Gender roles

• Gender roles are culturally specific and while most cultures distinguish only two (boy and girl or man and woman), others recognize more.
• Gender role, referring in some sense to cultural expectations according to an understood gender classification, should not be confused with gender identity, the internal sense of one’s own gender, which may or may not align with categories offered by societal norms.
• In sociological terms ‘gender role’ refers to the characteristics and behaviors that different cultures attribute to the sexes.

1. What it means to be a ‘real man’ in any culture requires male sex plus what our various cultures define as masculine characteristics and behaviors,
2. Likewise, a ‘real woman’ needs female sex and feminine characteristics and behaviors