BPCG 176 Psychology of Gender Solved Question Paper June 2026 TEE for IGNOU Bachelor of Arts (General) and Bachelor of Arts (Gender Studies)

Question 2. Discuss the Social Role Theory and the Gender Schema Theory of gender roles. (20 marks)

Question 2. Discuss the Social Role Theory and the Gender Schema Theory of gender roles. (20 marks)

Answer

Introduction. Gender roles are the shared expectations about how women and men ought to behave. Psychology offers two influential explanations of where these roles come from. Social Role Theory looks outward, at the division of labour in society, while Gender Schema Theory looks inward, at the mental frameworks through which each person sorts the world into masculine and feminine.

Social Role Theory

Alice Eagly set out Social Role Theory in her 1987 book on sex differences in social behaviour, and later developed it with Wendy Wood. Its central claim is that most behavioural differences between women and men arise from the different social roles they occupy, not from fixed inborn traits.

Historically, women were concentrated in homemaking and caregiving, while men were concentrated in paid work and positions of authority. This division grew from physical differences, such as women's childbearing and men's greater size and strength, interacting with the economy and culture of each society.

People watch men and women in these roles and infer matching traits. Caregivers come to be seen as communal (warm, nurturing, helpful), and breadwinners as agentic (assertive, competitive, independent). These beliefs harden into gender stereotypes that are both descriptive (what each sex is like) and prescriptive (what each sex should be like).

The roles are then maintained through others' expectations, through standards that people internalise, and through skills learnt for each role. A key prediction follows: when roles change, differences should shrink. As more Indian women enter banking, teaching and technology jobs, traits such as ambition are increasingly expected of them too.

Gender Schema Theory

Sandra Bem proposed Gender Schema Theory in 1981, blending social learning with cognitive development. A schema is a mental structure that organises incoming information. Children learn their culture's gender schema, a network of ideas about what fits males and what fits females, and begin to process people, objects and even themselves through it.

Once a child knows 'I am a girl' or 'I am a boy', the schema guides which toys, clothes and activities feel right, and the child adopts those that match. Information that fits the schema is noticed and remembered; information that does not is ignored or distorted. Martin and Halverson found that children often misremember pictures that break stereotypes, such as a girl sawing wood.

Bem distinguished gender-schematic people, who sort experience heavily by gender, from aschematic people, who rely on it less. Using her Bem Sex Role Inventory, she linked low reliance on the schema to androgyny, and argued that parents could raise less sex-typed children by limiting the importance they attach to gender.

Conclusion. The two theories complement each other. Social Role Theory explains why a society's gender roles take the shape they do, and Gender Schema Theory explains how each individual absorbs and applies those roles. Together they show gender roles as learnt and changeable rather than fixed by nature.

Question 5. Explain gender socialization and discuss the role of social agencies in it, giving suitable examples. (5+15 marks)

Question 5. Explain gender socialization and discuss the role of social agencies in it, giving suitable examples. (5+15 marks)

Answer

Meaning of gender socialisation

Gender socialisation is the lifelong process through which people learn the norms, roles, attitudes and behaviours their culture considers appropriate for their sex. It begins at birth, with choices of name, clothes and colours, and continues through childhood, school and adult life. Its result is a gender identity and a set of gender role expectations.

It works through three main routes: reinforcement, when approved behaviour is rewarded and the rest discouraged; observational learning, when children copy same-sex models, as Bandura's social learning theory describes; and self-socialisation, when children who understand their gender actively seek out what suits it.

Role of social agencies

1. Family. The family is the first and most powerful agency. Parents choose dolls and kitchen sets for daughters and cars and bats for sons. Fagot's research found that parents reacted more warmly when toddlers played with sex-typed toys. In many Indian homes, daughters are drawn into kitchen work early, sons run outside errands, and boys are told that boys don't cry.

2. Peers. From preschool onwards, children prefer playmates of their own sex, a pattern Eleanor Maccoby described as gender segregation. Peers police the boundaries through teasing: a girl who plays rough cricket may be called a tomboy, and a boy who likes dance may be mocked. Boys usually face harsher teasing for crossing these lines.

3. School. Schools carry a hidden curriculum. Textbooks have often shown mothers cooking and fathers going to the office. Teachers may ask girls to decorate the classroom and boys to shift benches, and may expect boys to shine in mathematics and sport. These signals later shape choices of stream and career.

4. Media. Television, films, advertisements and social media present repeated gender images. Detergent and cooking advertisements mostly feature women, while bike and car advertisements show men as adventurous. Heroes in many films rescue heroines, presenting men as protectors and women as in need of protection.

5. Religion, culture and community. Festivals, rituals and customs pass on gender expectations. Raksha Bandhan frames the brother as the protector, and practices such as Karva Chauth centre a wife's devotion to her husband. Community norms about marriage age, dress and mobility also shape what girls and boys believe they may do.

6. Workplace and adult life. Socialisation continues in adulthood. Workplaces, marriage and parenthood bring new expectations, such as women being steered towards caring professions and men expected to be the main earners.

Conclusion. These agencies overlap and reinforce one another, which is why gender roles feel natural. Yet socialisation is not one-way: children actively interpret what they see, and when families, schools and media present more equal models, children grow up with more flexible ideas about gender.