COLEGIO DE SAN JUAN DE LETRAN

EQUALITY MATTERS: THE EFFECTS OF GENDER ROLES IN THE

SOCIETY AND THEIR PERSPECTIVE ABOUT IT, SCHOOL YEAR 2018-2019

Humanities and Social Sciences

A Thesis in Practical Research

Teacher: Ms. Francese Therese Ruah Ramirez

Submitted by:

Bundok, Alison G.

Hona, Annabelle J.

Mercene, Destiny O.

Monserrat, Nichole Dominique B.

Tapia, Julia May M.

1 April 2019
 CHAPTER I

1.1 Introduction

According to CliffsNotes, Gender Roles are both cultural and personal as they put a

standard on how men and women should think, act, speak, and portray themselves in a

‘socially acceptable’ way. Gender Schema, a theory that was formally introduced by

Sandra Bem in 1981, is what defines the act of masculinity and femininity.

Various agents may affect a person’s view on gender roles such as teachers, parents,

siblings, peers, music, books, television, and religion. Although, people you spend the

most time with may tend to have most influence when it comes to the kind of perception

on gender the person has. Gender roles experienced during childhood usually sticks until

adulthood so parents should definitely be open to interpretation on what their child wants

to wear, how their child acts, and how their child portray themselves.

Gender Roles affect the society negatively as it refrains every individual from

expressing themselves fully. Two of the types of Gender Roles are Toxic Masculinity

and Toxic Femininity. These toxic gender roles are when a certain gender (male or

female) is expected to follow standards when it comes to how they portray themselves.

Toxic Masculinity and Femininity are present in today’s society that’s why it’s very

important to educate ourselves and open our minds into interpretation on people’s

choices.

1.2 Background of the Study

In our society there are set of ideas about how we expect men and woman to dress,

behavior, and on how they present themselves. Gender roles are learned by behavior of
person as appropriate to their gender. Gender is not an easy conversation to have, it

makes people uncomfortable. As thinking of changing the status where it is always

uncomfortable. They are adopted during childhood and normally continue into

adulthood. People have certain presumption about decision making and responsibilities.

Gender roles are roles that are played by both women and men which are not

determined by biological factors, but by the socio-economic and cultural environment or

situation. For example, in parts of Africa and Latin America, unskilled construction work

is regarded as men work, whereas in India it is regarded as women work. Women are in

most societies responsible for all domestic activities such as housework, food preparation

and child rearing, in addition to their involvement in economic/ income generating

activities.

It is important to distinguish between the productive and reproductive roles when

planning women programs as women spend a lot of time on reproductive activities and

productive work. It should be noted that the work of women in both areas is often not

remunerated and therefore does not appear in official economic statistic.

1.3 Significance of the Study

The significance of the study tackles about how important this research is and how will it

affect the people who are to read it. The researcher’s chosen topic is about gender roles. Gender

roles portray a huge impact in our society that sometimes we don’t even notice that it’s providing

a bad effect on other people. This study will make the readers understand well the negative and

positive effect of gender roles in our society. They will be able to enhance the range of their

understanding about the importance genders, roles, and equality.

 The youth. This research is important for the youth because this will help them understand

the importance of each roles of the genders in our surroundings. This will also help those who are

confused of who they really are. This research might help mold themselves into finding out what

their gender really is or what their importance to this world really is. The youth has a lot of

questions in their minds. There are answered and unanswered one. But maybe they already know

the answer to some of their questions but can’t really accept it. That’s why they pretend to not

know the answer because they’re still waiting for another acceptable answer to their question. In

those questions, it might include a curiosity or doubt about their sexuality and the purpose of

their gender. So, the researchers consider that this will be important for the youth to finally

enlighten them of who they are and what their purpose is, and so that they will finally be able to

accept themselves.

The parents. Parents nowadays are still a bit conservative and traditional about each

gender. They have this mindset that is hard to change. That’s why it’s hard for some of them to

understand the LGBTQ+ Community and the other heterosexuals who are trying to be flexible of

their gender. So, the researchers thought that this will also be important for the parents since they

also have to understand the equality that should be done in each gender in our society.

