Gender & identity

Gender roles

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Definition

Social expectations about how women and men are supposed to behave, dress, work, and relate to others.

At a glance

  • Gender roles are learned expectations about how women and men should behave.
  • They are passed on through family, school, media and wider culture.
  • They vary between societies and have shifted a great deal over the past century.
  • Rigid roles are linked to pressure on people of all genders.
  • Many couples now agree on roles together rather than assuming them.

In detail

Gender roles are learned from family, school, media and wider culture. They include ideas such as who should earn money, who should look after children, who should make the first move in dating, and which emotions are acceptable to show.

These expectations differ between societies and have shifted considerably over the past century. Research links rigid gender roles to pressure on people of all genders, for example discouraging men from seeking help or limiting women's career choices. Many couples now negotiate roles consciously rather than assuming them.

In a sentence

  • We split the childcare evenly because neither of us wanted to follow traditional gender roles.
  • The documentary looked at how gender roles in the workplace changed after the war.

Where the word comes from

The phrase gender role was popularised in the 1950s by the sexologist John Money and was soon taken up more widely in sociology and feminist writing.

Common questions

Are gender roles natural or learned?

Researchers generally describe gender roles as largely learned, because they differ so much between cultures and time periods. What is considered a man's job or a woman's job in one place may be the opposite somewhere else.

Why do gender roles matter in relationships?

Unspoken expectations about who earns, cooks, cares for children or makes the first move can cause friction. Talking openly about what each person wants often works better than assuming traditional roles.

Related terms

Sources

  1. World Health OrganizationGender and health