are more interested in performing physically tough activities like, working in heavy industries while females perform tasks like raising children, cooking, sewing and so
on. Just like in The Bell Jar, Esther is expected to get married and have children by her mother. Esther hated this, especially when the pressure is all around her. Many of
her friends are married and having a family, it is hard for her to find support when her social environment is like this. The pressure is not just physical but emotional. While
these stereotype roles are still adopted in many societies, this becomes rare now in developed societies like the US or Western Europe especially after the feminism
movement took place. With the flow of time and being born of a liberal value system, the discrimination between the male and the female have faded greatly.
Education, household work, childcare, professional tasks are the various responsibilities or activities in a normal social context. These roles are basically set
apart on basis of sex, but now it is more of a choice and based on the interest of that individual. However, there are still many societies in the world which continue to
stick and live to the way of the traditional gender roles. A female is expected to be interested and obliged in doing household work, childcare and education and leaving
professional and social roles for the males.
2.4.2 Social Norms
Norms provide order in society. It is difficult to see how human society could manage without social norms. Human beings need norms to guide and direct their
behavior, to present clear order in social relationships and to understand each other’s actions. These are some of the reasons why most people, most of the time, agree with
social norms. Social Norms are basically unwritten rules about how to behave. Social Norms are beliefs about what is acceptable in a social context, they are unwritten
Universitas Sumatera Utara
rules that a group uses for values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. They provide us with an expected idea of how to behave in a particular social group or culture.
The idea of norms offers a key to understanding social influence in general. Every group has a particular standard of behavior which is the accepted social norms.
Behavior which fulfills these norms are called conformity, and most of the time roles and norms are powerful ways of understanding and predicting what people will do.
The social norms expected to be fulfilled by women are varied as they all live different lives. A stereotype definition of norms that women live by is that they are
not able to be as independent on their own, they need men or society around them to guide their life. A different kind of norm some women believe is that they are in fact
superior where the environment’s social norms are set by her, the change of other’s behaviors are based on the norms. There is also the case where a female individual
behavior changes to adjust to the social norms set around her. Changes to how she carries on her activities and how she gets along with other people might affect her
and can turn into an issue. Issues like this causes struggle for women when certain environments are difficult to adjust, they would feel like an outcast that is not
fulfilling to the ‘rules’ set. Just like in The Bell Jar, Esther feels like a complete outcast to the other girls, she feel like she does not fit it or belong there. The
individual may not accept what society is trying to influence. In some other case when a woman joins a female group they could be naturally and slowly influenced that their
adjustments to the social norms are without self-realization. This might be because they have the similar ideas and goals as the group.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
2.5 Related Journals
