Psychology Gender Essay Essay, Research Paper

Gender Roles

I believe gender plays an enormous role in our future endeavors and pursuits. Being male or female has their own set of expectations. For example, the greatest musicians, doctors, and scientists are generally males. Since being either gender has no influence on intelligence, I can only conclude that society has a stereotypic behavior. This significantly hampers or encourages results from males or females. Other stereotypic attitudes include the physical ability of females to accomplish tasks. It is generally conceived that males are stronger and more athletic than males; this may not be necessarily true. Another thing society sees, is that females are usually more conscientious about their appearance. An example is when females put on makeup, and spend copious amounts of time on their hair. In general, society shows much stereotype towards different genders, in which much is not true, or at least not to that fullest extent.

This first point I would like to make, is how people in general believe that most great accomplished people should be male. I think that upon taking a survey most people would feel more comfortable if they had a male doctor to do some important surgery on them. But in reality, both sexes would be equally skilled. Back in previous centuries, great composers were strictly male, i.e. Beethoven, Chopin, Bach. In fact, discrimination and prejudice was so great back then, that females were not allowed to be professional musicians; they were shunned upon. Even today, we do not see many female engineers. At universities, where professors people that are generally considered to be somewhat accomplished, are male. Furthermore, nurses people that serve others, are mostly female. These examples prove the fact that society has an influence on the careers of people of different genders.

Secondly, females are also considered to be generally weak, lacking in physical strength and athleticism. Although this is somewhat true, I believe that society has overestimated the extent to this principle. For example, when one needs some help to accomplish a physical activity, they would be more likely to refer to a male for help. The continual reinforcement of this concept, might lead to society having an increasing prejudice against women. The athleticism situation I mentioned brings me back to my first point. Male basketball, football, and hockey players are far more common than female players. Although this is partly due to genetic factors, it is also partly because society s expectations of each gender. These expectations have also led males and females to think of themselves in completely different ways.

In general, these opinions that society has on us, has led males and females to think of themselves differently. For example, females will usually take more care in their hair, makeup, and physical appearance. Whereas males will no pay such close attention. They will be more likely to do things such as talk about cars, since this is what males talk about. These expectations also lead back to my last point. At Safeway, the position general clerk requires copious amounts of physical work to accomplish tasks. For this reason, I believe that virtually all of these clerks are male. Furthermore, the majority of cashiers which do not require much physical labour, are females. It is because of the manager s expectations that lead to this. These expectations and assumptions that society has, obviously will have an influence on how each of the sexes think of themselves.

As the centuries have progressed, there has been less and less prejudice towards women. For example, women now have the right to vote, and to make decisions for themselves, but unfortunately, the majority of high-pay and high-tech jobs are still male dominated, i.e., engineers, doctors, and professors. Even after all this evolution, there is still much to be done about the situation. I believe that now the world is increasingly becoming more technology dominated, most jobs will require some post-secondary education. Since intelligence has nothing to do with gender, I believe that females will play a more active role in these high-tech positions. Slowly, but surely, females will eventually rise up and become equal. But for the situation to start improving immediately, I believe females should see themselves as greater than what society perceives them to be, and start making themselves more heard.