrong , even though his friends had sometimes called him a sissy and other words for refusing to . was advised that he might qualify as a conscientious objector and was informed about that and his other alternatives to being drafted . He left the room , and the draft counselor never saw him again . Much has changed during the almost four decades since these two stories occurred and since Take Back the Night marches began . Women have entered , engineering , and other professions and careers in unprecedented numbers , no doubt the biology professor who thought them best suited as wives and ers . Many men have begun to realize that real men do not necessarily have to enjoy and other ally behaviors and attitudes . Our society now has an awareness of rape and other violence against women that would astonish students of the 19705 . Still , gender roles

93 and gender inequality persist and violence against women continues , with important consequences for both women and men and for society as a whole . To begin our sion of gender and gender inequality , this chapter begins with a critical look at the concepts of sex and gender . UNDERSTANDING SEX AND GENDER Although the terms sex and gender are sometimes used interchangeably and do in fact complement each other , they nonetheless refer to different aspects of what it means to be a woman or man in any society . Sex refers to the anatomical and other biological between females and males that are determined at the moment of conception and develop in the womb and throughout childhood and adolescence . Females , of course , have two chromosomes , while males have one chromosome and one chromosome . From this basic genetic difference spring other biological differences . The first to appear are the different genitals that boys and girls develop in the womb and that the doctor ( or midwife ) and parents look for when a baby is born ( assuming the baby sex is not already known from ultrasound or other ) so that the momentous announcement , Its a boy ! or It a girl ! can be made . The genitalia are called mary sex characteristics , while the other differences that develop during puberty are called secondary sex and stem from hormonal differences between the two sexes . In this difficult period of adolescents lives , boys generally acquire deeper voices , more body hair , and more muscles from their testosterone . Girls develop breasts and wider hips and begin menstruating as nature prepares them for possible pregnancy and childbirth . For better or worse , these basic biological differences between the sexes affect many peoples perceptions of what it means to be female or male , as we shall soon discuss . Gender as a Social Construction If sex is a biological concept , then gender is a social cept . It refers to the social and cultural differences a society assigns to people based on their ( biological ) sex . A related concept , gender roles , refers to a society expectations of peoples behavior and attitudes based on whether they are females or males . Understood in this way , gender , like race , is a social construction . How we think and behave as females and males is not etched in stone by our biology but rather is a result of how society expects us to think and behave based on what sex we are . As we grow up , we learn these expectations as we develop our gender identity , or our beliefs about ourselves as females or males . These expectations are called femininity and . Femininity refers to the cultural expectations we Infant girls traditionally wear pink , while infant boys wear blue . This color difference reflects the different cultural expectations we have for babies based on their ( biological ) sex . Bed Time ! by Matthew used under ( have of girls and women , while masculinity refers to the expectations we have of boys and men . A familiar nursery rhyme nicely summarizes these two sets of traits What are little boys made of ?

Snips and snails , And puppy dog tails , what little boys are made of What are little girls made of ?

Sugar and spice , And everything nice , what little girls are made of As this nursery rhyme suggests , our traditional notions of femininity and masculinity indicate that we think females and males are fundamentally different from each other . In effect , we think of them as two sides of the same coin of being human . What we traditionally mean by femininity is captured in the adjectives , both positive and negative , we traditionally ascribe to women gentle , tive , nurturing , delicate , graceful , cooperative , decorative , dependent , emotional , passive , and weak . Thus when we say that a girl or woman is very feminine , we have some combination of these traits , usually the positive ones , in mind she is soft , dainty , pretty , even a bit . What we traditionally mean by masculinity is captured in the , again both positive and negative , our society to men strong , assertive , brave , active , independent , intelligent , competitive , insensitive , and aggressive . When we say that a boy or man is very masculine , we have some combination of these traits in mind he is tough , strong , and assertive . These traits might sound like stereotypes of females and males in today society , and to some extent they are , but differences between men and women in attitudes and

94 behavior do in fact exist ( et , 2009 ) For ple , women cry more often than men do . Men are more physically violent than women . Women take care of dren more than men do , Women smile more often than men , Men curse more often than women . When women talk with each other , they are more likely to talk about their personal lives than men are when they talk with each other ( 2001 ) The two sexes even differ when they hold a cigarette ( not that anyone should smoke ) When a woman holds a cigarette , she usually has the palm of her hand facing upward . When a man holds a cigarette , he usually has his palm facing downward , Sexual Orientation Sexual orientation refers to a persons preference for relationships with individuals of the other sex ( one own sex ( homosexuality ) both sexes ( bisexuality ) or neither sex ( asexuality ) It is to know precisely how many people are gay , lesbian , bisexual , or asexual . One problem is . For example , what does it mean to be gay or lesbian ?

