Which of the following factors does not shape gender roles in Indian society?

CONCEPT

Gender roles are not inborn; they are learned. Socialisation is the process through which a society transmits its expected ways of behaving to a child, and the persons, groups and institutions that carry out this transmission are called agents of socialisation.

The agents that act on a school-going child are the family, the school, the peer group, the media and religion. A factor can shape gender roles only if it is such an agent, that is, a social setting that actually communicates expectations to the child.

APPLICATION

In Indian society the family is the primary agent: from birth it assigns different toys, clothes, household chores and forms of address to girls and to boys.

The school is a secondary agent: textbook images, teacher expectations, subject choices and the way games and seating are arranged all carry gendered messages.

The peer group is another secondary agent: approval, teasing and imitation among age-mates push a child to conform to what girls and boys are supposed to do.

Ecology is a branch of biology that studies the relationships between living organisms and their physical environment, such as food chains, energy flow and nutrient cycles. It is a field of scientific study, not a social group or institution that transmits norms to a child, so ecology is the factor that does not shape gender roles.

CROSS-CHECK

• Family, school and peer group: social settings in which a child interacts directly with people and absorbs their expectations.

• Ecology: an academic discipline that describes organism-environment relationships and does not transmit social expectations to a child.