Every society, ethnic group, and culture has gender expectations, but they can be different from group to group. The social construction of gender is demonstrated by the fact that individuals, groups, and societies attribute traits, statuses, or values to individuals purely because of their sex, yet these ascriptions differ across societies and cultures, and over time within the same society. Gender roles are social constructs that have developed over time and are based on natural human behaviors. It is shaped in a way in which men and women are expected to act differently based on their sex.  

From the day a child is born, they are expected to act upon their sex and gender, we can relate this to the reading on Sex & Gender 101-Raising Zoomer which tells us that “if a baby appears to be biologically female, they are assigned a feminine gender. If a baby appears to be biologically male, they are assigned a masculine gender and upon assigning a gender, children are then socialized according to the gender roles of the culture they were born into.” If you are a girl, you must wear pink and if you are a boy, you must like blue and cannot use anything belonging to a girl like toys. Some of these toys like cars, plastic guns for boys and make-up kits, kitchen sets for girls all encourage specific skills for boys and girls, also suggests value about masculine and feminine gender roles. 

Also, according to the reading Sex & Gender 101- Raising Zoomer “boys are taught and expected to be tough, risk-taking, athletic, strong, and aggressive while on the other hand girls are taught and expected to be soft, submissive, delicate, weak, and interested in domestic chores.” As a result, these women/girls are now meant to be under men/boys and see them as the head. Also, because of these gender roles, women are sometimes not valued in the workplace as men even if they earned more college degrees than men and this is because “the US has not always valued women’s equal education.  Bell Hooks also made some similar statements in her book “Feminist Politics-Where we stand regarding gender equality/equity, and she said, “Masses of people agree with the idea of gender equity in the workplace- equal pay for equal work(pp.2) and that changes in our nation’s economy, economic depression, the loss of jobs, etc., made the climate ripe for our nation’s citizens to accept the notion of gender equality in the workforce” (pp.4). In most Organizations, men and women are assigned a different task to perform and occupy different positions based on their sex. 

Sometimes our gender roles limit one from expressing themselves and their emotions e.g. It is harmful to masculine folks to feel they are not allowed to express sensitive emotions and it is also harmful to feminine folks to feel they are not allowed to be independent, smart, and a leader. Gender should be thought of as behavior and personal identification.