Does one need to actually have sexual relations with a partner to be considered gay ?

What if someone is attracted to partners but does not actually engage in sex with such persons ?

What if someone as heterosexual but engages in homosexual sex for money ( as in certain forms of prostitution ) or for power and ( as in much prison sex ) These problems make it difficult to determine the extent of homosexuality . A second problem is empirical . Even if we can settle on a of homosexuality , how do we then determine how many people this ?

For better or worse , our best evidence of the number of gays and lesbians in the United States comes from surveys of national samples of Americans in which they are asked various questions about their . Although these are anonymous surveys , obviously at least some individuals may be reluctant to disclose their sexual activity and thoughts to an interviewer . Still , ars think the estimates from these surveys are fairly rate but that they probably underestimate by at least a small amount the number of gays and lesbians . A widely cited survey carried out by researchers at the University of Chicago found that of men and of women themselves as or , with greater percentages reporting having had relations with partners or being attracted to persons ( see Table ) In the 2008 General Social Survey , of men and 35 of women themselves as or bisexual . Among als having had any sexual partners since turning 18 , TABLE Prevalence of Homosexuality in the United States Activity , Attraction , or Identity Men ( 96 ) Women ( 96 ) Find sexual relations appealing Attracted to people of same sex Identify as gay or bisexual At least one sex partner of same sex during past year among those sexually active At least one sex partner of same sex since turning 18 Data from al . 1994 ) of men reported having had at least some male partners , while 46 of women reported having had at least some female partners . Although precise numbers must remain unknown , it seems fair to say that between about and of Americans are or bisexual . If it is to determine the number of people who are or bisexual , it is even more to determine why some people have this sexual tion while most do not have it . Scholars disagree on the causes of sexual orientation ( et , 2006 Sheldon et , 2007 ) Some scholars attribute it to unknown ical factor ( over which individuals have no control , just as individuals do not decide whether they are or . Supporting this view , many gays say they realized they were gay during adolescence , just as straights would say they realized they were straight during their own adolescence . Other scholars say that sexual tion is at least partly by cultural norms , so that individuals are more likely to identify as gay or straight depending on the cultural views of sexual orientation into which they are socialized as they grow up , At best , perhaps all we can say is that sexual orientation stems from a plex mix of biological and cultural factors that remain to be determined . The Development of Gender Differences What accounts for differences in female and male and attitudes ?

Do the biological differences between the sexes account for other differences ?

Or do these latter differences stem , as most sociologists think , from cultural expectations and from differences in the ways in which the sexes are socialized ?

