Lisa Smith
WOST 2350
September 23, 2015
Think Piece #2
“Gender is probably the most restricting force in American life, whether the question is who
must be in the kitchen or who could be in the White House…”
-Gloria Steinem
Steinem’s words are more relevant today than they ever have been. The issues of gender
roles and equality have maintained a significant topic of conversation throughout the twentieth
and twenty-first century. Gender schema theory advocates that children are influenced by society
to assume certain characteristics that are linked with their sex. A prime example of gender
socialization would be the ‘Easy-Bake Oven’ commercials that aired in the 1990s that portrayed
