Indiana Social Studies S.5.4

Social StudiesGrades 9–12Sociology of Gender

The Standard

Explore how gender roles differ in different societies and how they change over time.

2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students compare expectations about paid work and caregiving in different societies and time periods. They use dated evidence to describe what changed and what stayed the same.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can use a specific source to explain one difference between places and one change over time. They can also explain why that source does not describe everyone in a society.
Common Misconceptions: Students may treat gender roles as fixed biological rules or assume everyone in a country follows the same expectations. They may also assume a change in law immediately changes what families do.
How to Assess It: Give students charts of women's labor force participation in the United States and Japan for 1990 and 2019. Ask for one difference between countries, one change over time, and one thing the charts cannot show about home life.

Lesson moves

Give pairs printed charts for the United States and Japan in 1990 and 2019; have them mark one change and one difference.
Ask: What can a jobs chart tell us about gender roles, and what can it not tell us about who cooks dinner?
Play claim check: teams label four statements about the charts supported, contradicted, or not shown, then point to their evidence.
Read U.S. and Swedish government parental leave pages; compare who can take leave and discuss why policy does not prove what families do.

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A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to S.5.4, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

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