These are critical questions , for they ask whether the differences between boys and girls and women and men stem more from biology or from . Biological explanations for human behavior implicitly support the status quo . If we think behavioral and other 95 differences between the sexes are due primarily to their respective biological makeups , we are saying that these differences are inevitable or nearly so and that any attempt to change them goes against biology and will likely fail , As an example , consider the obvious biological fact that women bear and nurse children and men do not . Couple this with the common view that women are also more gentle and nurturing than men , and we end up with a biological recipe for women to be the primary takers of children . Many people think this means women are therefore much better suited than men to take care of children once they are born , and that the family might be harmed if mothers work outside the home or if fathers are the primary caretakers . Figure 61 shows that more than of the public agrees that it is much better for everyone involved if the man is the achiever outside the home and the woman takes care of the home and family To the extent this belief exists , women may not want to work outside the home or , if they choose to do so , they face from employers , family , and friends , men may not even think about wanting to stay at home and may themselves face from ees , family , and friends if they want to do so , A belief in a strong biological basis for differences between women and men implies , then , that there is little we can or should do to change these differences , It implies that anatomy is destiny , and destiny is , of course , by inevitable . This implication makes it essential to understand the extent to which gender differences do , in fact , stem from biological differences between the sexes or , instead , stem Agree Disagree FIGURE Belief that women should stay at home . Agreement or disagreement with statement that it is much better for everyone involved if the man is the achiever outside the home and the woman takes care of the home and family . Belief that Women Should Stay at Home is used under . Data from General Social Survey , 2008 . from cultural and social . If biology is mount , then gender differences are perhaps inevitable and the status quo will remain . If culture and social matter much more than biology , then gender differences can change and the status quo may give way With this backdrop in mind , let turn to the biological evidence for behavioral and other differences between the sexes and then examine the evidence for their social and cultural roots , Biology and Gender Several biological explanations for gender roles exist , and we discuss two of the most important ones here . One explanation is from the related of and evolutionary psychology ( Workman Reader , 2009 ) and argues an evolutionary basis for traditional gender roles . Scholars advocating this View reason as follows ( 2007 Palmer , 2000 ) In prehistoric societies , few social roles existed . A major role centered on relieving hunger by hunting or gathering food . The other major role centered on bearing and nursing children . Because only women could perform this role , they were also the primary caretakers for children for several years after birth . And because women were frequently pregnant , their roles as mothers them to the home for most of their adulthood . Meanwhile , men were better suited than women for hunting because they were stronger and quicker than women . In prehistoric societies , then , biology was indeed destiny for biological reasons , men in effect worked outside the home ( hunted ) while women stayed at home with their children . Evolutionary reasons also explain why men are more violent than women . In prehistoric times , men who were more willing to commit violence against and even kill other men would win out in the competition for female mates . They thus were more likely than less violent men to produce offspring , who would then carry these males genetic violent tendencies . By the same token , men who were prone to rape women were more likely to produce offspring , who would then carry these males rape genes This early process guaranteed that rape tendencies would be biologically transmitted and thus provided a biological basis for the amount of rape that occurs today . If the human race evolved along these lines , biologists and evolutionary psychologists continue , natural selection favored those societies where men were ger , braver , and more aggressive and where women were more fertile and nurturing , Such traits over the millennia became fairly instinctual , meaning that mens and en biological natures evolved differently . Men became , by nature , more assertive , daring , and violent than women ,

96 According to some and evolutionary psychologists , today gender differences in strength and physical aggression are ultimately rooted in certain evolutionary processes that spanned millennia . Couple by used under BY . and women are , by nature , more gentle , nurturing , and maternal than men . To the extent this is true , these ars add , traditional gender roles for women and men make sense from an evolutionary standpoint , and attempts to change them go against the sexes biological natures . This in turn implies that existing gender inequality must because it is rooted in biology As the title of a book presenting the evolutionary psychology argument this implication , biology at work rethinking equality ( 2002 ) Critics challenge the evolutionary explanation on eral grounds ( Hurley , 2007 Buller , 2006 , 20093 ) First , much greater gender variation in behavior and existed in prehistoric times than the evolutionary explanation assumes . Second , even if biological differences did gender roles in prehistoric times , these are largely irrelevant in today world , in which , for example , physical strength is not necessary for survival . Third , human environments throughout the millennia have simply been too diverse to permit the simple , ward biological development that the evolutionary nation assumes . Fourth , evolutionary arguments implicitly justify existing gender inequality by implying the need to women and men to their traditional roles . Recent anthropological evidence also challenges the evolutionary argument that men tendency to commit violence , including rape , was biologically transmitted . This evidence instead that violent men have trouble ing female mates who would want them and that the female mates they and the children they produce are often killed by rivals to the men . The recent evidence also those rapists children are often abandoned and then die . As one anthropologist summarizes the rape evidence , The likelihood that rape is an evolved adaptation is extremely low . It just wouldn have made sense for men in the historic epoch to use rape as a reproductive strategy , so the argument that its preprogrammed into us doesn hold up ( 54 ) A second biological explanation for traditional gender roles centers on hormones and on testosterone , the male hormone . One of the most important differences between boys and girls and men and women in the United States and many other societies is their level of aggression , Simply put , males are much more physically aggressive than females and in the United States commit about 85 of all violent crimes . Why is this so ?

