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Gender Roles Shaped By Culture

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Gender Roles: Shaped by Culture Enforced by Society The term culture itself encompasses many different characteristics, such as, values, beliefs, and practices. These characteristics in turn are extremely broad themselves. It is no wonder that there are differences between cultures; however, there are also some similarities. How do intelligence, child-rearing, interpersonal attraction, emotional experiences, or even gender roles compare across different cultures? Are they similar, or are they extremely different? It all depends on what culture or cultures you are looking at, and they are numerous. Some cultures are more similar than others, for example, the United States and Great Britain. However, others are extremely different, such as the …show more content…

One perspective is that gender roles serve a function. Under the idea of functionalism, society is made up of several different parts that help keep society balanced at equilibrium. Functionalists emphasize social control and stability, and believe that “harmony is maximized, and families benefit when spouses assume complementary, specialized, non-overlapping roles” (Lindsey, 2011, p. 6). In other words, mom does the cooking and cleaning, while dad goes to work and mows the lawn. Another theory, known as conflict theory, involves society being maintained by one social class exerting power over another. Conflict theory stems from the ideas of Karl Marx, who critiqued capitalism as a whole. He believed that the working class was controlled by the powerful few. Concerning gender, this would put men in the role of the powerful few, and women in the role of the working class, or those being controlled. Conflict theory can be applied to many different types of relationships, for example, parent and child, husband and wife, and/or worker and employer (Lindsey, …show more content…

However, not one by itself can explain it all; instead, these theories are intertwined together. It is true that culture does play a major role in shaping gender roles. Despite most cultures having different roles for men and women, gender differences were nonexistent in early research by psychologists. Carol Gilligan believed that “factors of social status and power combine with reproductive biology to shape the experience of males and females and the relations between the sexes” (Mio, Barker, & Tumambing, 2012, p. 28). Research has shown that men and women do think and speak differently; however, does that mean they must take on different roles, such as with

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Jones’ book is conflict perspective. Leon-Guerrero (2009) writes, “conflict theorists consider how society is held together by power and coercion (Ritzer 2000) for the benefit of those in power” (Leon-Guerrero, 2009, p. 14). Leon-Guerrero (2009) goes on to state that Karl Marx was the first to make the argument of conflict theory. Marx focused on the conflict between social classes. There is at most times a tension between the proletariat (workers) and the bourgeoisie (owners) (Leon-Guerrero, 2009, p. 14).

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Social Conflict theory is a sociological theory that argues that society is made up of different groups in society that are all competing for power and scarce resources. The theory focuses on the inequalities of groups such as such as race, sex, class, and age. These inequalities may determine one's social status resulting in conflict. This theory was originally derived from Karl Marx who is considered the "father" of conflict theory. Karl Marx believed that society was made up two unequal groups of people: the people who have all of the power (haves) and the people who are striving to attain the power (have nots).

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Karl Marx, a ground breaking sociologist, economist, and philosopher, lived from 1818 to 1883. During his lifetime he propounded this epic sociologic perspective, the conflict theory. (McClelland) The conflict theory discusses how the rich and the poor have been fighting ongoing battle for power. The group in control actively defends their advantages.

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Journal Entry #3 Conflict Theory and Mean Girls The conflict theory is a theory suggested by Karl Marx, and this theory claims that conflicts will happen when status, and power are unevenly distributed between the groups in society. With the conflict theory it has two primary classes. The bourgeoisie who represents the people in society who have the wealth, and the proletariat the people in society who are considered to be the poor, working class people. A perfect example of the conflict theory would be from the movie “Mean Girls.”

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The Marx approach focuses on economic factors as the sole reason for conflict in society. He saw society divided into the Bourgeoisie, or the owners of the means of production, and the proletariat, or the workers. Tensions and conflicts occur when the resources, power, and status are unevenly distributed between these two groups, and the conflict can lead to social change. He believed the exploited people would bane together and attempt to bring about changes. The workers would develop a class consciousness and revolt demanding more changes in society, while those with the wealth, power and prestige will continue to try and promote their own interest usually at the expense of the weaker

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They seem more different then identical. Likewise, the way of living of both the cultures

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In the book “You May Ask Yourself”, they define gender roles as “sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as male or female” (Conley Dalton). Gender roles are a very controversial matter. When people think of males, they automatically think of strong, brave, and the breadwinner. On the other hand, when people think of females they think delicate, housewife, and sensitive. I guarantee that most people in the world have this idea of each gender.

