Assignment 4

1. The difference between sex and gender is that sex is biological and physical description while gender refers to the social norms that are associated with being either male and female. When talking about someone sex they could be talking about the physical differences between males and females or the DNA differences; females have two XX chromosomes while male have an X and a Y. Gender is much more interpretive to what society thinks is "normal", for example it's not "acceptable" for boys to play with Barbie's and it's not "acceptable"  for girl to play with G.I Joes. 


2. I was doing gender when I was taught to play with dolls and while playing "house" I was the mommy that took care of the children and cooked. 


3. 
A.)The researchers used longitudinal methods to collect their data. Their study population was 44 middle school children, age 11-14, while the sample size was a mid-sized southeastern city.


B.) One of the limitations of this study that I saw was that there was little diversity among the participants, the majority of those in the study were white participants. More diversity in ethnicity, religion and race would allow the study to be more accurate and fully researched study. 

C.) Many of the "tweens" believed that boys and girls should be equal and would expected to be treated equally no matter what their gender was. However, several went against these "ideals" by agreeing to certain gender roles and bender stereotypes when discussing types of jobs that men and women have. 


D.) To the middle-schoolers a "girly-girl" is someone who rarely takes part in activities that could get her dirty, she likes to keep a clean and close to perfect appearance. On the other hand, "tomboys" could careless about their appearances they are all about taking risks and playing sports. 

E.)  I think ever child is influenced to act and think a certain way whether it is on purpose or not. Society can definitely influence gender roles and gender stereotypes, throughout the lecture and readings I have come to understand the we expect girls to be care, polite, an well dressed while we expect boys to be strong, good at sports and provide for their family. Although we have come along way from the gender roles of the 1950's we still expect children to act a certain way and many times we adults will over analyze why their son is choosing to wear pink rather than blue. In fact, at my daycare one little boy love to wear hello kitty t-shirts and even though we were very accepting of this at the daycare his parents were somewhat determined to change his habits of dress. He is now in kindergarden and is only allowed to wear his hello kitty t-shirts at nap time, the rest of the day he is given clothes that are "ideal" for boys. Personally I do not understand this, since once his parents made him change his style of dress he has become less charismatic and seems to be upset more frequently. I believe that no matter what the gender stereotypes and roles are if a child is happy playing with whatever toy they are play with or happy dressing whatever they want then they should be encouraged to keep living a happy life. Many times children at my daycare children like to "follow a leader" a play time, if the leader that day wants to play dress up then the other children will follow no matter if they are male or female. When children act aggressively however, all the teachers in my school agree that this is not to be tolerated, we also agree that the phrase "boys will be boys" is not an acceptable to excuse for bad behavior. We want our students to be able to talk about their problems rather than turn to aggressive behaviors. 


Quiz:
1.F__ In the year 2000, 64.6 percent of mothers with children younger than age 6 were part of the labor force.

2.F__ The number of working mothers with children ages 6 to 17 increased by 15 percent between 1975 and 1980. 3.F___ During the period 1995 to 2001, the number of working mothers with children younger than age 6 increased by more than 5 percent.

4.T__ In the last five years on the chart, the percentage of working mothers with children younger than age 18 decreased.

5.T__ The number of working mothers with children younger than age 6 went above the 50 percent mark for the first time between the years 1980 and 1985.

6.F__ The number of working mothers with children ages 6 to 17 has not been below 70 percent since 1980.

7.T___ The number of working mothers with children younger than age 6 decreased between 1997 and 2001. 8.F___ In 1955, fewer than one-fourth of all mothers with children under age 18 were part of the U.S. workforce.

9.T__ Working mothers with children younger than age 6 have always made up a smaller percentage of the workforce than those who have children ages 6 to 17.

10.T___ In the year 2001, more than three-fourths of all mothers of children ages 6 to 17 were part of the labor force

6. Women were doing better in some aspects and then not as well as I thought they would be in others. We definitely have many powerfully women in high positions in our country but then there also the problem that women are still earning less money then men even if they are doing the same job.