Gender Socialization

Not only are people born into a specific culture, they also are socialized into specific gender roles. "Cross cultural studies of gender are concerned with both the degree to which psychological processes and behaviors are relatively invariant across cultures and how they vary systematically with cultural influences," according to Best and Williams (Matsumoto (Ed.), 2001, p. 197).

Cultures often differ in the emphasis placed on social roles assigned to males and females; appropriate gender relations based on sexual role ideologies; gender stereotypes; and the incorporation of masculinity and femininity into self-concept and self-perception. Children are socialized into these gender roles through multiple agents, such as parents, siblings, peers, teachers, religious institutions, and various forms of media.

For this Discussion,consider various socialization agents and their influence on gender role development related to behaviors, attitudes, or expectations. Use your Final Project culture of interest and select another culture of interest to you. Select two socialization agents to use in this Discussion.

With these thoughts in mind:

a description of the two socialization agents you selected and explain how these agents influence gender role development across two different cultures. Then, describe two socialization agents that influenced your own gender role development and explain how.

Finally, explain how your gender role development might have been affected if you were raised in a different culture. Support your responses using the Learning Resources and the current literature.

Reference:

Best, D. L., & Williams, J. E. (2001). Gender and culture. In D. Matsumoto (Ed.), The handbook of culture and psychology (pp. 195-219). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.