Gender Norms Research Paper

Gender is a powerful ideological device, which produces, reproduces, and legitimates the choices and limits that are predicated on sex category. An understanding of how gender is produced in social situations will afford clarification of the international scaffolding of social structure and the social control processes that sustain it.

I would argue that the television we watch says a lot about who we are, not only as individuals, but also as a society. So, what do the most popular TV shows have to say about the history of our society and its gender norms, and is it possible to identify these norms when watching the most popular sitcoms of each decade? Discovering this will not only provide insight on how our ideas of gender have evolved,

but also how our television has evolved to reflect such norms since the beginning. In order to do this, I will be focusing on some of the top sitcoms of each decade, comparing my findings primarily to the book Critiquing the Sitcom: A Reader by Joanne Morreale, as well as many other credible and scholarly sources and articles.
A gender role is a social role that is inspired by generalizations and beliefs that have been passed down for centuries and is associated with the perception of what is considered masculine and what is considered feminine.

These societal roles have been changing for decades now. Traditionally, the men would have to go to their prestigious jobs outside of the home, serving as the sole breadwinner for their family. Women, on the other hand, were left at home to take care of the kids, do the household chores, and have supper ready by the time their husbands got home from work. On the off chance that a woman did work during this time, it was as a secretary, a nurse, or other type of stereotypical female

profession.
In the U.S., women got their first taste of the working world during World War II. At this time, men were being shipped out to join the war efforts, leaving the women behind to take their places in the workplace. Although, when the war was finished, the men reoccupied their jobs, forcing women back to their homes. However, after women got this taste of freedom, it stuck with them, eventually leading to the social changes that would soon follow.
Almost immediately, in the 1960s and 1970s, a cultural revolution broke out, resulting in many women pursuing careers outside of their homes. Since then, gender roles have been constantly evolving. In more recent years, men have even expressed the desire to stay at home and take care of their kids rather than go to work. Now, this is not to say that these changes have been easy. Both men and women continue to struggle with the ideals behind what is considered masculine and feminine. Whereas now men have to worry about what it means to be a man when being a breadwinner is no longer seen as a masculine trait, women have to deal with unequal treatment in the workplace. So, how are these constantly evolving gender norms most often being represented in society? The answer is; through the media, and more specifically, via our favorite television shows.
The 1950s
When Television first started becoming popular in the 1950s’s, the world was under a lot of stress due to the after-effects of WWII.

During this time, “the ideal nuclear family turned inward, hoping to make their home front safe, even if the world was not.” This resulted in the “picture perfect family” seen on TV that consisted of the bread-winning, omniscient father, the subservient housewife, and their wholesome, loving children. For the people searching for a role in life during this Cold War era, television was now there to reassure them. In the book entitled Men in the Middle: Searching for Masculinity in the 1950s by James Gilbert, he states that “…Television projected a vision of American life into the home that could easily be emulated, in part at least, in those places in society that already resembled the ideal…” Despite the millions of people that didn’t have a similar lifestyle to those which were seen on TV, these shows reflected the “idealized gender roles of the time period, which set an aspirational norm, even if it did not reflect

