Family

The Social Construction of Gender Roles

Students could consider the gendered division of labour in their own families and the extent to which these are symmetrical or patriarchal.

The lesson could begin with watching Proctor and Gamble advert and a request for students to write a list of all of the activities they see the mothers in the advert performing. This then leads on to a discussion of the social construction of gender roles within families. Students can be encouraged to consider that although this may be some women’s experience of family life, it depicts a rather narrow and stereotypical point of view. Students can also think about the message this advert is giving åÊif women do their mothering role well, their children will be a success. Another useful illustrative advert can be found here:

Discover More The truth about whether mothers have the worlds toughest job



More Resources from Discovering Sociology


Classic Youth Subcultures

Students should be able to draw on examples from a wide range of subcultures, both classic and...

youth-subcultures

Functionalism and Rites of Passage

A useful overview of the Functionalist view of youth culture can be found below:

youth-subcultures

Generation Boomerang

Students could be asked to write a timeline of their lives as they anticipate them to be after...

youth-subcultures

Kidulthood

Kirsty Grocott’s article in the Daily Telegraph:

youth-subcultures

Marxism, Neo-Marxism and Youth

The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) based at Birmingham University produced a ...

youth-subcultures

Neo Tribes

Some Sociologists suggest that subcultures may no longer exist in the form that they once did. Fo...

youth-subcultures

Social Class and Jamaican Patois

The following Daily Mail article laments the adoption of Jamaican patois styles of language in...

youth-subcultures

What is Youth

By way of starting off an investigation into youth subcultures, teachers could pose the proble...

youth-subcultures

Youth - Ethnicity and David Starkey

David Starkey featured in a Newsnight discussion about the 2011 UK riots. This Guardian articl...

youth-subcultures

Youth Subcultures and Consumerism

The class could investigate and consider the extent to which they consider the ‘haul girl&r...

youth-subcultures

Youth Subcultures Introduction

We begin here by looking at ‘what is youth?’, and then the idea of

youth-subcultures