Despite the fact that boys and girls in the US perform at equal rates on most standardized math exams, girls report lower self-confidence in, positive affect toward, and valuation of this subject. Internationally, the gap between girls’ and boys’ math scores is mostly accounted for by gender socialization and the rights of women in society. The present research uses Eccles’ (Parsons [Eccles] et al., 1983) Expectancy Value framework in considering the importance of math self-confidence, math valuation, and sex role egalitarianism on math achievement. Multiple regression will be used to determine the predictive ability of the independent variables. It is proposed that sex role egalitarianism and attitudes toward math will each significantly predict math achievement scores. Additionally, sex role egalitarianism will add to the prediction of math scores above what attitudes towards math contribute. Implications and future directions are discussed. / text

The purpose of this qualitive content analysis is to examine and analyse how children are visualized in toy catalogs, depending on their gender, 2014 - 2015.   It is important to observe how advertisement maintains the gender stereotypes norms of our society, since it has a major impact on our self-image and identity. Especially when it comes to children, who absorb everything and also because it is during the childhood the socialization process begins.   It is common that toy stores and toy catalogs distinguish boy toys from girl toys, based on the toy’s colour, form and function. This phenomena has become a topic of public discussion in recent years. Therefore, the two large toy companies, BR-leksaker and Toys “R” Us, claim to have published gender neutral toy catalogs by changing the gender roles and letting boys and girls play together with the same toys.   In order to gain more knowledge of toys impact on gender roles, we studied previous research by scientist in the field of gender, e.g. Almqvist, Butler and Connell. By using a qualitative method with a semiotic perspective, we found recurrent underlying aspects in the advertisements, by the selection of twelve pictures. The studies result implies that the studied toy catalogs are not yet equal, although a certain level of progress can be ascertained. Not even the three most equal advertisements visualized girls and boys equally, because of details such as stereotypical hairstyles, accessories and clothing. Furthermore, the study shows that girls are portrayed with boy toys than vice versa, which implies that boys are to a greater extent regarded as abnormal.

The purpose of this study was to explore how Black men and women negotiate ideas about masculine performances within the context of romantic relationships. The New York Times Bestselling book Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man, which communicates a particularly patriarchal understanding of masculinity, was used as a point of reference. Six focus groups were conducted with 28 Black males and females between the ages of 19-60. Three general conclusions about masculine performances within Black male/female relationships were drawn from the findings.

Many young men struggle with mental health issues including depression, anxiety, substance abuse and suicide. Further research has shown that many men have an aversion to help seeking, placing them at greater risk for unresolved mental health issues. In the past thirty years, the Gender Role Conflict framework and related research has emphasized the impact of societal gender roles on men’s psychological problems. Higher education counselors who are familiar with Gender Role Conflict theory and related research will have a potentially useful skill set in counseling male students. This document overviews the Gender Role Conflict paradigm and highlights the most relevant literature for college counselors. Further, practical ideas are offered to help guide counselors in their work with college males, and suggestions for future research are also provided. / text

Dijana Jermakovičienė. Comparative analysis of peculiarity remits of boys and girls at the age of 5-7 year. Sciential leader – O.Monkevičienė. Vilnius Pedagogical University. Department of preschool psychology. 2005. Sex education is very important part of the common upbringing. It ensures universal welfare of human life. This upbringing process becomes more topical, because of the popular past-west culture. It stimulates to look for the sex upbringing programs which are oriented to national upbringing traditions also humanistic worth. With reference analysis of theoretical resources, topics of the gender role and sexual self-conception, sexual upbringing peculiarities were revealed. Society is changing, traditional roles of man and woman looses faith. Children have to readjust to new conditions. Undoubtedly, it is important to research remit peculiarities of boys and girls in today’s fast-changing society. Also we should reach for the better education quality and stimulate perfection in this range. The research of peculiarity remits of boys and girls at the age of 5-7 year displayed that children have their attitude to gender roles. Despite the influence of modern society, there are traditional role repartition. While processing Lithuanians integration to cultural – civilization space, girls modern trend is very noticeable.

