Gender and Culture

Gender role theory posits that boys and girls learn the appropriate behavior and attitudes from the family and overall social construct of that culture they grow up with. Women have been seen in Australia as being the backbone of the household while the men go out to work and earn a living. Women were unable to play a major role within the families earning as their part was to have the children. Males are seen as the successful gender within Australian society, as they are able to maintain and keep their families alive. With this in mind, it is easy to see how gender roles have been maintained throughout the years. Through the comparison of Australia to Sweden, gender roles can be defined as the women in Sweden preside over the household as well as earn the majority of the wage for the family. From these gender roles being passed on through the generations, people in contemporary Australian society have continued to fall into their gender roles in life.

The most powerful role into which people are placed into are groups that are gender related roles. Which are a range of behaviours considered appropriate for males and females, for example, a woman's place is the domestic duties surrounding the home, and the males place is to earn a wage to support the family (Burton, Westen, Kowalski 2009: 507). Gender refers to the social organisation of a biological dimension that recognises a person as being either feminine meaning not being a male or masculine not being a female (Van Krieken, Habibis, Smith, Hutchins, Martin & Maton 2010: 284). Sociologist, Erving Goffman have termed gender as being the behavioural aspects of people, having the tenderness of a woman or a macho personae' of a man, as opposed to the biological difference between the two (West & Zimmerman 1989: 127). Within the social construct of a society it is the interaction with each other is how humans behaviour across different cultures (Van Krieken et.al. 2010: 5) Social construct can determined how people will fall into gender roles, for example, in Brazil male and female gender is not known as a man or women, but as man and 'not a man'. Where in Australia masculinity is defined as being the breadwinner of the house and has this boorish, tuff persona' (Harper 1997: 32). It can be argued that participants in interaction organise their various and manifold activities to reflect or express gender, and they are disposed to perceive the behaviour of others in a similar light.

There is a variation of gender behaviour across different cultures; a typical Australian male is a practical man who appears rough and ready in his appearance and his mannerisms are boorish and hard working (Harper 1997: 32). Swedish however are not that different from the Australian male were men go out to earn a wage, and still do not help out with household duties (Moen 1989: 6). Whereas, Swedish women still are expected to work, even long past the retirement age of the men, as well as look after the children's needs and do all the household duties (Moen 1989: 8). Where women in Australia society, are known to have blonde hair and are the matriarchs of the family and have the power over household decisions and duties, but are not required to work (Brooke 1997: 111). Gender roles of Australian women are featured in the United States through advertisements as having a negative, weak personae' (Milner & Collins 2000: 70). Where in Sweden, the gender roles of men show they lack in masculinity as they do not earn the majority of the living (Milner & Colings 2000: 71) The women in Sweden earn more than the men, and in 'western society', this would be classed being a male dominated place in the family structure (Milner & Collins 2000: 71). However, these definitions are not constant in contemporary Australia regulates individuals in terms of how we conform or deviate from the gender roles within Australia's culture of domestic inequalities (Brook 1997: 106). In Australia, there are set ideas of what is male and what is a female, such as females wear pink and males wear blue are regulations that western societies abide by (Deaux & Lewis 1984: 132). Women's body shapes are constantly being measured against the paradigm of what is made realisable, giving some girls the endless search for a desirable image (Brook 2007: 118). Women in Australia relate femininity to television programs such as Gidget in the 1950's to 1960's where body shape where desirable (Brook 1997: 106). This western idea of gender representation, of what men and women should look like is internalised by the time a child is four or five, where children refuse to accept that men may wear skirts (Brook 2007: 107). Women produce children they are mothers and wives, they do the cooking, and household duties as well as they take care of their husbands. Women are subordinate to male authority; they are largely excluded from high-status occupations and from positions of power (Haralambous & Holborn 1995: 145). Within Australian society, the sexual division of labour in the household are the men who are largely