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Society

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Society and upbringing, nurture - rather than nature - have a stronger impact on the development of a gender based identity. Social psychologist Alice Eagly conducted extensive research and experiments on this subject, and arrived at the conclusion that society plays a very significant role in the way we develop our gender based identities. Children tend to emulate their parents. A child who sees her father staying out of the house and working long hours, and her mother cooking, cleaning, and looking after the children, will naturally understand that that is the way things should be. The child will them adopt similar roles and lifestyles in order to fit in better, to be accepted more easily by society.

Eagly's studies also suggest that, with the changing roles of women in society, gender stereotypes are beginning to change in society in general. A girl who grows up in a neighborhood where all the women are strong, focused career women who share household duties equally with their husbands will grow up with the understanding that that is they way women should be. On the other hand, someone growing up in rural India, where women get married as early as six or seven years of age and then make it the business of their lives to bear children and maintain their house, will never be exposed to the idea that there is a life beyond housekeeping and bringing up children. She will never be well-informed enough to question getting married at six or marrying her own daughters off at the same age. She sees all the boys in the village go to school, while their sisters stay at home and learn domestic skills from their mothers. She would come to accept that as the way to be, the way things should go.

Women adopt more domestic roles because they are trained to do so by society. They pick up certain things from the world around them, some consciously, some subconsciously. The men learn to take on roles outside the house, and, at some level, understand that it is their responsibility to provide for their families, to take care of them and to protect them. We learn from seeing the people around us, from the stories we read and the movies we watch. It's not something that is hard wired into our brains. It is actually quite dynamic, which can and does change as we open our minds to the possibilities.

Learn more about this author, Bhavya Dabas.
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