Whereas other theorists have argued that is is the way we are brought up and influenced by our surroundings that makes an individual the way they are. Nature means the genetic and biological influences that affect our growth and development. The nature side of the debate believes that it is inherited factors which have more impact on your life and development. For example, the colour or type of your hair, your eye colour, the pigmentation of your skin, and also genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis are all the result of the genes we inherit. These biological factors are said to determine an individual’s development and characteristics .
Cross Cultural Studies of Gender Roles Cross cultural studies are important as they help us to explain the nature / nurture debate. The nature side of the gender argument focuses on the biological explanations of gender roles stating that gender differences result from innate differences between males and females. The nurture side of the argument, on the other hand, focuses on social explanations stating gender differences result from our life experiences as we grow up. There is also an interactionist approach which is often more realistic as it takes both of these factors into account stating that gender differences are caused by innate tendencies which are modified by environmental factors, e.g. The biosocial theory.
It was Fredrich Ratzel, who indeed looked at environment determinism in this way. Although still “convinced of the importance of the idea of evolution” (Wanklyn, 1961, p.19) Ratzel explored the ideas of how societies are dependent on the land and what it provides. Ratzel saw development of these societies as dependent on what the land provides, if the land for example contains valuable resources then, according to Ratzel, that society will develop. To some extent there are modern
World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/gender/whatisgender/en/index.html. Retrieved 2009-09-29. Transition Stereotypes Gender stereotypes are formed at an early age with men and women being identified with particular occupations. Much work is being done to challenge such gender stereotyping, especially to encourage women to enter professions which have traditionally been a largely male domain, such as construction and engineering.
Sex refers to one’s biological identity of being male or female while gender refers to the socially learned expectations and behaviours associated with being male or female. Sex is biologically assigned while gender is culturally learned. From the time that we are born we are influenced by various things, the surrounding environment, our parents, the culture of the area and country. Children are most influenced by their parents and are at their most impressionable from a very young age [Lauer & Lauer, 1994; Santrock, 1994; Kaplan, 1991] . Generally it is widely accepted across the board that early gender socialisation is one of the most important issues in early childhood, as it is affecting both boys and girls.
Socio- biologists argue that biology, meaning our genetic make up; shapes the behavior of the individual and in turn also determines social in-equalities such as gender inequalities present in society. Socio- biologists believe that the sex a person is born, categorizes them into the way society will perceive and treat them, this theory is known as biological determinism(O’ Shaughnessy and Stadler, 2006). Socio- constructionists believe however that ‘gender is a social distinction between men and women (Germov & Poole, 2007) and you are not born a woman or a man but rather female or male and develop into either a woman or a man due to society and its structures .Social ideologies such as gender hierarchy, culture, order and institutions are said to contribute to gender inequality, not the sex of the person as thought by socio-biologists. Prior to the feminist movement in Australia in the 1970’s, the word ‘gender’ did not exist; there was very much a socio-biologists view present in society at this time. This meant there was great masses of gender inequality present in Australia, males and females role’s in society were given to them based on a whole range of other differences: ‘bodily strength and speed, physical skills (men have mechanical skills and women are good at homemaking work i.e.
To conclude the essay, statistics and studies will be discussed with relation to gender role socialisation. Gender “is a social construction organised around biological sex. Individuals are born male or female, but they acquire over time a gender identity that is what it means to be male or female.” (Gregson et al., 1997. p.53). This explanation gives us the idea of two different relationships. That is the relationship between the two genders, and the relationship between gender and society.
For example, masculinity femininity and the male and female anatomy are factors that determine gender identity. Hermaphrodites are individuals who are born with ovarian and testicular tissue, resulting in having a testicle and an ovary. Hermaphrodites are labeled as male or female at birth, so the gender identity and gender role are determined as soon as a newborn in born, known as the sex assignment. However, intersexual individuals are known to have testicles or ovaries, but do not result in having both. Intersexual individuals show either testes or ovaries of one sex, but external genitalia show sexual organs of the other sex.
Adaptations, which are driven by natural selection, are features especially important for an animal’s survival. It is believed by evolutionary psychologists that many psychological functions are adaptations. As altruism per definition decreases the fitness of individuals, genes influencing altruistic behavior should be less likely to be passed on to the next generation Altruism has posed a challenge to evolutionary theory. There have nevertheless been efforts to explain this behaviour from a biological point of view. In 1964, Hamilton introduced the concept inclusive fitness.
Discuss evolutionary explanations of gender roles (21) The evolutionary perspective offers one biological explanation of gender development. Division of labour portrays man as the hunter and provider with the woman as the gatherer and domestic mother. This division may have evolved because women spent most of their time reproducing and then caring for their children, whilst the men went out and hunted in order to provide food for their families. If women were to hunt the groups survival rate would have decreased as their full attention would have not been to reproduce and to farm, meaning that if hunting was unsuccessful there would be no farm crops to eat and they would in turn starve. Kuhn and Stiner (2006) believed that not having a division of labour was the reason why the Neanderthals did not survive and the homo-sapiens did.