Analyzing My Gender Role

I have decided to write on Devor’s text, “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender.” Because I feel my family is a society, it is a collective community of—all my relatives; I will begin analyzing my gender role, which happens to be female. I would say that a lot of the feminine responsibilities, mannerisms, and thinking that I have been participating in have been taught to me by my mother, grandmother, aunts, and other females in my family, while I was growing up. I felt no pressure to conform to the role I was expected to portray; I was too eager to learn because it made me feel close to them, and it also felt natural to me. As mentioned in the article I read, I became part of my generalized order by doing the conventional female roles like helping my mother take care of the house, washing the dishes, cooking, cleaning, washing the clothes, and taking care of my younger siblings. Even though I had a sister who was three years older than me, she did take an interest in the things that I was doing, so my mother entrusted me with the majority of the so call female responsibilities. Performing these tasks made me feel girly; since, I had never seen any of the men or boys in my family partake in any of these duties. While growing up, television really reinforced my role; only girls were shown helping their mothers around the house. I believed this role was to prepare me to become—first-class wife material. I know longer believe in gender roles in the home thanks to woman’s emancipation, and this ever so changing society. I believe shared roles will strengthen a relationship, and it also teaches children (who always watch and emulate their parents) that gender roles in a home do not exist.


When it came to practicing my role of being sexy, I turned to the television, magazines, and watched other women; I did this because I was not taught how to be sexy, or how to attract the opposite sex, so duplicating what I saw and what society wants females to believe is attractive and sexy did not last too long because I was not white, with long hair and a size 2. Hence, I started copying people who I could relate to that I found beautiful. Because this society is so diverse with beautiful women, and has so many translations of how a female should portray sexy and attractiveness, I enjoy and have the liberty to pick and choose what feels right for me, and have changed it periodically. According to Devor, female role attributes are commonly seen as mirror images of one another.

Watching my mother incorporate stronger roles, such as mowing the yard, painting the house, going to work, paying bills, has had a profound effect in shaping my identity; She showed me that a woman can be beautiful, soft, and still do roles that typically done by a man. There are other significant females such as my teachers and other famous women I read about that have also helped to contour my identity; because through them it has been proven that there is not a gender role that is—only male or female, and the roles that I can choose to identify with are unrestricted.

Watching my mother incorporate stronger roles, such as mowing the lawn, painting the house, going to work, paying bills, has had a profound effect in shaping my identity; she has shown me that a female does not have to be trapped in the role society deem as female, and it is tolerable to do roles that have been stereotyped as males. Because of my mother and other strong women like her, I was able to believe and openly accept that I too am not limited to the role society insists are meant for only females.