In most if not all societies there are prescriptions regarding gender roles. The traditions, and even sometimes the laws, of a society direct that certain career choices and lifestyles are appropriate to men, and other career choices and lifestyles are appropriate to women. In recent years many people have strongly challenged the social forces that would prevent, e.g., women from becoming fighter pilots or men from becoming geisha.
Men who defy or fail to fulfill their expected gender role are often called effeminate. Women who fail to fulfill their expected gender role are usually not so strongly critcised.
Examples:
Some Christian congregations enforce the rule set forth in I Corinthians, 11:4 and 5, that in praying or prophesying no man should cover his head, but that every woman should cover hers.
I Corinthians, 11:14 and 15 indicates that it is inappropriate for a man to wear his hair long, and good for a woman to wear her hair long.
See: