A.

Define and explain the topic: Sex Roles:

The term “Sex Roles”, also known as “Gender Roles” was first emerged and used
by John Money and colleagues in 1954, during the course of his study of intersex individuals, to
describe the manners in which these individuals manifested their status as a male or female under
a circumstance where no clear biological assignment existed.

The terms sex roles and gender roles often are used interchangeably to denote a
repertoire of emotions, attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions that are commonly associated
more with one sex than with the other (Levesque E.J.R., 2011). Sex roles are share expectations
of behavior given one’s gender. In society context, it means how men and women are expected
and supposed to behave, dress, groom, and conduct ourselves based upon our assigned sex. For
instance, girls and women are generally expected to dress in typically feminine ways and be
polite, accommodating, and nurturing. Men are generally expected to be strong, aggressive, and
bold.

Every society, ethnic group, and culture has gender role expectations, but they can be
very different from group to group. They can also change in the same society over time.

Gender roles are usually centered on conceptions of femininity and masculinity, although
there are exceptions and variations. The specifics regarding these gendered expectations may
vary substantially among cultures, while other characteristics may be common throughout a
range of cultures.

There is much variation within the categories of the masculine and the feminine, both in
terms of the possible presentations of gender and the tasks deemed appropriate to each gender.
Feminine pertains to societies in which social gender roles are fluid and can overlap – that is,
whatever a woman can do, a man can do. Masculinity pertains to societies in which social gender
roles are clearly complementary and distinct. Namely, men are supposed to be assertive,
masculine, tough and focused on task-based accomplishment and material success, whereas
women are supposed to be more modest, feminine, tender and concerned with the quality of life
(Hofstede, 2001)

Femininity and masculinity, or one's gender identity (Burke et al. 1988; Spence 1985),
refer to the degree to which persons see themselves as masculine or feminine given what it
means to be a man or woman in society. Femininity and masculinity are rooted in the social
(one's gender) rather than the biological (one's sex).

In the early twentieth century social scientists such as anthropologist Margaret

Mead (1901–1978) took up the study of sex roles as a complex interaction between nature and
culture, yet by the 1970s many scholars shifted terminologies to speak of gender roles as key to
understanding social differences and inequalities between men and women.