Gender Roles: Gender Stereotypes And Adolescents

Gender roles, also known as gender stereotypes, are social and cultural norms on how females and males should conduct themselves within a society. Every culture has certain roles both genders are expected to follow. An example of this in traditional American culture is a man becoming a doctor while a female becomes a nurse or men being the hard workers and women being stay at home mothers. Gender development researchers, similar to other developmental researchers, focus on questions of change over time in gender related subjects (Ruble and Martin 1988). Research suggest that children are socialized to understand gender stereotypes at an early age. In fact, a study done in 2006 by indicated that children before 3 years of age understand concrete

These stages are composed of conflicts a person goes through as they develop throughout the lifespan. First is Basic trust vs. Mis-trust, the second is Autonomy vs. Shame, the third is Initiative vs. Shame, the fourth is Industry vs. Inferiority and the last stage this paper will discuss is Identity vs. Role confusion. He put a crucial emphasis on adolescents because at their stage in development they are figuring out who they are; Identity vs. Identity confusion. Adolescents go through a period of psychosocial crisis, this is a developmental period when a person has to resolve a conflict in his or her own life. The common question they face is “who am I?”. When transitioning in adulthood, adolescents may feel insecure or unsure of who they are. Without proper care and encouragement for self-exploration they will fail this stage and possibly have an unhealthy personality and sense of self. This theory is relevant to the thesis because it shows that adolescents are already in a period of importance, and they want to fit in with society. Gender roles is an important component when forming identities among adolescents because society deems them acceptable so they try and follow these cultural norms. Some may not understand a correct balance of both female and male traits and this leads to lower self-esteem (Koopman

Instead of stages like Erikson, Bronfenbrenner had systems to show how connected and influenced the child is to their environment. He believed that children are not only affected by their immediate surroundings, but are affected by culture and the government too. The first system is the microsystem, this is the most immediate connection to the child. This system includes the parents, teachers, and friends of the child. The next system is the Mesosystem. The mesosystem is the relationship of the microsystem and how they work together for the child’s wellbeing. The next system is the Exosystem, which are environmental factors that has influence on the child’s development, but does not directly involves them. An example would be a parent has had a bad day at work, so they may come home angry and it has a negative effect on the child. The Macrosystem is the final level of the Ecological System of Bronfenbrenner, it deals with the largest people and things that have an influence over a child's life. Examples of the Macrosystem include the national Government, the economy, wars, and cultural values. Bronfenbrenner theory relates to the thesis because it shows how everything in a child’s life directly or indirectly can affect it. In this case the people in the microsystem socialize the young child into these specific gender roles for example, they give the little girls dolls and the