Gender Roles 

Brief
Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral
norms that are considered to be appropriate for people of
a specific sex.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 Describe how gender roles in the U.S. have changed

since the 1950’s
KEY TAKEAWAYS

 Gender roles are never universal, even within a

single country, and they are always historically and
culturally contingent.
 Gender role theory emphasizes environmental
conditions and the influence of socialization, or the
process of transferring norms, values, beliefs, and
behaviors to group members, in learning how to behave
as a male or female.
 Current trends toward a total integration model of
gender roles is reflected in women’s
education, professional achievement,
and family income contributions.
KEY TERMS
 Division of Labor – A division of labor is the dividing
and specializing of cooperative labor into specifically
circumscribed tasks and roles.
 Socialization – The process of learning one’s culture
and how to live within it.
 Nuclear Family – a family unit consisting of at most a
father, mother and dependent children.

Full Text
Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral
norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for
individuals of a specific sex. There has been significant
variation in gender roles over cultural and historical spans,
and all gender roles are culturally and historically
contingent. Much scholarly work on gender roles
addresses the debate over the environmental or biological
causes for the development of gender roles. The following
section seeks to orient the reader to the sociological
theorization of the gender role and discuss its application
in an American context.

Gender and Social Role Theory

Gender role theory posits that boys and girls learn to
perform one’s biologically assigned gender
through particular behaviors and attitudes. Gender role
theory emphasizes the environmental causes of gender
roles and the impact of socialization, or the process of
transferring norms, values, beliefs, and behaviors to group
members, in learning how to behave as a male or a
female. Social role theory proposes that the social
structure is the underlying force in distinguishing genders
and that sex-differentiated behavior is driven by
the division of labor between two sexes within a society.
The division of labor creates gender roles, which in turn,
lead to gendered social behavior.

Gender Roles in the United States

With the popularization of social constructionist theories of
gender roles, it is paramount that one recognize that all
assertions about gender roles are culturally and
historically contingent. This means that what might be true
of gender roles in the United States for one cultural group
likely is not true for another cultural group. Similarly,
gender roles in the United States have changed drastically
over time. There is no such thing as a universal,
generalizable statement about gender roles.
One main thread in discussions about gender roles in the
United States has been the historical evolution from a
single-income family or a family unit in which one spouse
(typically the father) is responsible for the family income,
to a dual-income family, or a family unit in which both
spouses generate income. Before the rise of feminism in
the 1960s and 1970s and the influx of women into the
workforce in the 1980s, women were largely responsible
for dealing with home matters, while men worked and
earned income outside the home. While some claim that
this was a sexist structure, others maintain that the
structure simply represented a division of labor or a social
system in which a particular segment of
the population performs one type of labor and another
segment performs another type.

Nuclear Family Models

In 1955, sociologist Talcott Parsons developed a model
of nuclear families in the United States that addressed
gender roles. Family structures vary across cultures and
history, and the term nuclear family refers to a family unit
of two parents and their children. Parsons developed two
models of gender roles within the nuclear family. His first
model involved total role segregation; men and women
would be trained and educated in gender-
specific institutions, and high professional qualifications
and the workplace would be intended for men. Women
would be primarily focused on housekeeping, childcare,
and children’s education. Male participation in domestic
activity would be only partially desired and socially
acceptable. Further, in the case of conflict, the man would
have the final say. Parsons contrasted this first model with
a second that involved the total integration of roles. In the
second model, men and women would be educated in the
same institutions and study the same content in classes.
Outside the educational milieu, women and men would
both perceive career to be important, and equal
professional opportunities for men and women would be
considered socially necessary. Both parties in
a marriage would bear responsibility for housework and
child rearing. Finally, neither gender would systematically
dominate decision making.
Current Trends
Of course, neither of Parsons’s models accurately
described the United States in the 1950s, and neither
model accurately describes the United States in the
present day. However, total role segregation was closer to
the reality of the United States in the 1950s, whereas a
total integration of roles is increasingly common in the
United States today.
The national trend toward a total integration of gender
roles is reflected in women’s education, professional
achievement, and family income contributions.
Currently, more women than men are enrolled in college,
and women are expected to earn more graduate degrees
than men over the next several years. In 2005, 22% of
American households had two income earners, which
suggests the presence of women in the workforce.
However, in most contexts, women are still expected to be
the primary homemakers, even if they are contributing
to household income by working outside the home.
 Women Behind the Wheel, 1952
This image, from the magazine Beauty Parade, offers a
stereotyped view of female drivers.