This gender difference is often attributed to males higher levels of testosterone ( 2009 ) To see whether testosterone does indeed raise sion , researchers typically assess whether males with higher testosterone levels are more aggressive than those with lower testosterone levels . Several studies that this is indeed the case . For example , a widely cited study of male veterans found that those with higher levels of testosterone had engaged in more violent ( Booth Osgood , 1993 ) However , this correlation does not necessarily mean that their testosterone increased their violence as has been found in various animal species , it is also possible that their violence increased their . Because studies of human males can for ethical and practical reasons manipulate their testosterone els , the exact meaning of the results from these studies must remain unclear , according to a review sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences ( et , 1994 ) Another line of research on the biological basis for sex differences in aggression involves children , including some as young as ages or , in various situations ( Card et , 2008 ) They might be playing with each other , ing with adults , or writing down solutions to hypothetical scenarios given to them by a researcher . In most of these studies , boys are more physically aggressive in thought or deed than girls , even at a very young age . Other studies are more experimental in nature . In one type of study , a toddler will be playing with a toy , only to have it removed by an adult . Boys typically tend to look angry and try to grab the toy back , while girls tend to just sit there and whimper . Because these gender differences in aggression are found at very young ages , researchers often say they must have some biological basis , However , critics of this line of research counter that even young children have already been socialized along gender lines ( Eliot , 2009 ) a point to which we return later . To the extent

INEQUALITY 97 this is true , gender differences in children aggression may simply socialization and not biology In sum , biological evidence for gender differences exists , but its interpretation remains very sial . It must be weighed against the evidence , to which we next turn , of cultural variations in the experience of der and of socialization differences by gender . One thing is clear to the extent we accept biological explanations for gender , we imply that existing gender differences and gender inequality must continue to exist . This implication prompts many social scientists to be quite critical of the biological viewpoint . As Linda Lindsey ( 2011 , 52 ) notes , Biological arguments are consistently drawn upon to justify gender inequality and the continued oppression of women In contrast , cultural and social explanations of gender differences and gender inequality promise some hope for change . Let examine the evidence for these explanations . Culture and Gender Some of the most compelling evidence against a strong biological determination of gender roles comes from anthropologists , whose work on preindustrial societies demonstrates some striking gender variation from one culture to another , This variation underscores the impact of culture on how females and males think and behave , Margaret Mead ( 1935 ) was one of the first to study cultural differences in gender . In New Guinea she found three , the , and the gender roles differed dramatically . In the both sexes were gentle and nurturing . Both women and men spent much time with their children in a loving way and exhibited what we would normally call maternal behavior , In the , then , different gender roles did not exist , and in fact , both sexes conformed to what Americans would normally call the female gender role . The situation was the reverse among the mor . Here both men and women were , competitive , and violent , Both sexes seemed to almost dislike children and often physically punished them , In the society , then , different gender roles also did not exist , as both sexes conformed to what we Americans would call the male gender role , In the , Mead finally found a tribe where different gender roles did exist . One sex was the , efficient , assertive one and showed leadership in tribal affairs , while the other sex liked to dress up in frilly clothes , wear makeup , and even giggle a lot . Here , then , Mead found a society with gender roles similar to those found in the United States , but with a surprising twist , In Margaret Mead made important contributions to the anthropological study of gender . Her work suggested that culture dramatically influences how females and males behave and that gender is rooted much more in culture than in biology . Margaret Mead , portrait , facing right . reading book by Edward York . Library of Congress is inthe public domain . the , women were the dominant , assertive sex that showed leadership in tribal affairs , while men were the ones wearing frilly clothes and makeup . Mead research caused a firestorm in scholarly circles , as it challenged the biological view on gender that was still very popular when she went to New Guinea . In recent years , Mead findings have been challenged by other anthropologists . Among other things , they argue that she probably painted an overly simplistic picture of der roles in her three societies ( 1987 ) Other anthropologists defend Mead work and note that much subsequent research has found that attitudes and behavior do differ widely from one culture to another ( Morgan , 1989 ) If so , they say , the impact of culture on what it means to be a female or male can not be ignored , Extensive evidence of this impact comes from George Murdock , who created the Standard Sample of almost 200 preindustrial ies studied by anthropologists . Murdock ( 1937 ) found that some tasks in these societies , such as hunting and ping , are almost always done by men , while other tasks , such as cooking and fetching water , are almost always done by women . These patterns provide evidence for the argument presented earlier , as they probably stem from the biological differences between the sexes . Even so there were at least some societies in which women hunted and in which men cooked and fetched water . More importantly , Murdock found much greater gender variation in several of the other tasks he studied ,