Limited research has been conducted to examine traditional female Mexican American gender role beliefs and its impact on depression. In order to address the research questions, this dissertation developed two manuscripts. The first manuscript is a literature review that examines research concerning depression, Mexican American female gender role beliefs, and Self-Discrepancy theory. The second manuscript is a quantitative study that investigates the impact gender role beliefs and partner status has on depression in Mexican American women. Furthermore, the second manuscript suggests variables that contribute to depression in Mexican American women and recommendations for clinicians. The aim of the second manuscript is to examine the literature concerning depression in Mexican American women and the ways in which traditional gender role beliefs and self-discrepancies may impact Mexican American women's mental health. This dissertation begins by examining the literature concerning depression in Mexican American women. It then explores Mexican American women's gender role socialization, including a review of the values that are taught through this process. This study then provides an in depth inspection of the ideal of marianismo, which guides traditional Mexican American women's gender role beliefs. Next it progresses to discuss Self-Discrepancy theory and possible mental health outcomes. Examples of possible self-discrepancies related to traditional Mexican American women's gender role beliefs are provided to illustrate how depression may occur when self-discrepancies are present. Finally, it provides recommendations for clinicians who work with depressed Mexican American women. The second manuscript examines the impact of traditional gender role beliefs and partner status on depression in a sample of 325 Mexican American women. It is hypothesized that an interaction effect between partner status and gender role beliefs will be found, whereas Mexican American women who are unpartnered and have traditional gender role beliefs will experience a greater amount of depression, due to the presence of a discrepancy. Contrarily, results from the analysis of variance (ANOVA) found no interaction between partner status and gender role beliefs on depression. The manuscript provides possible explanations for such findings. In addition, results from a hierarchical regression indicate that level of education and the family pillar aspect of marianismo significantly impact depression in Mexican American women.

This thesis investigates the background, activities, and motivations of German women who provided administrative support for Nazi institutions and agencies of the Third Reich. It compares women who specifically chose to serve the Nazi cause in voluntary roles with those who took on such work as a progression of established careers. Using a variety of sources, including post-war testimony in criminal cases, it shows how much they knew about the repressive and genocidal aspects of the regime and evaluates the role that ideology, as against other factors, played in their loyalty to their employers. Secretaries, SS-Helferinnen (SS female auxiliaries) and Nachrichtenhelferinnen des Heeres (female communication auxiliaries of the army) held similar jobs: taking dictation, answering telephones, and sending telegrams. Yet their backgrounds differed markedly. While secretaries were habitually recruited on the basis of their prior experience and competencies, the Helferinnen predominantly volunteered, sometimes motivated by ideology and the opportunity to serve their country, sometimes enticed by the prospect of foreign travel or the lure of the uniform. The thesis sheds light on these women's backgrounds: their social status, education, career patterns. It seeks to explain the situations and motives that propelled them into their positions and explores what they knew about the true nature of their work. These women often had access to information about the administration of genocide and are a relatively untapped resource. Their recollections shed light on the lives and work of their superiors, the mundane tasks that contributed to the displacement, deportation and death of millions of people across Europe, and the extent to which information about these atrocities was communicated and comprehended. Attention is paid to the specific role played by gender amongst perpetrators of the Holocaust. The question of how gender intersected with National Socialism, repression, atrocity and genocide forms the conceptual thread linking the separate chapters on these three groups of women who had varied backgrounds and degrees of initial commitment to Nazi ideology.

