gender roles
gender roles (sometimes called sex roles) involve attitudes and behaviors that society expects because someone is a woman or because someone is a man. Roles traditionally assigned to men are "provider" and "protector." Women have been assigned "caregiver" and "sex object" roles. Biologically, both women and men can provide, protect, nurture, or be a sex object, but most often "cultural influences have been misrepresented as biological imperatives" (Deborah Rhode, Theoretical Perspectives on Sexual Differences). Lucile Duberman (Gender and Sex in Society) says, "Society creates gender roles, and society can alter them." Contemporary realities offer flexibility to both sexes and freedom from rigid gender roles—if we can model this for upcoming generations of children. See also gender.
