Gender
Gender is a complicated social construct that is separate from biological sex. It includes such aspects as family roles, socially appropriate clothing, typical professional pursuits, and even personality traits (such as aggressive or naive) that are associated with each gender. According to Gender Schema Theory, we incorporate these aspects into how we view members of each gender. For instance, if we typically associate aggressiveness with maleness, then we expect the males we associate with to have the quality of aggressiveness. For most individuals, the view of the self is influenced by the gender roles that society has prescribed for one's gender.
Read more about this topic: Self-schema
Famous quotes containing the word gender:
“... lynching was ... a woman’s issue: it had as much to do with ideas of gender as it had with race.”
—Paula Giddings (b. 1948)
“Most women of [the WW II] generation have but one image of good motherhood—the one their mothers embodied. . . . Anything done “for the sake of the children” justified, even ennobled the mother’s role. Motherhood was tantamount to martyrdom during that unique era when children were gods. Those who appeared to put their own needs first were castigated and shunned—the ultimate damnation for a gender trained to be wholly dependent on the acceptance and praise of others.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)