University Sociology Essay: Gender Roles and Community Changes

This essay explores two key sociological questions: the persistence of traditional gender roles in the home and the evolution of our understanding of community. The first part examines how gender roles, traditionally assigning homemaker duties to women and breadwinner roles to men, are still reflected in contemporary households, considering influences like education, awareness, and societal changes. The second part investigates the changing concept of community, tracing the shift from place-based communities to those defined by shared interests and online connections, highlighting the impact of technology and societal shifts. The essay utilizes sociological perspectives, references course materials, and considers both developed and developing countries to offer a comprehensive analysis of these dynamic social phenomena. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of education and understanding in promoting gender equality and fostering strong community bonds in an evolving world.

Running head: CULTURAL STUDIES AND EVERYDAY LIFE
Cultural studies and everyday life
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author notes

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Are traditional gender roles still reflected in the home?
The certain types of social roles are associated with the gender of the person in a
household and this association of stereotype social roles are called gender roles. These
traditional role assigns the responsibility of the homemaker to the female and the traits of
bread winner to the male in the house. The fact with the societal phenomena is that it keeps
changing with the time according to the trends and needs of the people in it. The gender roles
have also gone through some modifications in past few years. In this study, there would be a
discussion whether the traditional gender role are still present and reflected in the common
households of the society.
The gender divides in the society and culture of human race is not new. Some of the
sociologists believe that this is the context that was there in the social construct from the
initial days. Gender stereotyping has its root in our ancestors and their lifestyles. Then the
men used to go for hunting and bring back food to home. According to Donnelly et al.
(2016), the female on the other hand, have the responsibility to raise the children and do other
household chores. The scenario has changed a bit as now the men and the women both are
capable of doing any type of work. There is a stream of sociology called organisational
psychology. This studies the influence of home environment on the work pattern of the
individual.
The level of stereotypical expressions of gender role could vary in different societies.
The severity of the gender role discriminations are not same in the developed and developing
country (Döring, Reif & Poeschl, 2016). Some research proved that in the under developed
countries, the gender role prejudices are more grim that that of the developed countries. In the
under developed countries women are still considered to be inferior and they are assigned the

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task of home running and children bearing. The division of labour on the workplace still
shows how the gender stereotypes are prominent in these countries.
The reasons of the striving of gender roles in households are varied. One of the most
evident reason is lack of awareness and education. The comparatively progressive developed
countries are not totally free of this prejudiced ideas. No matter what the experts say in this
aspects, there are still some scope of gender inequality in household chores. For example, in
the developing countries the involvement of the male in external workplaces are extensively
more than the female (Kachel, Steffens & Niedlich, 2016). The female still have the role of
child bearing, household chores.
This would be an unjust statement if one say that there is no change in the gender
roles at all in recent times. The country leaders have taken various initiatives to promote
women in workplace other than their stereotypical family saver role. There are policies that
are designed to promote women education and empowerment (Shnabel et al., 2016). Some of
the parents have understood the conjoint role in child raising and divides their domestic
works equally. But the patriarchy is not totally distinguished and so are the gender roles. The
society has to be more welcoming to the changes in gender roles and break the stereotypes of
gender inequality.
Thus, it could be concluded that, the parameters of gender roles have changed a lot.
But it has not been totally distinguished. Both the developing and the developed countries
experience the influence of gender stereotyping in different level of their household lives.
Education and understanding are the two pillars that would strengthen the equality contexts
of the genders in home environment.
Has our understanding of what constitutes “community” changed over time?

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CULTURAL STUDIES AND EVERYDAY LIFE
People’s understanding of what a community is and how it works has changed with
the time. If an older person is asked what they called a community at their time, one would
get the answer that much have changed since then and nothing is like the earlier days. Like
most of the substances of society, the idea of community has also changed. This study would
focus on how our idea of community have changed with time.
The change is evident but is it for good or for bad that is a debatable subject for many.
The main cause of changing in the idea of community are varied. Advancement of
technology is one of them. Technology has influenced the lives of human on earth the most.
There is no sphere left in the society which has not been influenced by the technological
interventions (Ledwith, 2020). The innovation of internet has changed the interaction pattern
of human being in society. But this influences are new. The ideas of community actually
changed after the world wars in history.
The redevelopment after the World War II has changed the relationships between the
people. Before the phase thousands of people share the bond of community among them
while living on streets. The world war relocated them in the high tower flats after they were
relocated there after destructions and constructions. The Agyeman et al., (2016) have the
opinion that, after the relocation, people were never able to establish that strong bond ever.
The council houses were sold and the idea of having one’s own house emerged. Community
is the band of people who have the same kind of practices and living attitudes within them.
The separate house owning challenges this idea of community. People has been established in
different place and environment. Later they were unable to share the same kind of affection
as of the community from the start.
Unlike the old days, the new era community ideas are based on what people do and
not on the place of living. This is where the intervention of internet comes into existence. Use

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of internet networks for communication has introduced the online community people. These
are the people who are connected to each other, but not for they live in the same place (Block,
2018). The social media users are being able to connect anywhere in the globe. The sense of
belonging has increased in modern community ideas. Having fewer neighbours and
degrading sense of together ness is the new idea of community. The modern concept of
community are not based on the place one live. Rather a community could be a pub, a team, a
school or that could be even global communication (Kagan et al., 2019). Internet connected
people also constitutes the community in themselves. The experts say that the concept of
online community is actually weakening the communication and the bond. The people who
are at social media re actually lonelier than people who are not a part of it.
At last, it could be said that the changed form of community is quite different than its
previous versions. One must not forget that the fundamental requirement of community to
provide support to each other and staying in the strong relationship. The modern concept of
community is more flexible and therefore could have better scope of communication among
them if practiced effectively.

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References
Agyeman, J., Schlosberg, D., Craven, L., & Matthews, C. (2016). Trends and directions in
environmental justice: from inequity to everyday life, community, and just
sustainabilities. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 41.
Block, P. (2018). Community: The structure of belonging. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Donnelly, K., Twenge, J. M., Clark, M. A., Shaikh, S. K., Beiler-May, A., & Carter, N. T.
(2016). Attitudes toward women’s work and family roles in the United States, 1976–
2013. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 40(1), 41-54.
Döring, N., Reif, A., & Poeschl, S. (2016). How gender-stereotypical are selfies? A content
analysis and comparison with magazine adverts. Computers in Human Behavior, 55,
955-962.
Kachel, S., Steffens, M. C., & Niedlich, C. (2016). Traditional masculinity and femininity:
Validation of a new scale assessing gender roles. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 956.
Kagan, C., Burton, M., Duckett, P., Lawthom, R., & Siddiquee, A. (2019). Critical
community psychology: Critical action and social change. Routledge.
Ledwith, M. (2020). Community development: A critical approach. Policy Press.
Shnabel, N., Bar-Anan, Y., Kende, A., Bareket, O., & Lazar, Y. (2016). Help to perpetuate
traditional gender roles: Benevolent sexism increases engagement in dependency-
oriented cross-gender helping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 110(1),
55.