Gender Roles In Society

Since the beginning of the human race men and women have always performed different roles in society. We have always known or been told where we stand in society and what our roles are in order to contribute to the community. “Black was black, white was white, blue was blue, pink was pink. Men were men and women were women. You knew exactly where you stood,” (Linehan, 2016). Yet are these gender roles natural? Does a little girl naturally cook and clean or does she do it because that’s what she’s seen her mother do every day? Does a young boy naturally play with diggers and trucks or is it because those were the only type of toys in the “boys section” at the toy store? These are the type of questions we need to ask ourselves when we look at gender roles in our society and the world around us.

However, before we can analyse this any further we must understand what gender is and how the idea of gender has changed and evolved over the years. Many people may think that being a man or a woman is simply defined by the sex organs you are born with, however the nature of a man or a woman cannot be so easily classified. For Giddens (2006), the term sex should be used to refer to the “anatomical and physiological differences that define male and female bodies. Gender, by contrast, concerns the psychological, social and cultural differences between males and females.” So, what has it meant to be a man or a woman over the years and what does it mean now?

Gender is a critical factor in