In this thesis, I am concerned with the language of advertising. By analyzing advertising from a discourse perspective, this paper further examines the context of communication and the participants’ roles in the context. This study focuses on commercial advertising, based on the assumption that the intended meaning of the advertiser is to persuade the viewer to perform a purchase. Therefore this study observes persuasive messages and how they are presented in advertising. To analyze and compare real texts from a discourse perspective present an opportunityto examine social changes that might have taken place in a society due to different temporal settings. The social changes are examined by comparing assigned gender roles in advertisements published in 1956 and advertisements published in 2014. The material consists of a total of eleven transcripts description of printed advertisements collected from The New Yorker. The examples used for this study have been hand picked to illustrate theories described in the background, such as those provided by Leech (1966), Hermerén (1999), Romaine (1999), Cronin (2000) and Hillier (2004). The framework for the analysis is based on Leech’s (1966) concept of primary and secondary situations with corresponding primary and secondary participants. The findings suggest that advertisers can persuade the viewer by addressing the viewer directly and by using exophoric references, or by inserting secondary participants to convey the message. In addition, the assigned role of women seems to have changed more than the assigned role of men in advertising discourse.

This thesis is a result of a Minor Field Study with the purpose to examine the transnational labour migration by women in the Philippines who seek temporary employment abroad but plan to return to the Philippines after their contracts expired. The thesis is based on three months of anthropological fieldwork primarily in Manila between January and March 2013, using interviews and observations as my main methodological tool. I will reflect over the way in which women labour migration affect the women individually and socially by leaving one context and entering another. Migration places the Filipina outside the domestic sphere within their home country and increases their income-earning power. The Filipina has taken the role as the family’s breadwinner and is thereby challenging dominant gender roles within the Philippine society. The experience being a female migrant enhances their status, makes them stronger, more confident and provides them with the opportunity to make decisions independent of their male partners. Filipinas are being praised by their own society as ‘modern day heroes’, but at the same time blamed for leaving their obligation as dutiful daughters, nurturing mothers and caring wives. Ideas from state and society do not correspond to the reality, namely a reality where women have taken the position as their family’s main breadwinner. Which complicates the ability to induce a change in ideas regarding gender roles for men and women. Conclusively, the female migration has not resulted in a change regarding gender roles within the Philippine society.

Since the 1990s, suicide and stress amongst farming individuals in Britain has gained increasing attention. This is because restructuring of the farm sector has placed greater economic pressure on farm family businesses and led to dramatic socio-cultural change in rural communities. Academic research has been dominated by a medical, reactionary approach to the examination of stress. This ignores the cultural and gender processes which are embedded in a patriarchal family farming ‘way of life’ that may, in reality, underpin medicalised outcomes. This ethnographic research, utilising repeated life history interviews with multiple members of farming families, based in Powys, Mid Wales, provides a crucial first step in a more proactive understanding of stress by tracking the dynamics, construction, enactment and maintenance of relational farming identities. From such a perspective, behavior according to a farming ‘way of life’ is brought sharply into focus as a course and source of components of stress. Drawing upon a range of theoretical positions, a robust conceptualisation of farming stress is developed. In particular insights from feminism inform the non-medical approach adopted by this research. Ideas are drawn on from emerging, feminist international perspectives of relational farming gender identities and by closer integration of theoretical post-modern insights from cultural, rural studies which has persistently neglected farming individuals. This research contributes to theoretical and empirical development within agricultural geography by providing an example of how micro contextualisation of farming/ rural lives can be contextualised within the macro-economic framework of agriculture. Results are drawn from 7 case study farming families, with scale of analysis utilised to reveal from birth the construction, maintenance and enactment of relational farming gender identities. Farm survival is found to be heavily dependent upon socialisation within the ideology of family farming, the enactment of farming identities beyond the farm gate, and the necessity for individuals to adhere to a patriarchal ideology. This patrilineal ‘way of life’ ideology and its gendered components are revealed to demonstrate that adherence to gender roles is becoming increasingly difficult within the current context of agricultural and rural change. The struggle that individuals have to maintain their place and sense of belonging in family farming emerges as a key source of contemporary stress. Further work is needed to ensure that the gendered understanding of farming stress formulated in this research is applied to rural stress policy and practice.