1.4 Scope and Limitation

The study covers the society and students specifically to the

people who is struggling to different judgments. This study shows how LGBT

community increases its population time by time. This study also shows how society

should accept every human being of their very own. This can be a guide not only for the

few but for the many. This also helps the people to know more about the gender roles.

This kind of study may teach people to learn more about Gender roles, on how will they

accept and communicate.

 This study will be needing 30 students of grade 11 in Colegio

de San Juan de Letran – Calamba. The study would be done through a survey with the

chosen student. Researchers with this kind of strategies will be able to know how people

communicate with other on this kind of situation. And know how it affects the LGBT

community live with this kind of society.

1.5 Definition of Terms

The society has set a lot of ideas on how men and women to dress, behave, and

present themselves. Men and women are expected to act in a certain way and people will

judge if another gender is acting too masculine or too feminine which is absolutely

absurd. Any gender should be able to express themselves however they want with no

limitations whatsoever.

According to Planned Parenthood, Gender roles in society means how certain

genders are expected to act in a certain way such as the way they speak, act, dress, and

conduct themselves all based on their assigned sex. For example, women are expected to

act typically feminine such as being polite, nurturing, and accommodating whilst men

are expected to be masculine, strong, aggressive, and bold.

Gender roles are all based on ethnicity, society, and culture a person is

surrounded with or has grown up with. These standards also change and evolve

overtime. For example, the colour pink used to be considered as a masculine colour in

the United States whilst blue was considered feminine. Putting such an emphasis on

inanimate objects such as clothing can be quite disturbing because if you think about it,

all types of clothing are unisex and so is every single object you can think of from shoes,
bags, makeup– literally everything. Limitations created by the society can harm a

person’s self confidence because these standards restrict them from expressing

themselves.

Ever since the beginning of time, Gender roles have definitely been present,

which brings us on the discussion of the Branches of Gender Roles. How do gender

stereotypes affect people? A stereotype is a biased opinion about a single person or a

large group and is usually inaccurate and overly simplified.

There are four kinds of gender stereotypes:

Personality Traits. Women are often expected to be emotional, needy, and

dependent on men while men are expected to be strong, confident, and aggressive. This

stereotype is purely biased as every single individual has different personalities and

abilities. You can’t expect every single man or woman to have the same personalities and

traits.

Domestic Behaviors. When it comes to chores like cleaning the house, taking

care of the children, and cooking, only women are expected to do it. On the other hand,

men are expected to do home repairs, be the breadwinner of the family and handle the

finances. This puts pressure on men and women– especially when they’re trying to build

a family because Domestic Behaviour stereotypes and expectations might not fit their

current situation as a woman could have more job opportunities than a man and a man

could be more suitable for doing housework.

Occupations. People on the society are quick to assume that certain occupations

are only suited for a certain gender such as women being teachers, nurses, secretaries,
cashiers, and salespersons while men are expected to be CEOs, engineers, pilots,

soldiers, and policemen. This stereotype is the reason why employment rates on certain

jobs on certain genders are low because companies expect men and women to have

different abilities and skills when in reality, it all depends on how hardworking and

passionate a person is about their jobs.

Physical Appearance. This should be a personal choice but again, stereotypes

never fail to interfere. especially when it comes to clothing for women and men.

Apparently, women aren’t ‘allowed’ to wear men’s clothing and vice versa. Haircuts are

also included in this stereotype as women are expected to have long, luscious hair and

men are expected to have short, polished hair.

Hyper femininity. This stereotype is an exaggerated behaviour of how a woman

should always act feminine. People who are hyper feminine tend to exaggerate the

qualities they believe a woman should have such as being passive, naïve, sexually

inexperienced, soft, flirtatious, graceful, nurturing, and accepting. Hyper feminine people

are afraid to step out of the feminine boundaries as they think it’s wrong for a woman

to act strong and masculine.

Hyper masculinity on the other hand, is an exaggeration on the masculinity of

men. Hyper masculine people believe that other men are competition and that they

should never be outweighed by them as well as be a dominant towards women by being

bossy, aggressive, sexually experienced, insensitive, ambitious, and demanding.

 Hyper femininity and masculinity could be dangerous especially for people who

are in relationships as men tend to exert abuse on women and women are supposed to

endure them.