I Love Lucy: Gender Roles In American History

Gender Roles: I Love Lucy

Mark MacIntosh

California State University Long Beach

Gender Roles: I Love Lucy

Description

I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom that stars Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. Produced by Desi Arnaz, Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, and Bob Carroll Jr., the television show was a black-and-white series that originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the CBS channel. After the series ended in 1957, a modified version continued for three more seasons with 13 one-hour specials that ran for an additional three years, until 1960. The show is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential sitcoms in American history.

I Love Lucy follows Lucy and Ricky,

Throughout the early history of our nation, it was apparent that females were expected to abide by certain cultural and societal norms. Females were often tied to a male member, whether it was their father, husband, or male relative, the mere identity of a female has always been attached to a male figure (Connell, 2003). Due to these gender roles, women have consistently battled with gender inequality. Often times, women were subjected to stay at home, bear children, raise them, and take care of their husband. Assumed gender roles have led society to assume and expect that women were not allowed to do the same things as men. These patriarchal ideas have constrained and restricted women heavily in society (Glick, 2001). Mass media, television, and many other aspects of society have consistently reinforced patriarchal notions and the idea of different roles for men and women (McCarthy,

Beliefs about the role, behavior, and emotions of men and women are always described through societal means. Many theorists assert that perceived gender roles create the fundamentals for the development of gender identity. Prominent psychological theories of gender role and gender identity development include gender schema theory, which states that children learn how their cultures and societies define the roles of men and women and then internalize this knowledge as a gender schema, or unchallenged core belief.

First coined by Sandra Bem in 1981, gender schema theory encompasses a cognitive account of sex typing by which schemas are developed through the combination of social and cognitive learning processes (Perle, 2011). It is significant to note that through observations of individuals within culture and society, each child is able to observe male and female typical attributes, activities, and actions (Perle, 2011). Ultimately, these perceptions lead to the development of gender segregation and guide the child’s gender-related actions and behavior. Two other critics who have utilized this theory and method are psychologists Jonathan Perle and Angela