Social inequality and social stratification, according to this view, lead to a meritocracy based on ability. Conflict theorists, on the other hand, view inequality as resulting from groups with power dominating less powerful groups. They believe that social inequality prevents and hinders societal progress as those in power repress the powerless people in order to maintain the status quo. Positions are important so long as those in power consider them to be significant. Gender is seen closely related to the roles and behavior assigned to women and men based on their sexual differences.
Within the social sciences, the conceptualization of sexism depends upon the basic assumptions about human nature, society, and their relationship which underlie current theories about society and social behavior; theories vary in the emphasis given to either human nature or to society. If priority is given to human nature, persons are considered to have inherent traits such as selfishness, competitiveness, and utilitarianism. Social relations and institutions are viewed, consequently, as products of those individual traits. In this context,, men and women are considered to have innate traits that make them different from each other. For example, while.males are aggressive, strong, instrumental, etc., females are weak, submissive, affective, nurturant, etc.
A Cross Cultural Examination of Sexuality: Modern vs Underdeveloped Societies Psychologists have highlighted a number of divisions regarding sexuality across a variety of cultures. The word ‘sex’ has different meanings. Sex refers to the biological and physiological differences between men and women, the most obvious being differences in their reproductive systems. Every culture controls the sexuality of its members to a certain extent, by embedding it in the institutions of family, religion and law. According to Potts & Short (1999) the core social arrangement within the institution of the family is the marital relationship.
myths is a popular belief or story that has become associated with a person, institution or occurrence, especially on considered to illustrate a cultural ideal. Femininity and Masculinity are involved in mythology because there is a division between man and woman in mythology. A stereotype is a belief that maybe adopted about a specific type of individuals or a certain way of doing things, but that belief may or may not accurately affect reality. ( Deaux & Lewis, 1984; Foushee, Helmreich, & Spence, 1979) States that sex stereotypes are socially shared beliefs about what qualities can be assigned to individuals based on their
While sex refers to the biological differences between male and female, gender refers to the socially constructed and variable categories of masculine and feminine. Men are the world leaders, policemen, and private security and military, women are the housekeepers and child caregivers. They are lower paid and work as repairers of the consequences of violence as nurses, psychologists and social workers. The United Nations regard gender equality as a human right. They point out that: empowering women is also an indispensable tool for advancing development and reducing poverty.
Across the centuries women were repudiated entitlements equal to men and due the assembly of gender, men were given higher power above women. This has managed to disparate arguments of what is indeed the act of the woman in a gendered area and clashing for the credit of a female species (Rosenstand, 2009: 586). 3 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SEX AND GENDER Liberal feminists squabble that both boys and girls across origin are born the alike merely the area will craft them on how ought to a man and a woman behave in a gender crafted society. Sex could be described as biological contrasts both inner and external organs. Gender could denote to communal institutionalization of sexual differences; they believed gender is utilized by those who comprehend not merely sexual inequality but far of sexual contrasts to be communal craft were by men and women are crafted to behave in precise methods that could be categorized as feminine of masculine (Okin, 1989: 116).
That is, gender is widely perceived as simply being a natural occurrence that happens at birth. Yet, studying gender as a social-economic driver rather than just a natural phenomenon, allows us to understand that there is more to gender than simply human nature. In reality gender is continually been re-created through” human interactions, and is the texture and order of social life”. In other words, we identify the differences between male and a female based on the behavior each one of these respective statuses constitutes in our social life. Personally, I define gender as a human production that depends on everyone constantly “doing” gender.
What are gender stereotypes and how are they conveyed in our society? According to Mior and Jessel (1989), gender refers to the socially constructed roles of, and relations between, men and women, while 'Sex' refers to biological characteristics which define humans as female or male. These biological characteristics are not mutually exclusive however, as there are individuals who possess both. This definition is also shared by the website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender. A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals.
GENDER AND GENDER ROLES Gender has several definitions and the following are some of them: • World Health Organization defines gender as the characteristics, roles and responsibilities of women and men, boys and girls, which are socially constructed. Gender is related to how we are perceived and expected to think and act as women and men because of the way society is organized, not because of our biological differences. • Health Canada refers to gender as the array of socially constructed roles and relationships, personality traits, attitudes, behaviours, values, relative power and influence that society ascribes to the two sexes on a differential basis. Gender is relational - gender roles and characteristics do not exist in isolation, but are defined in relation to one another and through the relationships between women and men, girls and boys. Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral rules that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between cultures.
Sex, Gender and Gender roles redefined In her book The Second Sex, Simone De Beauvoir states, “One is not born, but, rather becomes a woman”. This statement highlights the difference between sex and gender. While sex is a biological term, gender is a social and cultural construct. An individual is born into the categories of male or female but it is the very task of ‘accomplishing gender’ that determines the social identity of the person. Women are under a constant pressure to adhere to roles that are specific to their gender and so are men.