98 Men predominate Women predominate Neither sex FIGURE Gender responsibility for Responsibility for Weaving is used under Data from Standard Sample . including planting crops , milking , and generating . Men primarily performed these tasks in some societies , women primarily performed them in other societies , and in still other societies both sexes performed them equally . Figure shows the gender responsibility for yet another task , weaving . Women are the primary weavers in about 61 of the societies that do weaving , men are the primary weavers in 32 , and both sexes do the weaving in of the societies . Murdock illustrate how gender roles differ from one culture to another and imply they are not biologically determined . Anthropologists since Mead and Murdock have to investigate cultural differences in gender . Some of their most interesting concern gender and ( Morgan , 1989 Sargent , 2009 ) Although all societies distinguish femaleness and maleness , der is not always binary is an adjective that describes a person who does not identify exclusively as a man or a woman . Although many people also identify as transgender , not all do ( Human Rights , gender categories exist in some societies . The Native Americans known as the , for example , recognize four genders a woman , a woman who acts like a man , a man , and a man who acts like a woman . In some societies , a third , intermediary gender category is . Anthropologists call this category the berdache , who is usually a man who takes on a woman role . This category combines aspects of both femininity and masculinity of the society in which it is found and is thus considered an androgynous gender . Although some people in this category are born as individuals ( formerly known as hermaphrodites ) meaning they have genitalia of both sexes , many are born biologically as one sex or the other but adopt an androgynous identity . An example of this intermediary gender category may be found in India , where the role involves males who wear women clothing and identify as women ( Reddy , 2006 ) The role is an important part of Hindu mythology , in which androgynous play key roles both as humans and as gods . Today people by themselves and others as continue to play an ant role in Hindu practices and in Indian cultural life in general , Serena Nanda ( 1997 , calls human beings who are neither man nor woman and says they are thought of as special , sacred beings even though they are sometimes ridiculed and abused . Anthropologists have found another androgynous gender composed of women warriors in 33 Native ican groups in North America . Walter Williams ( 1997 ) calls these women amazons and notes that they dress like men and sometimes even marry women . In some tribes girls exhibit such masculine characteristics from hood , while in others they may be recruited into In the Indians , for example , a married couple with too many daughters would select one to be like a When she was about years of age , her parents would begin to dress her like a boy and have her do male tasks , Eventually she would grow up to become a hunter . The androgynous genders found by anthropologists remind us that gender is a social construction and not just a biological fact . If culture does affect gender roles , is the process through which culture has this effect . What we experience as girls and boys strongly how we develop as women and men in terms of behavior and attitudes . To illustrate this important dimension of gender , let turn to the evidence on socialization . Socialization and Gender Sociologists identify several agents of socialization , ing the family , peers , schools , the mass media , and religion . Ample evidence of these agents impact on socialization exists . Such socialization helps boys and girls develop their gender identity ( 2009 ) The Family Socialization into gender roles begins in infancy , as almost from the moment of birth parents begin to socialize their children as boys or girls without even knowing it ( Eliot , 2009 ) Many studies document this process

