Gender Roles and Identity in Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Gender Roles and Identity in Society - Essay Example In this regard, this essay will discuss selected gender stereo type and its relation with gender roles. Similarly, it will provide insights on how gender roles have its long term effects in society. Gender roles put emphasis on the distinctions between males and females. It is a cluster of behavioral norms related with males or females. Similarly, it appears to be that the differences in male and female's gender roles are often caused by society and other instinctive causes. In view of these circumstances, majority of the researchers acknowledged that the behavior of an individual is a result of socially imposed sets of rules and values as well as biological attributes which may be genetically or psychologically related. More often than not, the rearing up of children and other stimulus, emphasize a sense of gender in order to keep up with its biological sex. Gender roles can be traced as early as infancy. A baby starts to behave in a gender stereotyped way before it is one. (Tomboy or Sissy. BBC News. Child of Our Time Programme Guide Series 2 Part 2). Babies are treated differently from one another. This can be easily noticed in baby clothes, because boys are hardly ever dressed in pink, because the color pink is associated and considered as "feminine." From this, it can be assumed that even at an age at which an individual's behavior is indistinguishable; it is pointed out that a child's sex must not be mistaken. Stereotypical sex related behavior like men's contempt or a woman's sympathy (Plant, King and Smith: The influence of gender and social role on the interpretation of facial expressions) or a male's aggressiveness or a female's passivity can be drawn partly from roles which are instilled during childhood. In line with this, a study have found out that even at the tender age of a child, a child begins to make gendered choices of toys(Tomboy or Sissy. BBC News. Child of Our Time Programme Guide Series 2 Part 2). It can be observed that often times, males are told that "boys don't cry" and as such, boys tend to favor cars, trucks and guns for toys, which supports being adventurous. Girls on the other hand, prefer dolls, and playhouses which promotes their nurturing qualities and they were able to imitate female homemaking roles. Consequently, as children grow up, boys and girls, based on the foregoing discussions can be seen that the choices made by them as to what fields of study, empl oyment or career were influenced by it. By adolescence, an individual also learns and accept roles as well as to socialize with others. These are allowed by different institutions like the family, school, community, government and media among others. The aforementioned institutions make it clear what individual behavioral norms of the child are expected from him or her. During adolescent, sports activities are encouraged, and as such, it elicits various attitudes toward sports and its orientation. A study shows that there is a consistent and stable stereotype in society (Alley and Hicks: Peer attitudes towards adolescent participants in male- and female-oriented sports.) The study further asserts that "to be feminine is to be communal or expressive, while to be masculine is to be agentic, instrumental and competitive. Consequently, this leads to the common notion that

Why Illegal Immigration is Messing Up the United States Research Paper

Why Illegal Immigration is Messing Up the United States - Research Paper Example The country has in place very stringent laws governing the movement of persons through its borders. Those relocating to the country meet specified standards and certification by the authorities of the country to do so. However, there are those hell bent on resettling in the United States and would do anything to. They thus look for unwarranted means of getting into the country without verification from the legal systems. Among the most common ways of getting into the country are hiding in the ships and freight vehicles that transport goods through the countries borders. Some of the illegal immigrants get into the country legal for short visits only to refuse to leave back for their native countries. Such people affect the country negatively in a number of ways. A stable economy caters for all those within its borders. However, some immigrants have bad intent. These people are not welcome in the country and are always deported whenever apprehended. To avert deportation, they do not th erefore seek services from the state facilities, which is practically impossible. This makes them a bother to those around them (Haines 78). The country has a number of health guidelines to be met by immigrants. Those coming into the United States undergo a number of tests and are only accorded citizenship after satisfying the testing officers. This keeps the country safe from the outbreak of such communicable diseases as yellow fever, malaria, and Human Immunodeficiency Virus among many others. However, the proliferation of the illegal immigrants goes against theses standards and end up in the country with different contagious diseases. This strains the government’s resources in trying to contain the spread of some of the diseases that it had previously eradicated. As explained above, illegal immigrants are not welcome in the United States of America; they cannot ever find employment in any government and private organization since they do not have any identification documen ts. Among the immigration laws is the requirement of all immigrants to possess at least some level of formal education in their native countries. This regulation makes it easier for such people to get employment or further their education once in the country. However, the illegal immigrants flaunt all these rules thereby making it hard for them to secure employment once in the country. To get a source of livelihood, these immigrants engage in illicit trades such prostitution, drug peddling, and robbery. This leaves the country’s security in a fix since they cannot easily apprehend the culprits as they are not even in the country’s databases. Trade on drugs is a menace in the country accounting for the rise of crime in a mummer of cities. Drug barons use similar entry mechanisms used by illegal immigrants to get their drugs into the country. Furthermore, most of those used by the drug peddlers to foster their illegal trade are the illegal immigrants who are in most case s stranded and without jobs. They thus do anything to get a living; the most common of which is drug peddling. Drug is a menace in America. Addiction results in the incapacitation of American population who could have otherwise worked to earn descent livelihoods for their families. This negatively affects the economy of the country through loss of person-hours and capital as addicts are admitted into rehabilitation schools for the correctional therapies (Levy 132). Illegal entry of persons into the country leads to the rise of corruption which is a vice that affects the integrity of security personnel. Some of the illegal immigrants bribe their way into obtaining legitimate identification papers in the country. Some of these could be