The Connection Between Gender Roles and Our Career Choices

Abstract

Gender is quite possibly the only thing that has lasted through all of time. Our understanding of gender roles has changed overtime; nonetheless, it has changed to impact things from textbooks to career choices. It is used to define us as individuals, between our biological makeup and even societal pressures that push us to be a certain way. Gender can even affect how you choose your career, but when does the population start to feel the push of gender roles on their decisions? This project will look into how and when gender roles affect children, as well as their career choices.

Introduction

Gender is ever changing and as we look into our ideas of gender overtime there are a few things that stand out. One thing that is interesting is that, as a society, we have gendered every possible thing that we lay our eyes on. Colors have genders, pink for girls and blue for boys. Cars are gendered, small cars are for women and large trucks are for men. Animals are gendered, cats are seen as feminine while dogs are seen as masculine. Even everyday household objects have genders, especially in the romance languages where even the specific words for different objects are seen as masculine or feminine. If all of the aforementioned categories have been affected by gender, why would our careers not be affected as well? Throughout this paper I will be giving a first glance if you will at a very extensive topic. My research is meant to be a collective overview of several subtopics that could each yield a lifetime’s worth of research.

Children

For the purposes of this paper children will be defined as any age before structured education and early grade school, roughly birth to 10 years old. Gender roles are placed upon children, usually unknowingly, from birth on. For example, using pink paint in a girl’s bedroom and using blue paint in a boy’s bedroom. Even when as we continue to grow and develop we are constantly bombarded by questions like “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I can remember being as young as 3 years old and being asked that same daunting question.

It is common knowledge that many little girls want to be a princess when they grow up, whenever you go into any store and start looking for things to decorate a little girl’s room there is a prevalent theme that you can not miss; princesses and pink. Color is not only gendered for little girls, most young boys’ rooms will be blue and filled with animals instead of princesses like in the girls’ rooms. As boys and girls grow to be around three and four a pattern begins to emerge, girls play dress up while the boys are out exploring.

Children are known to play for most of their day and anytime they have freetime they want to play. However, playtime can reinforce gender roles as well. Children are often given toys based on their gender. (Zeitoun, 24) The gendered toys were usually categorized as a barbie or some type of doll for girls and an action figure for boys. While these seem very similar, they portray very different messages. Barbies are known for their ability to change outfits and have different hairstyles while action figures usually have a more muscular physique, appearing to be stronger, and boys use them to “fight bad guys”. These two toys have the same general idea, a human figure that is used for play, but they both send different messages to children.

Even when children are as young as five parents are unknowingly giving their children chores or “jobs” based on their gender. As Meyrav Zeitoun found, it is especially prevalent in households with opposite gender siblings (a brother and a sister for example). “Data demonstrated that, in general, girls were assigned to do more tasks than their brothers, and that the type of task was determined based on the sex of the child. For example, girls were assigned to cook and clean whereas boys’ chores consisted of throwing out the garbage.” (11-12)

Children also take note of how their parents act and acquire gender standards from them without the parent noticing what is happening. As Zeitoun puts it, “Children learn from their parents by observing their verbal and nonverbal communication.” (10) Children pick up on habits that their parents have, for example if a mother is more likely to cook the meals in the home for the children and the father of the children, then a daughter will be more inclined to do so with her own family while a son will be more likely to not feel responsible for his meals when he is an adult. It is not guaranteed that every child will end up in a traditional family model, this is an example of the impact that parents can have on their children’s futures and their sense of gender roles.

In a study carried out by Zeitoun, it was found that four out of eight participants in the study thought that their parents’ expectations differed based on gender.(25) This study looked at the experiences that college students age 20-34 had growing up. One participant explained his and his sibling’s experience, “I never thought of it, but now that I think about it, it was more emphasized to my brother and I. My sister did well in school and was a good kid, but I think it was not expected of her as much as from us. It was not really noticeable; they put less emphasis on the expectation of being financial independent. They actually support her to this day financially with school and rent.” This is a perfect example of how gender roles are enforced by parents when all they have is good intentions. Parents often try to protect their little girls, especially when they have brothers. Parents feel that the boys can protect and provide for themselves, whereas the girls need to have a safe environment (even if that means that they are never truly independent).

Adolescence

For this literature review adolescence will be defined as roughly middle school through high school, about ages 11-18. As we grow up into adolescence gender roles become even more prevalent, especially as a teenager. Your adolescence is a formative time in your life, at this point you are either conforming to societal pressures or rebelling. There are several places in an adolescent life that can provide support or pressure on adolescents. “The social agents who are considered to be the ones with

the most influence are the parents, but teachers and peers, as well as society in general, contribute significantly to the gender role socialization as well.” (Zeitoun, 2014) As Zeitoun discusses, those that are most important in your life (teachers, parents, peers) are the ones that adolescents are most influenced by. Often these people are not aware that they are influencing you at all, these pressures come inadvertently from conversations, suggestions, or actions that are leading adolescents in a certain way.