GENDER AND GENDER INEQUALITY 99 Parents play with their daughters and sons differently . For example , fathers generally roughhouse more with their sons than with their daughters . Roughhousing IS used ( Lindsey , 2011 ) Parents commonly describe their infant daughters as pretty , soft , and delicate and their infant sons as strong , active , and alert , even though neutral ers no such gender differences among infants when they do not know the infants sex . From infancy on , ents play with and otherwise interact with their daughters and sons differently . They play more roughly with their example , by throwing them up in the air or by gently wrestling with more quietly with their daughters . When their infant or toddler daughters cry , they warmly comfort them , but they tend to let their sons cry longer and to comfort them less . They give their girls dolls to play with and their boys action and toy guns . While these gender differences in socialization are probably smaller now than a generation ago , they certainly continue to exist . Go into a large toy store and you will see pink aisles of dolls and cooking sets and blue aisles of action , toy guns , and related items . Peers Peer also encourage gender socialization . As they reach school age , children begin to play different games based on their gender ( see the Sociology Making a Difference feature ) Boys tend to play sports and other competitive team games governed by rules and relatively large numbers of roles , while girls tend to play smaller , cooperative games such as hopscotch and ing rope with fewer and more rules . Although girls are much more involved in sports now than a generation ago , these gender differences in their play as youngsters persist and continue to reinforce gender roles . For ple , they encourage competitiveness in boys and tion and trust among girls . Boys who are not competitive risk being called sissy or other words by their peers . The patterns we see in adult males and females thus have their roots in their play as young children ( King et , 1991 ) Sociology Making a Difference Gender Differences in Children Play and Games In considering the debate , discussed in the text , between biology and over the origins of gender roles , some widely cited studies by sociologists over gender differences in childrens play and games provide important evidence for the importance of socialization . Janet Lever ( 978 ) studied children in three different communities in Connecticut . She watched them play and otherwise interact in school and also had the dren keep diaries of their play and games outside school . One of her aims was to determine how complex the two sexes play and games were in terms of such factors as number of rules , specialization of roles , and size of the group playing . in a I ofthese respects , that boys play and games were typically more complex than girls play and games . She attributed these differences to tion by parents , teachers , and other adults and argued that the complexity of play and games helped them to be better able than girls to learn important social skills such as dealing with rules and coordinating actions to achieve goals . Meanwhile , Thorne ( 1993 ) spent many months in two different wor communities in California and Michigan observing fourth and fifth graders sit in class and and play on the school playgrounds . dren were White , were African American or Latino . As you might expect , the girls and boys she observed usually played separately from each other , and the groups in which they played were very important for the ment of their gender identity , with boys tending to play team sports and other competitive games and girls tending to play cooperative games such as jump rope . These differences led Thorne to conclude that socialization stems not only from practices by adults but also from the childrens own activities without adult involvement . When boys and girls did interact , it was often girls against the boys or vice versa in classroom spelling contests and in games such as

100 tag . Thorne concluded that these us against them contests helped the children learn that boys and girls are two different and antagonistic sexes and that gender itself is antagonistic , even ifthere were also moments when both sexes interacted on the playground in more relaxed , noncompetitive . Boys also tended to disrupt girls games more than the reverse and in this manner both exerted and learned nance over females . In all of these ways , children were not just the passive recipients of socialization from adults ( their teachers ) but they also played an active role in ensuring that such socialization occurred . The studies by Lever and Thorne were among the first to emphasize the importance of childrens play and peer for gender socialization . They also called attention to the importance of the traits and values learned through such socialization for outcomes later in life . The rise in team sports opportunities for girls in the years since Lever and Thorne did their research is a welcome development that addresses the concerns expressed in their studies , but young children continue to play in the ways that Lever and Thorne found . To the extent childrens play has the listed , and to the extent these consequences impede full gender inequality , these sociological studies suggest the need for teachers , parents , and other adults to help organize childrens play that is more egalitarian along the lines discussed by Lever , Thorne , and other scholars . in this way , their sociological work has helped to make a ence and promises to continue to do so . Schools School is yet another agent of gender socialization ( Klein , 2007 ) First of all , school playgrounds provide a location for the play activities just described to occur . Second , and perhaps more important , teachers at all levels treat their female and male students differently in subtle ways of which they are probably not aware . They tend to call on boys more often to answer questions in class and to praise them more when they give the right answer . They also give boys more feedback about their assignments and other school work ( 1994 ) At all grade levels , many textbooks and other books still portray ple in ways . It is true that the newer books do less of this than older ones , but the newer books still contain some stereotypes , and the older books are still used in many schools , especially those that can not afford to buy newer volumes . Mass Media Gender socialization also occurs through the mass media ( Dow 81 Wood , 2006 ) On children television shows , the major characters are male . On Nickelodeon , for ple , the very popular SpongeBob is a male , as are his pet snail , Gary his best friend , Patrick Star their neighbor , Tentacles and SpongeBob employer , Eugene Crabs . Of the major characters in Bikini Bottom , only Sandy Cheeks is a female , For all its virtues , Sesame Street features Bert , Ernie , Cookie Monster , and other male characters , Most of the Muppets are males , and the main female character , Miss Piggy , depicted as vain and jealous , is hardly an admirable female role model . As for adults television , more men than Women continue to fill more major roles in weekly shows , despite notable women roles in shows such as The Good Wife and Greys Anatomy . Women are also often portrayed as unintelligent or frivolous individuals who are there more for their looks than for anything else . Television reinforce this image ( et , 2008 ) Cosmetics ads abound , suggesting not only that a major task for women is to look good but also that their sense of worth stems from looking good . Other commercials show women becoming ecstatic over achieving a clean or sparkling laundry from the world of television commercials , then , women chief goals in life are to look good and to have a clean house . At the same time , men chief goals , judging from many commercials , are to drink beer and drive cars . Women and men magazines reinforce these gender images ( 2008 ) Most of the magazines intended for teenaged girls and adult women are with pictures of thin , beautiful models , advice on dieting , cosmetics ads , and articles on how to win and please your man . the magazines intended for teenaged boys and men are with ads and articles on cars and sports , advice on how to succeed in careers and other , and pictures of thin , beautiful ( and sometimes nude ) Women magazines reinforce the view that women need to be slender and wear many cosmetics in order to be considered beautiful . Retouching by by Photo Editing Services is used under BY .

