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GENDER STEREOTYPES.
Society has accepted such stereotypical things as baby boys wear blue and baby girls wear pink to help identify the sex of a child. Heaven forbid that little Joey looks like a girl or baby Michelle is mistaken for a boy. Mothers and fathers make it easy for everyone to distinguish their bundle of joy by utilizing the socially established gender stereotypes. But where and how did these stereotypes come from? Unfortunately, I don't think there is a definite answer to that question. We seem to accept that blue is for boys and pink is for girls. Boys generally play with balls, toy trucks and building blocks whereas girls spend their time with dolls, tea sets and stuffed animals. But these are the stereotypes that are influenced by the parents. A baby child isn't concerned with his or her gender identity. As the child gets older though, he or she will begin to develop an identity for his or herself and establish a personality that reflects their masculinity or femininity.
ROLES OF MEN AND WOMEN IN THE FAMILY.
Circumstances of family life have changed in the modern era. Industry has been taken out of the home, and large families are no longer economically possible or socially desired. Women have made advances toward the equality they seek only to encounter a backlash in the form of religious fundamentalism, claims of reverse discrimination by males, and hostility from a public that thinks the women's movement has won everything it wanted and should now be silent. Both the needs of women today and the backlash that has developed derive from the changes in social and sexual roles that have taken place in the period since World War II. These changes involve the new ability of women to break out of the gender roles created for them by a patriarchal society. .
It would be a mistake to see changing gender roles in society as threatening only to males who dominate that society. Such changes also threaten many women who have accepted more traditional roles and see change as a threat.