Research Report: Gender Roles in American Society
In the modern western culture of the United States, there seems to be a clear juxtaposition
between the roles of men and women. Gender roles, which include stereotypes, archetypes, and
perfectionist ideals, are a societal phenomenon that sets guidelines for what is per se
“appropriate” for each gender. While some of these norms appear to be adopted seamlessly by
our two prominent genders, there has been a movement in the late twentieth and early twenty-
first centuries, i.e. in the last three decades, that has brought about awareness of gender roles and
their limiting nature. The roles of men and women have since experienced a drastic change, but
their existence is still nonetheless prevalent in American society; therefore, the purpose of my
research is to analyze the significance of gender roles and their effect on American popular
culture.
Before advancement, I must provide a disclaimer: The structure of this report is divided
into sections of Defining the Topic and Appearances in Everyday Life before concluding on
Further Advancement. Much of my research has been drawn from various sources throughout the
last three decades, whereas all of my observations have been drawn from areas within
Williamsburg, Virginia. My sample size is arguably much too small—statistically speaking—to
draw conclusions accurate in accordance to American society as a whole, but the purpose is
simply to highlight the patterns within my limited research, and propose hypotheses that could be
observed further when applied to a larger scale.
Defining the Topic
This section is divided into three parts: Contextual Denotation, which provides the written
definition of gender roles, Process of Determination which describes the differing views on
distinguishing gender, and Gender in the Quintessential State, which details the existing ideals
and stereotypes of gender in American society.
Contextual Denotation
The definition of the term gender roles varies depending on the context. Dictionary.com
presents two separate definitions with the same underlying concept of societal prevalence:
Contemporary: gender role
n. a set of behaviors that indicates one’s gender, specif. the image projected by a person that
identifies their femaleness or maleness; an overt public presentation of gender identity.1
Medicine: gender role
n. The pattern of masculine or feminine behavior of an individual that is defined by a particular
culture and that is largely determined by a child’s upbringing.2
These two definitions are suitable in defining gender roles in the context with which I
will be analyzing them. Their implications emphasize the details of my hypothesis as follows: 1)
the “set of behaviors” that indicate must be standards within the society or culture of the
individual in order to be identified, 2) the most prominent examples of gender roles are applied
based upon one’s “femaleness or maleness,” i.e. their degree of masculinity or femininity, as they
seem to appear as separate, and 3) much of the establishment of gender roles is based upon the
childhood of the individual, whether they choose to accept or challenge the societal norm.
The Process of Determination
The process that determines how gender roles are defined is disagreed upon within their
study. Seemingly, there are two separate approaches, and each has its own individual effect: one
model is outlined with masculinity and femininity as two distinctly separate categories, each with
their own set of characteristics, whereas the contrasting model describes masculinity and
femininity as opposite ends of a spectrum, and even further allowing a continuum.
The first model was previously determined by the sex of the individual; a female was
formerly equated with femininity as a male was equated with masculinity. However, with the
advancement of linguistics and the acknowledgement of those who are intersex, the terms sex
and gender are now defined as separate instead of interchangeable; sex is designated based on
biological aspects—most commonly reproductive organs—and gender is categorized based upon
cultural or social factors.3 Even with this distinction, the model of gender as two unassociated
divisions has continued to be supported, and is responsible for the gender binary, a classification
of gender into only men and women, for the widely agreed upon idea is that men are masculine
1 “gender roles.” Dictionary.com’s 21st Century Lexicon. Dictionary.com, LLC. 21 Dec. 2014.
2 “gender roles.” The American Heritage® Stedman’s Medical Dictionary. Houghton Mi%in Company. 21 Dec. 2014.
3 Nobelius, Ann-Maree. “What is the difference between sex and gender?” MONASH University. Monash College
CRICOS, 23 Jun 2004. Web.
and women are feminine. The remaining concept is that masculinity and femininity are socially
construed concepts, and exist in varying degrees within an individual. 4
The contrasting model, where gender is described as a spectrum, allows for various
degrees of androgyny between the extremes of masculinity and femininity. The original spectrum
is linear, with the opposing ends being one hundred percent masculine and one hundred percent
feminine. The addition of a continuum, however, allows not only for androgyny, but also
additional determining factors, such as third, fourth, and continuous genders, an abundance of
states beyond simply masculine and feminine, and the possibility of being genderless, agender,
bigender, multi-gender, and so on. This conception of gender, as opposed to dualistic models of
masculine men and feminine women, was created by postmodern theorists who recognized the
limitations of the gender binary, allowing individuals less restriction and supporting the
movement of socially acceptable presentation, acknowledging that gender is based upon societal
standards, whereas gender identity is based upon an individual’s self-identification. 5
Gender in the Quintessential State
Due to the prevalence of the gender binary—though westernized cultures have raised
