Assignment 4

1) According to the lecture slides what is the difference between sex and gender? Use your own words.
1. Sex refers to what biologically makes one male or female and gender refers to cultural and social ideas that are appropriate for males and females.

2) Give an example from your own life of doing gender (i.e. acting in a gender stereotypical way). I was doing gender when I ...
2. I was doing gender when I babysat all day and cooked dinner for the children.

3) According to the chapter by Reisman and Seale:

A) What method(s) did these researchers use to collect their data, who was their study population, and what was the sample size of the population?
a. 44 middle school children, ages 11-14,  in the southeastern U.S. were interviewed.  The students were asked questions, told stories and were asked to draw pictures and write poems.

B) Describe one limitation of the method used as described by the researchers.
b. The researchers were not able to directly observe the interactions of the tweens so they had to rely on what they were told.

C) What was the difference between what the "tweens" said about the "ideal" of gender equality and how they actually acted?
c. A majority of the tweens said that men and women should be treated equally and they felt that they were.  This was contradicted in other areas of the interview such as when asked what jobs men and women should hold.  It seems they felt men and women were equal but when asked to participate in activities showed that there were areas men and women were not equal.

D) Describe one example of how the middle-schoolers defined "girly-girls" and one example of how they described "tomboys."
d. Girly-girls were described as "afraid to get dirty, obsessed with their hair and like to wear makeup a lot".  Tomboys were associated with being athletic and some said that it would be hard for tomboys to get a boyfriend.

E) After reading the lecture slides and this chapter, briefly describe your own beliefs regarding whether children "naturally" act like girls or boys or how this behavior might be learned or fostered by the larger society and/or social institutions like education, the economy, government etc. For example, think about toys that children play with or the clothes/colors they like and wear. Pick a side "nature/biology" or "nurture/learned," and defend it!
e. I think society and social institutions definitely have a major impact on whether children act like girls or boys.  When a baby is born the girls are automatically surrounded by everything pink and boys surrounded by everything blue.  Girls are given dolls and boys are given toy cars.  It's just what society views as the norm.  I think the people you are surrounded with have a major impact on this.  If your mother is dressing you in pink dresses and buying girly clothes the child will likely think that is what they're supposed to wear.  But if a mother buys her daughter more masculine clothing that would be all that they know as a child and think that is supposed to wear.  Children will see other children playing with certain toys and wearing certain outfits.  I believe what a child is exposed to from a young age is what they will see as the norm and what they will continue to want to be like.

F) Do you think children want to play with these toys or do we create gender roles by rewarding children for gender appropriate behavior or punishing them when they display gender inappropriate behaviors? Many of you work in day care centers or schools - how do teachers react when boys want to play dress up versus when girls act aggressively? Why do girls like pink and boys blue? Are we born that way or do we learn to like these colors?
f.  I think it starts with adults giving children gender appropriate toys and the want for those toys grows from that.  If a little girl has never seen a doll house she is not going to know what it is or expect to have one, if trucks are the only toy available to her I think that is what she will like.  But if her parents buy her dolls and a dollhouse that is likely what she is going to want to play with.  I think a teachers first reaction to children going against gender norms is that they should not be doing that and to steer them back in the other direction.  But I do think that now adults are becoming more understanding and accepting of what gender students identify with and I think that is very important for a teacher to be able to do.  I think girls liking pink and boys liking blue is socially constructed.  When planning a baby shower it is usually always pink for a baby girl and blue for a baby boy automatically.  I think it would be viewed as odd by many if the shower for a baby boy had a pink theme.