Social Role Theory of Gender Essay

While going through my past work and trying to find the best piece to exemplify myself as a student as well as a person, I kept finding myself going back to an essay I wrote back in December of 2022 which was my depiction of the Social Role Theory of Gender. This assignment was for my communication theory course and was our final essay, we were given a choice of topics to cover relating to our course. I chose to cover a topic that was previously covered in class not only because of prior knowledge but also because of personal interest. Although this piece was written over two years ago and I have learned an immense amount since this time, I feel as though this paper is when I truly started to find a passion for something which is equality and women's rights. This paper is also where I found my passion for writing and the ability to start writing and just let your mind flow in whatever direction it wants. I start the paper by explaining the social role theory of gender as a guide for understanding the norms and expectations that have influenced individuals and their gender identities. My thesis in the bottom of my introduction stated “Through this paper. My goal is to open individuals' eyes that even though women’s rights have made amazing strides in every realm, inequality and misogyny is still a largely prevalent issue in today’s society that needs to be discussed and put into action.” I believe in this essay my thesis perfectly describes the issue and solutions I am addressing in said essay. Through the course of my essay I don’t put all of the focus on women inequality, I also branch out into male inequality as well which typically stems from stereotypes. In this essay I also show my knowledge of citation and courses by properly using in-text citations and a reference page.

I also researched many studies to back up my claims such as Rainn.org which stated that one out of six American women will have been the victim of attended or completed rape in her lifetime, the study, then goes to show how sexual violence have a fact such as post, traumatic stress disorder, drug use, and likelihood of suicide. A large part of my research for this essay came from the required text for this course which was “Applying Communication Theory” and I specifically studied chapter 4. It is interesting to read this essay two years later, reading my first thoughts on topics such as gendered toys and how play is a large aspect of gender roles while a child is growing up. Now I am in a course titled “Advocating for Play” where my main focus in the course has been on gendered play and toys in children and its effects.