reality.”
During the 1950’s, gender roles were “stricter and more rigid” than ever before. Thus, the portrayal of men and women’s roles on television became stricter. Men were seen wearing business suits as they go to and from their conventional jobs, always proving to be outstanding father figures and husbands when they come home at the end of the day. As for the women, they were shown as subordinate; their concerns only toward their children and their household duties. Sociology and Psychology scholars have proven recently that these types of portrayals had strongly affected the future behavior of children.
There was a lot of pressure on the boys to grow up as men, being ridiculed for any behavior that was not masculine and knowing that they would one day be the primary breadwinner for their family. There was also a clear gender difference growing up as boys in the 1950s, and since they were raised in a way to devalue women’s work, they did not see girls and women as important parts of society.
These shows were teaching boys how “real men” were supposed to act. For them, being a man was the most important thing they could do, and that meant never doing anything that would be considered feminine. This “hyper-masculine” mold that boys were expected to fit into consequently led to the devaluation of women’s roles in society. This display, alongside the current patriarchal society, was what ultimately created this highly constructed identity for both men and women going into the future.
Father Knows Best
During this time, “being the sole provider for the family gave men a significant amount of power in their homes and contributed to feelings of male superiority.” This idea of being a breadwinner, meant that men were not only expected to be masculine, but to also be able to make all the right decisions. After all, it was a man’s responsibility to make sure his family stayed out of poverty. And television and advertisements did a good job of reinforcing these ideas, portraying men as being intelligent, capable and strong. Women, however, were portrayed as being the opposite, serving as “a natural counter-balance” to men with their femininity and maternal roles. These ideas about gender during the 1950s are best portrayed in the popular sitcom Father Knows Best.
Father Knows Best was prided as being the perfect example of family life in the 1950s. It followed the life of a middle-class family living in the suburbs. Their family consisted of a working father, a stay-at-home mom, and their three children. It’s safe to say that this shows success was no coincidence. In her book, Critiquing the Sitcom: A Reader, Joanne Morreale quotes the Saturday Evening Post praising the show for being about “a family that has surprising similarities to real people: The parents…manage to ride through almost any family situation without violent injury to their dignity, and the three Anderson children are presented as decently behaved children who will probably turn into useful citizens.” In other words, the show not only provided entertainment, but instruction on appropriate family values; values that would help shape families everywhere.
In analyzing the episode “Father, The Naturalist” it is easy to see the depictions of gender norms during this time. In this episode, the teenage son and daughter, Bud and Betty, get into a fight after Bud refuses to do a carpentry related favor for Betty. Throughout the rest of the episode, the parents do their best to resolve the conflict. The mother, Margaret, tells Bud and Betty to resolve the situation by making a compromise. In the end, Margaret and the father, Jim, reinforce the gender norms of the time by insisting that Bud do the more masculine task of carpentry, while Betty do the more feminine task of cleaning.
I Love Lucy
In the hit show, I Love Lucy, Lucille Ball and Ricky Ricardo play a young married couple living in the city. Ricky, who is strongly depicted as the decision maker and man of the house, often finds himself getting Lucy out of trouble as she continuously tries to escape the confinement of her domestic roles. These conflicts throughout the show seem to only arise when Lucy makes any sort of attempt to be more than just a housewife. Ricky does his part in giving his position on the matter in each episode, explaining to Lucy that such ambitions in a woman are unrealistic. Morreale talks about this in her book as well stating:
We laugh at Lucy’s comic moments, yet I wonder whether women might not also not also have experienced a certain amount of distress, particularly given the constraints of the 1950s and the constant subtle and not-so-subtle attempts to confine women to the home… Lucy is caught in her economic subservience to Ricky, as well as in the social mores of the 1950s, a decade that covertly tried to reduce women to the status of dependent children.
These norms are demonstrated throughout the show. Each episode is the same thing. “Lucy Ricardo was barely in control, constantly attempting to escape domesticity – her situation, her job, in the home – always trying to get into show business by getting into Ricky’s act…” Every episode involves Lucy rebelling against the normative domestic lifestyle for women of the time, and every episode, she fails. By trying to escape her duties as a woman, she is inevitably punished or corrected for her actions and sent back to the kitchen for the next episode.
A good example of these gender roles is made explicit in the episode “Job Switching.” It can be argued that this episode is what shaped the direction of the rest of the series. In the episode, Ricky and Fred are arguing about how women have it so much easier, getting to stay home all day and simply take care of the house, while the men go to work and earn a living. Of course, Lucy and Ethel think otherwise, and to prove their point, they all agree to trade places. The men are now responsible for the housework, while the women go to work. The ultimate goal of this episode was to prove who in fact had it the worst in 1950s America. However, in the end, Ricky and Fred admit that, “We are lousy housewives,” and Lucy and Ethel respond with, “We are not so good at bringing home the bacon. We got fired off our first job.” Relieved Ricky replies “We’ll make the money and you spend it. And listen girls, we never realized how tough it is to run a house before.” At the end of the episode, the status quo of 1950s gender roles are restored yet again. And despite pointing out seemingly proto-feminist issues in the beginning, masculinity ultimately becomes the most important component in this formation of gender roles.