Lec. 8. Chapter 4 Contemporary Gender Roles
III. Learning Gender Roles (continued):
G. all girl schools: female students assert selves in class (Sadker & Sadker 1994)
A. media: men outnumber fem on prime-time TV by 3:1 in ‘70s; today 2:1
B. women’s magazines: dom by fem shown in trad roles as moms, homemakers
C. role transcendance: life-span perspective to gender development: 3 stages: 1.
undifferentiated stage (young child), 2. polarized stage (when enter school), 3.
transcendent stage: young adults shed rigid polarization, combining masculine
and feminine traits, similar to androgyny as enter relationships
D. Adult Sites: marriage,work,college, parenthood (latter encourages trad roles)
1. work: self-direction makes more active, flexible, open & democratic
a. low status occupations of women: lower self-esteem, achieve orient
2. male single parent:dev.(fem)nurture abilities that socialization not include
M. Video Games:men shown >adventuresome,violent,domineering; fem victims
1. no women as: business execs, pols, managers;typ game entirely absent
IV. Gender Roles in Transition
A. Black women: feature self-reliance, strength, autonomy; employment integral
B. Latinas: wife more = if employed/ed;unlike Anglo,age dif:elders get >respect
1. immigrant adolescents:challenge gender roles,but not trad sexual norm
C.intensive mothering ideology:child need full-time mom to be healthy,adjusted
D. peer & post-gender relations: sharing, equity, esp. among dual earners
E. husband as senior partner >common than above;wives more power than trad
V. Constraints of Contemporary Gender Roles
A. constraints on males expressing feelings: often when ask say “I don’t know”
1. lost touch with inner lives: repress feelings learned to be inappropriate
2. Men are strangers: to both self & spouse because of inexpressiveness
B. Fem competence:male&fem see as<male;fem self-esteem down after 9 yrs old
C. Stress: experienced most by traditional women married to traditional men
D. marriage satisfaction: greater for men than women; more fem desire divorce
1. unmarried women: tend to be happier and better adjusted than married
E. resistance:both sexes>neg about feminine men (e.g.,crying)than masc women
1. ideal female: described by both men and women in androgynous terms
F. Sense of adequacy: often depends on gender-role performance
A. if rigidly instrumental & expressive despite situation: still not androgynous
1. example: woman aggressive at work but passive at home
B. more comfortable talking with parents: & felt parents understood them more
1. more neg feeling about parents: more likely children trad gender roles
C. also: >satisfied w/
rel than gender-typed couples; >resilience when stressed
D. Blacks: more than whites;Harris (1993) finds most fem as androg or masculine
E. With Age:many men grow more androgynous whereas women more feminine
VII. Gender Movements and the Family
A. The Feminine Mystique:by Betty Friedan catalyzes ‘60s resurfacing feminism
B. gender-reform feminisms: geared toward giving women same rights as men
C. gender-resistant fem:>radical, separatist strategy;view subord embed in sys
D. gender-rebellion feminisms:look at overlap of gender, race, class, sex orient
E. European social feminism: both workplace and family supports are essential