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Social Construction Of Gender Roles Essay

680 Words3 Pages

It appears in modern, and even older society, that gender has a direct influence on life. These age-old beliefs are now up for trial, to the joy of some and the dismay of others. Society has embraced the idea of gender roles for so long as they become uncomfortable with the idea of a boy playing with dolls. Are these ideas humanities natural way of thinking of people or are they a fabricated ideal of society? While there are generalized differences between men and women, these gender roles are fabricated by both nurture and nature. When discussing gender roles, what is being discussed is the mind-set that certain actions, characteristics, or interests are strictly masculine or feminine. Gender roles restrict young boys to playing with trucks and toy soldiers and girls playing house and dressing up Barbie dolls and …show more content…

For the longest time, it was accepted that anatomy was to determine gender identity and expression, especially thanks to the works of psychologist Sigmond Freud. While anatomy can come into play, it is not the sole determining factor in a person's gender identity or gender expression A main reason so many people do fall into these roles is because that is how many people raise their children so they conform without second thought. If we were to remove the teaching of gender-roles, would there be any change in a child's life, personality, or expression, or would they too fall into these categorized roles? A handful of kindergarten schools in Sweden put this to the test as they introduce "gender-neutral" schools. Lotta Rojalin, administer of these schools, explains that children at her schools are given the freedom to "dabble in all kinds of activities, and are encouraged to explore their full range of emotions." (MacLellan, 2017) This open-minded approach to gender has shown that these teaching methods produce children that are "unfamiliar

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