Gender-role expectations exert a profound impact on our sexuality. Our beliefs about males and females, together with our assumptions about what constitutes appropriate behaviors for each, can affect many aspects of sexual experience. Our assessment of ourselves as sexual beings, the expectations we have for intimate relationships, our per­ception of the quality of such experiences, […]

Organized religion plays an important role in the lives of many Americans. Despite differences in doctrines, most religions exhibit a common trend in their views about gender roles (Eitzen & Zinn, 2000). Children who receive religious instruction are likely to be socialized to accept certain gender stereotypes, and people who are reli­gious are inclined to […]

Another powerful agent of gender-role socialization is television. Depictions of men and women in TV dramas are often blatantly stereotypical (Lauzen et al., 2008). Men are more likely than women to appear as active, intelligent, and adventurous, and to take positions of leadership. Men are also often featured in work-related roles while female characters are […]

Studies indicate that girls and boys often receive quite different treat­ment in the classroom, a process that strongly influences gender-role socialization. Among the findings of these studies are that teachers call on and encourage boys more than girls; that teachers are more likely to tolerate inappropriate behavior of boys than girls; and that boys are […]

A second important influence in the socialization of gender roles is the peer group (Arnon et al., 2008). One element of peer-group influence that begins early in life is a voluntary segregation of the sexes. This separation begins during the preschool years, and by first grade, children select members of their own sex as playmates […]

Many social scientists view parents as influential agents of gender-role socialization (Dragowski et al., 2011; Iervolino et al., 2005; Kane, 2006). A child’s earliest exposure to what it means to be female or male is typically provided by parents. As we saw earlier, in the discussion of gender-identity formation, parents often have different expectations for […]

Ethnic Variations in Gender Roles Throughout this textbook we have focused primarily on gender assumptions that pre­vail in the traditional mainstream—White Americans of European origin. Here we look briefly at gender roles among three different ethnic groups: Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans. Traditional Hispanic American gender roles are epitomized by the cultural stereo­types […]

You have probably heard the argument that behavioral differences between men and women are biologically determined, at least to some degree. Men cannot bear or nurse children. Likewise, biological differences in hormones, muscle mass, and brain struc­ture and function can influence some aspects of behavior. However, most theorists explain gender roles as largely a product […]

We have seen that social learning is an important influence on the formation of gen­der identity early in life, so that even by the age of 2 or 3 years, most children have no doubt about whether they are boys or girls. This influence continues throughout our lives, because we are influenced by gender roles—that […]

Numerous studies of the psychosocial outcome of gender reassignment provide a basis for optimism about the success of sex-reassignment procedures. The single most con­sistent finding of these investigations is that most people who have undergone these procedures experience significant improvement in their overall adjustment to life (De Cuypere et al., 2005; Khoosal et al., 2011; […]