Gender Role in the Society

Society have a different idea of what and where gender roles should be placed and used. I have realised that society has different rules and expectations from men than women. Men are always treated to be stronger, successful, a person who have standards and specific goals that we, women must live up to. But women are not the only victim here, even men are being criticized in the society but just not as much.

Occupation or careers are mostly set based on gender roles. Even though women have been more qualified for many jobs but lost because they (society) think that we are less capable, men have more of a capability and vice versa. We women are always one step behind of men in any job, most of the time. We see men as a doctor and women as a nurse, men as pilot and women their airhostess, men our bosses and we their secretary. Society have built up this idea of men being more capable than us and even today it’s still the same.

The first thing a person thinks of when you hear the word masculinity, it’s always the “bread winner’ but  when femininity is questioned, it’s mostly ‘housewives.’ This is not something we created, it’s something that has been there for centuries. we always had this idea that men are supposed to work and earn money for the family whereas women are to stay home, clean and cook.

Even growing up me and my brother were brought up differently. I grew up watching “my little pony” and played barbie dolls where as my brother watched “super heros” and played with trucks and cars. It was okay if I watched super heros but my mom won’t let my brother watch ‘my little pony’ or play with my barbie. There was this sense of gender role, how we should think, speak, act or interact.

High school was the time when I really started noticing gender role in the society. The guys who played sports got more attention and priority than that of girls. Guys were expected to athletic and good in many sports where as playing instrument, yoga and ballet were more feminine which made male difficult to participate in these activities and girls in those.

Being a man, means you have to be strong and tough even in worst situations. Men cannot show many of their feelings like woman do otherwise they’ll be considered weak. And this is something I noticed a lot.  When my dad left us years ago, I felt really sad and lost, I couldn’t keep my emotions in. Me and my mom kept crying and it was okay. I didn’t think of what people thought about me because in their mind we are always weak. But my brother didn’t shed a tear because he was expected to stay strong and not cry. Although he wanted to break down, he held it in due to the expectation my family and other people had for him as a man.

In my culture, gender role is considered very important. Men are and is dominant over women. They are expected to be the successor of a family with higher status but women are expected to be full of emotions, sensitive, quiet, smart, motherly or just perfect. That is the reason why I don’t see many gay people being themselves, men wearing pink or women joining politics and even though I disagree with what society makes us think, I find myself automatically living up to those expectation and qualities because this is what society made me.