Gender roles can even be enforced by the books used in schools, these textbooks often have stories and characters so that students can understand the problems in real life situations. However, by having less female characters in the stories it is creating an issue for adolescent girls that do not see themselves represented. In middles school textbooks only 31.9% of characters in textbooks are female, and then takes a drastic drop in high school textbooks with only 9.4% of characters being female. (Kim, 1993) With so little representation it is difficult for teachers and peers to provide accurate suggestions about careers as Zeitoun emphasized was so important that they do. This was not even looking at the career options in these textbooks. Zeitoun said that adolescence is when children have to make their own decisions about their beliefs, values, and what they want to accomplish in life. However, in high school textbooks very few female characters actually work, only 16 working female characters with only 8 occupations out of all the textbooks in the study. (Kim, 1993) Comparing this to the male characters is when it is incredibly clear that textbooks are gendered. The study found 111 male characters with 22 different occupations. (Kim, 1993)

This is obviously dangerous when you are aware of the importance of teachers to the development of students as Zeitoun emphasizes. When there is not fair representation in textbooks then teachers are even less inclined to have an equal representation classroom. In adolescence you are attempting to figure yourself out and some of the gender roles that were enforced in childhood are strengthened by those around you. In adolescence understanding your own gender roles will have an effect on your future career goals, aspirations, and long-term goals. (Zeitoun, 2014)

Young Adults

For the purpose of this paper young adults are roughly college age, about 18 through 25. Gender roles do not only impact children and adolescents, they influence young adults as well. When you are a young adult you are figuring out your life, you’re making choices to decide what you want to do with your life and you’re making steps towards your career that will usually be the career that you have for the rest of your life. The gender roles that have been put in place your entire life are not going anywhere, they’re just culminating to encourage you to make a possibly gendered choice that will determine the course of the rest of your life.

When choosing careers there are many factors that affect that choice; your interests, your academic ability, your previous experience, and of course the people around you. As mentioned above your parents are very important in your decisions and your personal gender roles, (Zeitoun, 2014) well they can also influence your career choices as a young adult. People can often choose careers that they are unhappy with in order to fulfill gender roles. When this happens people will not actually be satisfied with their life. When people are attached to their mothers, they are more likely to meet masculine and feminine gender stereotypes. (Poole, 2015) This means that when people are close with their mothers they are more likely to fit traditional gender roles, this connects to choosing a career as well.

It is sad to think that people that gender roles can determine life satisfaction as well. Unfortunately, this is true as well Poole found that there is a negative correlation between feminine gender roles and overall life satisfaction.(Poole, 2015) This means that women that meet traditional gender stereotypes are less satisfied with their life and career choices overall. While obviously this is not the case for every woman who identifies with traditional female gender roles but a negative correlation means that is common.

Young adulthood is such an important time full of important life decisions. With the amount of influences that encourage gender roles leading up to this point it comes at no surprise that they will affect your life. Satisfaction is something that everyone seeks through their career. When looking at sources such as Kim’s textbook study that shows the lack of representation for women and the lack of occupational range it is not surprising that people are likely to select careers that they are not necessarily interested in if they feel as though they have a limited selection. In a New York Times article it was found that there are more CEOs named John than female CEOs all together. (Wolfers, 2015)

Adults

For the purpose of this paper adults will be defined as professional/marriage age, roughly 25 up until death. Adults are often considered to be independent and to have the ability to make their own choices without needing outside opinions. While they are not actually actively making choices but are living with their choices that they made for their lives.

The main lasting effect of the choices made in young adulthood are those that affect success as a professional. The amount of women that meet traditional gender roles and have careers that also meet their traditional gender roles typically make less than their partner. (Fetterolf Rudman, 2014) While there are many measures of success, this is referring to relative income. Even though people can be successful without bringing home substantial amounts of money, it is still unfair if you are already at a disadvantage based on your gender. Poole has found that people that meet feminine gender roles tend to be less satisfied with their life overall, some of these individuals could be unsatisfied because they feel as though they are not as successful as they could have been had they seen or had more options.

At this point I will not discuss the wage gap between individuals of the same title with different genders, but instead look at the wage gap between genders and what could cause this to happen. There is in fact a negative correlation between the amount of domestic work one does and the amount of money one brings home. (Fetterolf Rudman, 2014) This negative correlation means that, on average, the partner that brings home more relative income does less work around the house. While many may say that this evidence does not necessarily mean that the males do less housework because they could make less than the females, the same study also found that even females who make more than their partner still do more domestic work than their partners. This does not happen in every household but this is in fact what the study yielded.

While it is common knowledge that the general stereotypes of a married relationship is that the men work and the women stay home, there may be more reasons why the two genders have the stereotypes that they do. These differences between both income and domestic responsibilities could very well be a reason why more women stay at home, which in turn creates a wider gap in wages overall.

Conclusion

In conclusion, gender roles are something that everyone has encountered at least once and it most likely affected your life in some way. Gender roles are enforced at a very young age and are often seen as a pillar of an individual’s personality. While now it is much more common for people to step away from traditional gender roles they still affect most people. After all, even if you rebel against something it still obviously affected you in some way. While in today’s society gender is much more fluid than it has been in the past, I suspect that it will be a long time before gender roles are a thing of the past. I hope that eventually little girls will be able to grow up with their dreams of being a CEO and not be called brave because it is so out of the ordinary for their gender.

References

Jae-in, K. (1993). A study on gender roles in the elementary and secondary school textbooks. Women’s studies forum, Seoul(9), 63rd ser., 1-14. Retrieved September 12, 2017

Zeitoun, M. (2014). Siblings impact on gender roles and career choices(Doctoral dissertation, The chicago school of professional psycology, 2014) (pp. 1-61). Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest.

Women’s role in the economy. (2013). (). Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Retrieved from http://proxyse.uits.iu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxyse.uits.iu.edu/docview/1471951876?accountid=11654

Poole, R, M. Relationship between gender roles, parental attachment, and life satisfaction in young adulthood (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Capella University.

Fetterolf, J. C., & Rudman, L. A. (2014). Gender inequality in the home: the role of relative income, support for traditional gender roles, and percieved entitlement. Gend. doi:10.1007/s12147-014-9126-x

Wolfers, J. (2015, March 02). Fewer women run big companies than men named john. Retrieved March 07, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/upshot/fewer-women-run-big-companies-than-men-named-john.html