Gender Socialization
Social and Political Sciences
Topic:
GENDER SOCIALIZATION
People in any society are usually forced to act in ways that are socially acceptable if they want to be “perfect” members of that society. Socialization is the process of learning to act in ways that are acceptable in a given society. This lets the person be recognized as a member of that society and become part of the cycle that gives the next generation of people social value systems that are central to defining their cultural, social, economic, and political values. John Locke, a famous English philosopher, once said that everything people in a certain time, place, and social group thought was their natural way of looking at life was actually something they learned from the people who came before them or from the things they did from the time they were born.
The learned behaviors and experiences are basically social value systems and social norms that shape how they see themselves and what their role is in the larger socialization system as productive members of the society. People’s ideas about race, gender, sex, religion, and color change based on what they’ve learned. Norms, behaviors, and roles change from one society to the next. Because of this, they are socially constructed so that they can affect relationships between men and women, people of different ages, cultures, and other people in a society. Gender is a social idea that changes from one society to the next and even over time within the same society.
In American culture, men and women are thought of differently from the time they are born. Gender socialization starts before a person is born and goes on for the rest of their lives. Wade and Ferree (2015) explain in more detail how society has made rules that make people act their age as they get older. People learn early on that age matters when it comes to how they act in their gender and what is socially acceptable. For example, there are different rules about what a child can do compared to a teen or an adult. For example, pre-teen girls grow up, and after a while, society thinks it’s okay for them to wear certain clothes and shoes that are thought to be for adults. On the other hand, it is considered rude for an adult man to wear the same thing. On the other hand, age limits change how gender is shown in real ways. This is a result of getting older. Women face more bias because they are expected to look a certain way, and as they get older, society thinks that they can no longer be seen. Men, on the other hand, are judged by two different sets of rules that make them look different as they grow up from boys to men. In fact, ageism based on gender leads to bias and inequality in society.
Essentially gender socialization compel males and females to socialize differently. Women in the society and across the world are limited in their abilities to express their views. Men on the other hand, have overtime been conceived as leaders, warriors and leaders in the family. This often leads to irrational experiences on what men and women ought to do. In my society, women are more likely to be be limited in their role. They are mostly conceived to be leaders within the household. But this is slowly changing as gender norms have become more challenged in the 21st century to become more audible and take a central space in defining their experiences as such slowly turning how they are conceived within the society.
Preconceived notions on gender roles have trickled down to influence marriage institutions and brought out class privilege in society. The marriage institution has long been linked to having influenced patriarchy and gender inequality, even from an outsider’s point of view (Zielisnki, 2015). The view of how valid a marriage appears based on age discrepancies has been perpetuated to the extent that if an older man marries a younger woman to get her papers, it is rational as compared to an older woman marrying someone younger which is deemed as desperate or exploitative on the males’ side. Whereas it is imperative to highlight that regardless of how much resources a woman has their ageing appearance judged with harsher overtones compared to men classism has untold effects based on how ones’ process ageing is perceived by society( Wade & Ferree, 2015). The authors explain how class privileged All- American boys have the luxury of adjusting their looks to fit within societal expectations of admiration, whereas Blue-collar guys feel emasculated as ageing hits them hard affecting their ability to do demanding jobs, even get respect from being patriarchs.
For women, the wealthier ones’ have the luxury of being youthful with resources they spend on themselves and yet respect gained by being high society women; this is in great contrast to working-class women having physically demanding jobs that directly influence their aging and how society perceives them. The latter loss jobs on a higher rate compared to class-privileged women (Wade& Ferree, 121). Gender intersects with other identity markers in society and individuals try to embrace a gender strategy that positively influences their well-being, this is akin to choosing an identity that makes one be less stigmatized by society to gain social approval. This has had a direct influence on marriages and made bare classism amongst different ages in regard to gender.
Breaking socialization norms was often viewed as rebellious and oppositional to social value system. Change in my society is linked to religious beliefs, cultural value system as well as rituals. Women for the most part are regarded secondary to their male counterparts. This is seen during their employment, at home, as well as within their society. Women who are more assertive of their role within the workplace, and those who tend to dominate their male counterparts are conceived to be harsher and cold (Copenhaver, 2002). This extends through other regions in the society, where women who tend to break social roles and norms are treated to beee irrational and very volatile. This is because the society becomes very uncertain in how their values might reflect in others.
Certainly, gender socialization has had a direct impact on ageism, marriage institution and perpetuated the notion of class privilege to the detriment of society as untold biases now exist, for a chance to be effected this needs to be corrected. Gender has always been a vital aspect when looking at the development of any society. Through studying gender, an individual deciphers how power structures and social norms are integrated into society and how they concurrently affect gender roles with diverse identity markers in the picture. Gender role relations have been for a long time adopted by both formal and informal institutions leading to the permanent existence of conduct, tradition and norms that govern peoples’ ways of living to the extent of generating inequality in society. Gender socialization has directly impacted ageism, views on marriage institution and perpetuated the notion of class privilege leading to untold biases in society.
References
Copenhaver (2002). A Portrayal of Gender and a Description of Gender Roles in Selected
American Modern and Postmodern Plays. East Tennessee State University Digital Commons East Tennessee State University
Wade, Lisa, and Myra M. Ferree. (2015) Gender ideas,instructions institutions. 2nd ed., W. W. Norton & Company.Inc,.
Zielisnki, Carol. (2015) “First comes love, then comes marriage. Not for me, thanks CAROLINE ZIELINSKI Caroline Zielinski.” Rendezview, The Daily Telegraph, 15 Apr. 2015, www.dailytelegraph.com.au/rendezview/first-comes-love-then-comes-marriage-not-for-me-thanks/news-story/d53ae485a9015c0562b3f054427796f4. Accessed 23 Mar. 2021.
