Editing Gender role (section)

==Theories of gender as a social construct==
{{Main|Social construction of gender}}
[[File:Gobert - Louis XV as child, Fundación Jakober.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Changing norms of [[gender socialization]]: [[Louis XV]] in 1712, wearing the customary clothes of [[unbreeched]] boys, would be considered [[cross-dressed]] in the 21st century.]]

According to [[social constructionism]], gendered behavior is mostly due to social conventions. Theories such as ''[[evolutionary psychology]]'' disagree with that position.

Most children learn to categorize themselves by gender by the age of three.<ref name="Pate">{{cite web |last=Pate |first=J. s.d |title=What everyone should know about gender and sexuality |url=http://jamespatemd.com/Pubs/gendersexuality.htm |website=jamespatemd.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121119172004/http://jamespatemd.com/Pubs/gendersexuality.htm |archive-date=19 November 2012}}</ref> From birth, in the course of gender socialization, children learn gender stereotypes and roles from their parents and environment. Traditionally, boys learn to manipulate their physical and social environment through physical strength or dexterity, while girls learn to present themselves as objects to be viewed.<ref>Cahill, S. E. (1986) Language practices and self definition: The case of gender identity acquisition. The Sociological Quarterly vol. 27, issue 3, pp 295–311</ref> Social constructionists argue that differences between male and female behavior are better attributable to gender-segregated children's activities than to any essential, natural, physiological, or genetic predisposition.<ref name="Fenstermaker">{{cite book |last=Fenstermaker |first=Sarah |title=Doing Gender, Doing Difference: Inequality, Power, and Institutional Change |year=2002 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-415-93179-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7vLBpyjCFwsC&pg=PA8 |page=8}}</ref>

As an aspect of [[role theory]], gender role theory "treats these differing distributions of women and men into roles as the primary origin of sex-differentiated social behavior, [and posits that] their impact on behavior is mediated by psychological and social processes."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Eagly |first=A. H. |date=December 1997 |title=Sex differences in social behavior: Comparing social role theory and evolutionary psychology |magazine=[[American Psychologist]] |pages=1380–1383}}</ref> According to [[Gilbert Herdt]], gender roles arose from correspondent inference, meaning that general labor division was extended to gender roles.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trumbach |first1=Randolph |editor1-last=Herdt |editor1-first=Gilbert |year=1994 |chapter=London's Sapphists: From Three Sexes to Four Genders in the Making of Modern Culture |title=Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History |location=New York |publisher=Zone (MIT) |pages=111–36 |isbn=978-0-942299-82-3}}</ref>

Social constructionists consider gender roles to be hierarchical and patriarchal.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wood |first1=W. |last2=Eagly |first2=A. H. |year=2002 |title=A cross-cultural analysis of the behavior of women and men: Implications for the origins of sex difference |journal=[[Psychological Bulletin]] |volume=128 |issue=5 |pages=699–727 |doi=10.1037/0033-2909.128.5.699 |pmid=12206191 |s2cid=6751650}}</ref> The term patriarchy, according to researcher [[Andrew Cherlin]], defines "a social order based on the domination of women by men, especially in agricultural societies".<ref>{{cite book |last=Cherlin |first=Andrew J. |title=Public and Private Families: An Introduction |date=2010 |publisher=[[McGraw-Hill Higher Education]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-07-340435-6 |page=93 |edition=6th}}</ref>

According to Eagly et al., the consequences of gender roles and stereotypes are sex-typed social behavior because roles and stereotypes are both socially-shared descriptive norms and prescriptive norms.<ref>Eagly, A. H. (2004). Prejudice: Toward a more inclusive understanding. In A. H. Eagly, R. M. Baron, & V. L. Hamilton (Eds.), The social psychology of group identity and social conflict: Theory, application, and practice (pp. 45–64). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association. {{doi|10.1037/10683-003}}</ref>

[[Judith Butler]], in works such as ''[[Gender Trouble]]''<ref>Butler, J. (1990).''Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity.'' New York; Routledge.</ref> and ''[[Undoing Gender]]'',<ref>Butler, Judith. Undoing Gender. New York: Routledge, 2004.</ref> contends that being female is not "natural" and that it appears natural only through repeated performances of gender; these performances, in turn, reproduce and define the traditional categories of sex and/or gender.<ref>Thekla Morgenroth, Michelle K. Ryan. "[[doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01320|Gender Trouble in Social Psychology: How Can Butler's Work Inform Experimental Social Psychologists' Conceptualization of Gender?]]", ''Front. Psychol.'', 27 July 2018 Sec. Personality and Social Psychology Volume 9 – 2018, {{doi|10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01320}}.</ref>