GENDER ROLES: A LECTURE FOR HIGH
SCHOOL STUDENTS
ABSTRACT: The following is a lesson plan for teaching basic Gender Roles, which is
appropriate for grades 9-12. It is outlined largely in accordance with the text “Our Sexuality”
by Crooks and Baur, Eleventh Edition. This book is very well written, informative and
overflowing with reliable information. This lesson is designed to follow a comprehensive
anatomy lecture, which ideally would cover both prenatal developments of the brain and
body, and those which takes place during puberty. The pages in the text are provided at the
bottom of the outline for reference, and the rest of the lecture would ideally comprise of a
teacher’s (and the students, should they be willing) personal experiences.
INCLUDED:
 A comprehensive OUTLINE of a lecture intended for adolescent students about
Gender Roles. This outline establishes a general flow for the lecture and includes:
o A LIST OF OBJECTIVES
o TWO DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
o Cross-referenced end notes to the page numbers on which a teacher may find
applicable information.
 THREE STUDENT HANDOUTS. Of these TWO are STUDENT ACTIVITIES.
1. HANDOUT: “Adult Gender Identity”, a brief synopsis of biological factors
which determine sex and gender.
2. ACTIVITY HANDOUT: “I’m Glad to be a Boy/Girl”, an examination of
American Gender Roles, their conception and effect.
3. ACTIVITY HANDOUT: “Androgyny ‘Matrix’”, gender appropriate personality
traits and behavior, as well as androgynous ones.
OBJECTIVES:
-Define Key Terms.
-Understand gender expectations, including identifying specific expectations and
assumptions which affect our society today.
-Understand the sources of gender assumptions/roles.
-Understand androgyny in comparison to typified gender roles.
1. Definitions:
a.
STEREOTYPE (a generalized notion of what a person is like based only on that
person’s sex, race, religion, ethnic background, or similar criteria)1.
b. SEX (biological maleness or femaleness) and GENDER (the psychological and sociocultural characteristics associated with our sex)2.
c. GENDER ASSUMPTIONS (assumptions about how people are likely to behave based
on their maleness or femaleness), GENDER IDENTITY (how one psychologically
perceives oneself as either male or female), GENDER ROLE (a collection of attitudes
and behaviors that a specific culture considers normal and appropriate for people of
a particular sex)3.
d. GENDER DYSPHORIA (unhappiness with one’s biological sex or gender role)4.
e. SOCIALIZATION (the process by which our society conveys behavioral expectations
to the individual)5.
[STUDENT HANDOUT #1: “WHAT DETERMINES ADULT GENDER IDENTITY”]
2. Gender Role Expectations:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Women as undersexed, man as oversexed6
Men as initiators, women as recipients7
Women as controllers, men as movers8
Men as unemotional and strong, women as nurturing and supportive9
[STUDENT HANDOUT #2, ACTIVITY # 1: “GLAD TO BE A BOY/GIRL”]
3. Where do we learn Gender Roles?
a. People
i. Parents10 and Peers11
[DISCUSSION QUESTION #1: How (and why) have gender roles and assumptions changed since you
were young? How (and why) have they changed since your parent’s generation?]
b. Institutions
i. Schools and Textbooks12, The Media13 and Religion14
[DISCUSSION QUESTION # 2: Given that in order for society to function all of its members must
conform to certain societal norms, to what extent do you believe gender roles are a necessary
mechanism for a functional society, and/or to what extent are they detrimental to individual
expression, liberty, equality and freedom?]
4. Personalities.
a. Define ANDROGYNY (a blending of typical male and female behaviors in one
individual)15.
[STUDENT HANDOUT #3, ACTIVITY # 2: “ANDROGYNY ‘MATRIX”]
* ALL NOTES REFER TO: Crooks, Robert and Karla Baur. “Our Sexuality.” Eleventh Edition.
2011, 2008. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
(p. 134)
(p. 112)
3 (p. 113)
4 (p 128)
5 (p.135)
6 (p. 140-141)
7 (p. 141)
8 (p. 141-142)
9 (p. 142)
10 (p. 136-138)
11 (p. 138)
12 (p. 138-139)
13 (p. 139)
14 (p. 139-140)
15 (p. 142, 142-144)
1
2
Teacher’s Notes/Examples Not in the Text :
“House, M.D.” Season 2; Episode 13. “Skin Deep”:
This episode addresses not one, but two, amazing and complicated gender issues. A teenage
supermodel called Alex (Cameron Richardson) is admitted to the hospital because she has been
acting very disoriented, collapsing on the catwalk and attacking a fellow model. The team’s initial
diagnosis is heroin withdrawal, but after treating her with the proper drugs, Alex falls into a coma.
When she wakes Alex has anterograde amnesia, which is the inability to store new memories.
House thinks this is the result of PTSD, resulting from sexual abuse by her father (Tom Vierica).
House confronts the father, who is also his daughter’s manager and agent, and he admits to having
had sex with his daughter “one time.”
During the course of a series of wrong diagnosis Cameron confronts Alex’s about her father’s sexual
abuse. Cameron is surprised and disgusted when Alex reveals that she purposefully seduced her
father in order to get what she wanted. Alex admits that while she is not smart, she is beautiful.
House eventually has his epiphany about Alex while treating his clinic patient, a man who is having
a sympathy pregnancy, whose wife is annoyed because he is not looking after her. House orders an
MRI of Alex and discovers that she has male pseudohermaphroditism, also called testicular
feminization syndrome. Supermodel Alex is actually a feminized male. The tumor causing her
symptoms is actually located in her undescended testes.
Disney Gender Roles:
Many parents show their children Disney’s animated classics at a very young age, and many
children love to watch them. What gender roles are communicated through these films to
impressionable children?
“A standard classic Disney movie can be described as follows: a fairytale princess in pursuit of
romance, willing to sacrifice anything for her beloved prince charming. With this standard story
line, Disney begins to distinguish between the “pink world” and the “blue world” (Perrin lecture).
From the start, young girls are exposed to the idea that as a female your main goal in life is to find
prince charming while being a proper young woman. The young women in Disney movies act
similar to how Stephen Richer found the young girls playing with the boys, as the ones occupied
with the other sex, chasing their prince charming around the playground (Stark 172). The game
arises out of what the young girls have seen as their pursuit in life. They are the ones to long for
prince charming and chase after him. They are socialized with Disney’s help…
“Though most Disney movies have a female as the main character, the gender role for males is just
as easily seen in movies such as The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. In The Little Mermaid, Prince Eric
has fine features accompanied by the strength to save his sweetheart when in need. Males in
Disney can be described as hansom, strong, and heroic. When their princess calls, they dive into
danger and always rescue the damsel in distress. Similarly, Aladdin frees Jasmine from the wicked
sorcerer. With Jasmine left helpless, only Aladdin has the cunning to successfully dethrone Jafar. In
times of peril, the princess always needs her prince.”
Excerpts from the article: “Gender Roles and Differential Socialization in Disney” Adler.
Published by Pepperdine Faculty.
(faculty.pepperdine.edu/rperrin/courses/.../Gender%20and%20Disney.doc)