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Society is determined by economic dealings and is a system made of elements and affiliations formed for economic power. There is truth and problems in this statement that document the effect that conflict has in society. However, conflict is not always easy to accept and it takes a lot of hard work in finding the truth. Conflict theory is grounded in the ideas of Karl Marx and is a form of structural theory. Coakley (2015) identifies conflict theory

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Marx Social Conflict Theory says that individual and groups of social classes in society occupy different amount of material and non-material resources. These resources include wealthy and powerful vs the poor. Marx says that the powerful groups use their power to usurp the rights and resources of the poor or less power class of the society. Proletariat: They owns labour power, who are capable to work for those who are the powerful and own resources. This calss work with their hand, bodies and minds to make a living.

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The Impact of Culture and Gender Roles Heather Richardson-Barker Drexel University Society has clearly defined boundaries between what is considered to be male or female. The development of an individual’s gender role is formed by interactions with those in close proximity. Society constantly tells us how we should look, act and live based on gender, as well as the influence of family, friends and the media have a tremendous impact on how these roles are formed and the expected behavior of each gender role. The term Gender, as defined by the United Nations, includes the psychological, social, cultural, and behavioral characteristics associated with being female or male. It further defines acceptable

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1.0 Introduction 1.1 Background of the Study Culture consists of the overarching values, motives and moral ethical rules and meanings that are part of the system (Harris, 1999). Culture is the whole way of life, material and non-material of human society (Shorter, 1998). People think that culture as fine and performing arts, to dance, music, theatre and the means of disseminating arts and communication industry (Souza, 1993). One should imagine culture as being self contained, super organic reality with forces and purposes of its own (Geertz, 1973). Westerners used to think that their culture was a unitary phenomenon and that their western culture was perfect and most developed but 20th century proved them wrong (Shorter, 1998).

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In general, which respects to sex differences, Margaret Mead says that although many societies are different in the way that they treat men and women, every culture has some “societal” standards for each sex which distance from the biological differences (Henley and Thorne 43). It exists a global stereotype about women which is the low power they have in comparison to men in society since males tend to be more dominant and they try to have a figure of a ruler. “Women are often more supportive, polite, and expressive, talk more about home and family, and use more words implying feeling, evaluation, interpretation, and psychological state” (Adelaide Haas 616). Haas suggested four different aspects, such as, form, topic, content and use of the

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Marriage and Family Functionalist perspective Family is a type of social institution concerned with the support, care, protection, and socialization of the children. The functionalist perspective on family focuses on the functions of the family, the functions being the socialization of children, providing love and companionship, regulation of sexual behaviour, and the occupation of various economic roles. Functionalists also look at how a family relates to the rest of society and how it helps maintain it. According to the functionalist view, the economic functions of a family include production and consumption, and the inheritance of wealth and other material assets from one generation to the other.

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Masculinity versus femininity This dimension doesn’t correlate directly with gender roles or behaviours. Instead this is more orientated towards specific traits that Hofstede has defined as masculine and low masculine (femininity). A high masculine culture is characterized by focusing on money, possessions, and traditional family values. Feminine cultures are said to be relationship oriented, focused on quality of life, and failing is generally more accepted. This is best describe by the commonly used phrase “Americans live to work, while Europeans work to live.

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The conflict theory can be connected on both the full scale level and the miniaturized scale levels. Conflict theory tries to inventory the courses in which people with significant influence look to stay in force. In comprehension conflict theory, rivalry between social classes has key influence. For Marx, the conflict unmistakably emerges in light of the fact that all things of significant worth to man come about because of human work (Cross, 2011). As indicated by Marx, business people misuse specialists for their work and don 't share the products of these works similarly.

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