For example, cultural feminists look to the different values associated with womanhood and femininity as a reason why men and women experience the social world differently. Other feminist theorists believe that the different roles assigned to women and men within institutions better explain gender difference, including the sexual division of labor in the household. Existential and phenomenological feminists focus on how women have been marginalized and defined as the “other” in patriarchal societies. Women are thus seen as objects and are denied the opportunity for self-realization. Gender Inequality: Gender-inequality theories recognize that women's location in, and experience of, social situations are not only different but also unequal to men's.
What people perceive as the “norm” for men and women means that there is still a high level of gender inequality, because manly men are influenced to dominate due to their masculinity, and women are expected to submit as they are seen as the weaker gender, and more “feminine” which seems to have negative connotations in society. Especially in working environments, there is still a huge issue of society assuming jobs are gender-specific. For example, mechanics and transport-related fields of work are male-dominated and it is expected that women shouldn’t do these types of jobs because they are “dirty” and include intense “manual labour”. This assumption that women shouldn’t participate in manual labour is so outdated and untrue, there is no reason a woman has any kind of disadvantage to a man when it comes to changing the brake pads of a car or jump starting a battery, so why is it still frowned upon for women to be in such a
The gender system is deeply entwined with social hierarchy and leadership because gender stereotypes contain status beliefs that associate greater status worthiness and competence with men than women. This review uses expectation states theory to describe how gender status beliefs create a network of constraining expectations and interpersonal reactions that is a major cause of the “glass ceiling.” In mixed-sex or gender-relevant contexts, gender status beliefs shape men’s and women’s assertiveness, the attention and evaluation their performances receive, ability attributed to them on the basis of performance, the influence they achieve, and the likelihood that they emerge as leaders. Gender status beliefs also create legitimacy reactions that penalize assertive women leaders for violating the expected status order and reduce their ability to gain complaince with directives. More than a trait of individuals, gender is an institutionalized system of social practices for constituting males and females as different in socially significant ways and organizing inequality in terms of those differences (Ridgeway & SmithLovin, 1999). Widely shared gender stereotypes are in effect the “genetic code” of the gender system, since they constitute the cultural rules or schemas by which people perceive and enact gender difference and inequality.
Gender and The Body ANTH100C Gender and the body are both socially constructed ideas that inform society how they should act and how they should look. Since they are both socially constructed they will mean different things depending on the culture and society that you belong to. While different genders face different body related issues society pressures each gender in its own way. Cultural standards of gender and the body can be hard to meet. While they effect everyone differently they lead to my personal battle with anorexia.
How do gender and sex contribute to the concepts and constructions of masculinity and femininity? Sex and gender have everything to do with masculinity and femininity. Men are considered to be masculine by being strong and tough and women are considered to be feminine by having supposed less strength and ladylike behaviors. As I have stated above, each is categorized and history has presented itself as these being the reasons why. * * Do our concepts of gender and sex contribute to the ways we embrace gender and sex in diversity?
Nevertheless, it seems that he could not escape the dominant philosophy of his own society that women were the weaker sex. The question is why? Why did More believe that giving more rights and power to women would contribute to the creation of a perfect society? Also, why, yet giving women more rights and power than they usually would be given, he still maintained the patriarchal values of the sixteenth century? Even in the perfect Utopian world of Thomas More, the social status of women, the role they played in society and the general way they were treated, were influenced by the dominant view of the society at that time and by his own personal values.
In Huxley’s Brave New World the men and woman have very different roles in society. The women are seen as inferior to men, for example in places of work where a position of power is needed a man will have this job because men are represented as being mentally superior to women. This is relevant to most of the situations in Brave New World. When it comes to situations of a sexual nature then men are held in a higher standing than women. The motives behind Huxley’s depiction of women in this way is to sort of poke fun at Sigmund Freud’s theory that the origins of all inner conflicts are the family.
What do you understand by gender and to what extent is a person’s behaviour regulated by their gender? This paper will aim to define gender and to look at how people in society are delegated by the gender they presume to be. Gender is understood and defined by most feminist as a set of socially constructed category that is culturally defined as masculine and feminine. This in society is easily mistaken with sex, which refers to the physical, internal and external sexual organs of a person. A person being born a female does not necessarily mean they are destined to be of feminine gender, even though this is what is seen as the norm in most societies today.
Fair Pay Divided and Distributed Social distinctions between men and women make up what is known as gender. Gender is not the same as sex, which refers to the biological differences between males and females. Gender is an invention of society, learned over a period of years through interactions with family, friends, and other people. Both physical and social factors influence a person's gender identity. Gender affects a person's roles and position in society.
In sociological terms, it has been pointed out by transgender activist Leslie Feinberg that: ‘gender is a key factor that shapes social behaviour and social institutions.’ and ‘gender is ‘understood culturally and theoretically as a dualism.’ (Marsh et al, 216) Gender inequality is definitely something that we often take for granted; it is accepted and seems so normal in society. These differences often seem invisible to us even though it happens in our everyday life in everything from employment and education to politics and the media without us being aware of it. (Davis, K. 2006) explains: ‘Society shows us that gender is a system that privileges some men and disadvantages most women.’ I agree with this and believe that social differences significantly changes male and female attitudes and views on life more than biological differences in gender. Before we look at the gender inequalities in paid employment, it is vital to look at unpaid labour and the discriminations that women face. History has shown us that the roles and responsibilities for men and women were already chosen for them.