101 women . These magazine images again suggest that en chief goals are to look good and to please men and that men chief goals are to succeed , win over women , and live life in the fast lane . Religion Another agent of socialization , religion , also contributes to traditional gender stereotypes . Many traditional of the Bible yield the message that women are subservient to men ( 2009 ) This message begins in Genesis , where the human is Adam , and Eve was made from one of his ribs . The major in the rest of the Bible are men , and women are for the most part depicted as wives , mothers , and they are praised for their roles as wives and ers and condemned for their other roles , More generally , women are constantly depicted as the property of men . The Ten Commandments includes a neighbor wife with his house , ox , and other objects as things not to be coveted ( Exodus ) and many biblical passages say explicitly that women belong to men , such as this one from the New Testament Wives be subject to your husbands , as to the Lord . For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church . As the Church is subject to Christ , so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands . Ephesians ) Several passages in the Old Testament justify the rape and murder of women and girls . The , the sacred book of Islam , also contains passages asserting the role of women ( Mayer , 2009 ) This discussion suggests that religious people should believe in traditional gender views more than less religious people , and research this relationship ( Morgan , 1988 ) To illustrate this , Figure shows the relationship in the General Social Survey between frequency of prayer and the view ( seen in Figure ) that it is much better for everyone involved if the man is the achiever outside the home and the woman takes care of the home and KEY TAKEAWAYS Sex is a biological concept , while gender is a social concept and refers to the social and cultural differences a society assigns to people based on their sex . Several biological explanations for gender roles exist , but sociologists think culture and socialization are more important sources of gender roles than biology . 45 40 35 30 25 20 10 Pray Pray daily weekly pray FIGURE Frequency of prayer and acceptance of traditional gender roles in the family . Percentage agreeing that it is much better for everyone involved if the man is the achiever outside the home and the woman takes care of the home and family . Prayer Frequency and Gender Roles IS used under . Data from General Social , 2008 . People who pray more often are more likely to accept this traditional view of gender roles . A Final Word on the Sources of Gender Scholars in many continue to debate the relative importance of biology and of culture and socialization for how we behave and think as girls and boys and as women and men . The biological differences between females and males lead many scholars and no doubt much of the public to assume that masculinity and femininity are to a large degree biologically determined or at least . In contrast , anthropologists , sociologists , and other social scientists tend to view gender as a social construction . Even if biology does matter for gender , they say , the of culture and socialization should not be estimated , To the extent that gender is indeed shaped by society and culture , it is possible to change gender and to help bring about a society where both men and women have more opportunity to achieve their full potential . Families , schools , peers , the mass media , and religion are agents of socialization for the development of gender identity and gender roles .

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Psychology of Women , 32 (