Option 1 Discuss whether biological or social and cultural factors are more important in shaping gender roles. Finding sources on this question should be easy.

Option 2 Examine the degree to which gender roles and expectations have changed in your culture over the last thirty years. Gender roles and expectations in the United States in 1979 compared to today. Didn’t the big steps, the big changes begin in the 60s. By 1979 the radical ideas of the 60s faced reality, matured, and marched on.

Option 3 Focus on the ways in which you have been influenced, positively and negatively, by traditional gender roles and expectations.

Option 4 Explore one of the following topics in terms of gender roles and stereotypes: • rites of passage for girls or for boys • women in the military • the sports or toy industry • anorexia and other eating disorders • the body-image trade (diets, exercise fads, cosmetics, fragrance, fashion) • a particular product of the mass media–for example, a TV program, film, magazine advertisement, music video, or children’s picture book.