Gender

Gender Identity

Family Influences

It is evident that we all live in a heterosexual, middle-class, white-male dominated society known as patriarchy. Much of what we do and how we live stems from these figures, my dad being one of them. I grew up in a household with both parents. However, my dad was the dominant one in most situations, but both parents had their roles. My mom would do house chores, care for my brother and I and my dad worked and opened his own tile company. However, my brother and I were treated equally, we both were allowed to express how we felt, but my dad never wanted to see any of us cry, he said kids should not cry and tears get you nowhere. We had gender roles assigned to us; I would wear dresses, and bright colored items, while my brother wore darker colors along with the hues red and green. We did not have the gender roles to the extreme, like some families do, but I think that is because where we come from. Even though it is a male dominant society my brother and I were both taught we both can do equal things but we have to remember our roles at the same time to protect ourselves from others. Gender socialization happens by the prime institution of family influences.

Gender is socially constructed, throughout human history we altered our behaviors and even allowed are roles to develop. We let the men take charge, but what caused this shift from hunting and gathering to this modern day living was agriculture. Gerda Lerner's story on The Creation of Patriarchy summarizes the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture "during the agriculture period, it was more of take more away from your neighbors, this is mine that is yours type of attitude". We can see throughout human civilizations the shift started because greed was the influence along with control which is influenced by power. Humans started to become greedy, men were taking charge and the biggest losers of this shift were the women, who also became another property to...