FIELD PROJECT REPORT: GENDERED EXPECTATIONS

GENDERED EXPECTATIONS

Introduction

Gender as defined by (REFERENCE) is the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one’s sex. In the US, the idea of gender has in a large extent brought significant changes in gender roles. To be more precise, one being male or female is used to determine what one can do and what one cannot.  This makes gender define the expectations as well as the norms associated with the sex. Taking an analytical point of view on gender ideology, there are multiple ways in which it influences the behavior patterns, material culture as well as human experience overtime. Gender ideology has shaped the way the Americans view tasks that should be undertaken by men and women. This report seeks to examine some of the ways gender ideology has influenced the cultural behavior patterns in the US over time. It involves interviews with 12 family members of my parents’ and grandparents’ generation.

In order to invoke a more critical view on this matter, some questions are formulated as leads to the interview. The questions revolve around the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one’s sex.  Some of them are True or False questions while the rest require the respondents to provide their own insights on the subject.

Method

Results and Discussion

While recording the responses given by the respondents, factors such as the way I got in my field of questioning are key to note. It was imperative to check the zone where I most comfortable standing and talking to the respondents and the ways in which I conducted my questioning. This seeks to lay down the relationship that exists between me and person. Is it someone I knew well? Or of the same sex, race, height or second language? Additionally, the approach taken by the men and women in answering specific questions had to be noted down.  Then again, the possibility of there being a pattern portrayed among either when talking about sex and gendered expectations was noted down.

When I went to New York to meet my 12 informants, I highlighted the two most striking subjects that rose up out of my examination questions. (1) When individuals discuss sexuality in theory, it is generally in ways that compare to customary sex roles and generalizations; in any case, individual encounters evoke more inconsistencies; and (2) I noted that an extensive variety of understandings of gender and sexuality, including how implications of sex impacted those of gender and sexuality. I utilized a sexual scripting hypothesis and typical interactionist structure to talk about sex contrasts and similitudes in the implications individuals hold of the terms sex and sexuality and how such implications are fixing to the level of sexual script considered. There were differences between the way men responded to questions relating to sex as compared to how women did. Women seemed to be a little bit outright as compared to men. Gendered Talk About Sex and Sexuality was frequently examined in gendered ways. My respondents explained sex contrasts in how males and females approach and experience sexuality. For instance, in light of inquiries regarding suppressing a certain emotion because to express such emotion publicly would not be “manly” or “ladylike” or otherwise keeping with a certain sex, men were much affected than women. They gave of more instances they had been forced to do such than women did. I feel that men would perhaps take a gander at it one way and ladies would take a gander at it another way. This is because both men and women have distinctive thoughts of what they are expected to do in different circumstances. When responding to questions 4 and 5 about judging others because they did not fit in, my respondents depicted differences between men and women but drew on cliché ideas of sex while talking about these distinctions. The contrasts they portrayed focused on the society expectations of both men and women. I noted that although some of my informants were of the same age and gender, differences in their geographical areas within New York brought significant differences in beliefs. Taking a look at questions one and two, there are those women who believed that that had happened to them almost always while others claimed that they had never experienced such. Just at a of observations during the interviews with a few respondents did I get some information about whether certain practices would be encountered the same way by men and women. This was by way of requesting for individual encounters in daily life. Notwithstanding not specifically requesting respondents’ perspectives on sexual orientation, these subjects rose through examination of reactions to a scope of inquiries asked all through the interviews.