Week 11 Post 1

I really enjoyed reading about gender differences in Chapter 18. I related the information that I read in this section of the chapter to what I learned about in my Sociology of the Family class that I have this semester. Chapter 18 talked about how moral differences between genders are either a cultural pattern or a gender pattern (Berger, p. 504). The example that our book gave was about how more men are likely to do better in math and science than women. That being said, men are usually the ones who pursue their talents in these particular fields to further their education and then later become leaders in different jobs that require either math or science (Berger, p. 504). On the other hand, women have chosen to spend their time taking care of the house and the family rather than pursuing their own talents. From what I read in our psychology book and from what I learned in my sociology class, I believe that these gender differences are primarily a cultural pattern that leads into a gender pattern. When I read about the example of how men are viewed at being better at math than women, I immediately thought about my one friend from high school who was a girl. She was so good at math and really enjoyed doing it that she even thought about being a math major in college. Unfortunately, people at my school told her that math was a subject that only boys were good at. This caused her to have doubts about her passion for math. I think because of what people had told her, she began to believe them. By following the cultural pattern of what others said she began to believe them.