The Scenario

It has recently come to your attention that the rates of eating disorders and the rates of intimate partner violence are on the rise in your community and you are concerned. 

Your Task

It is your task to select either eating disorders or intimate partner violence and do some research to create a fact sheet that will help individuals and policy makers understand the relevance of gender socialization to your social problem. Your fact sheet must, at a minimum, answer all of the following questions:

1. What is socialization?
2. What are gender roles?
3. What is gender role socialization?
4. What is an eating disorder? How prevalent are eating disorders in the U.S.? Are there differences in rates among men and women? *OR* What is intimate partner violence? How prevalent is IPV in the U.S.? Are there differences in rates of victimization among men and women?
5. How are various claimsmakers convincing the public that these eating disorders *OR* IPV are, in fact, important social problems?
6. How is gender role socialization related to the rise in eating disorders? *OR* How is gender role socialization related to the rise in intimate partner violence?
7. How do the major agents of socialization, particularly the media, contribute to this social problem?
8. What can be done to address this social problem? Be sure that you answer like a sociologist.

Fact Sheet Guidelines

• Your fact sheet must be a minimum of 2 pages (not including your works cited page).
• Your fact sheet should be submitted as a PDF file.
• Your fact sheet must include at least 5 sources, all of which should be properly citedboth in-text and on your works cited page.
• Your fact sheet must be well-formatted and visually appealing.
• Your fact sheet must be well-written meaning it must utilize full sentences with proper grammar, spelling and punctuation.
• Your fact sheet should be thorough, answering all of the questions posed above.
• Your fact sheet should demonstrate that you have a thorough understanding of the sociological approach to understanding gender, socialization, and social interaction.

Sample Fact Sheets

• Fackler and Kwan: Women and Size
• CDC: Understanding IPV
• EDC: Facts About Eating Disoders