Gender as a process of social construction As part of our society, we have classified the “natural” differences between sexes as gender. The classification of female and male is also contingent with age; we have boys and girls, men and women, grandfather and grandmother ( Goldberg and Adriano, 2007). We have become so accustomed to the classification of male and female that we tend to interpret gender strictly as a biological state of being. When examining the idea of gender it is easy to interpret it as a simple phenomenon. That is, gender is widely perceived as simply being a natural occurrence that happens at birth.
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.
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.
One form of social difference is gender. The term gender refers to the biological categorization of humans according to their genitals (Weiten 2010). Males and females are expected to follow different etiquette concerning sexuality. The different organization of male and female lives has encouraged the development of different social norms (Baumeister & Vohs 2004). Society mostly accepts heterosexuality as normal which has led to there being social norms regarding how males and females
Gender development starts at conception, it is from this point forward that one is treated as male or female (WebMD, 2011) . At conception a female embryo has the XX chromosome while the male embryo has the XY chromosome. Those who suffer with a gender identity crisis may possess either the XX or XY chromosome but in fact identify with as well as exhibit traits of the opposite sex. One's sense of gender and one's anatomical sex are two distinct elements: each developing at different times in different parts of the body (Kaneshiro, 2011) . According to Nevid (2008) in his book, Psychology: Concepts and Applications, the biggest argument related to gender identity is the nature versus nurture, the role played by hereditary and environmental factors as well as their relationship to gender identity.
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.
According to Potts & Short (1999) the core social arrangement within the institution of the family is the marital relationship. The right to engage in sexual activity is a defining characteristic of marriage in all cultures; at the same time, marriage limits sexuality, separating the couple from all other sexually active adults in the society. The aim of this investigation is to compare and contrast western culture with developing countries. Within this investigation, an analysis of cultural restrictions and oppressive regulation influence sexuality of the population. I also aim to touch on the subgroups of love and marriage in a variation of cultural constructs.
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.
The biosocial theory. The term ‘culture’ encompasses the knowledge, beliefs and values shared by a society that are passed down the generations through imitation and communication. By looking at research through a variation of different cultures we can distinguish between universal features, which suggest an innate basis for gender therefore supporting the nurture side of the argument, and culturally specific features, which suggest gender is learned and so support the nurture side of the argument. A famous piece of cross cultural research on gender was the Six Cultures Study by Whiting and Whiting (1975) studied child rearing processes in North America, the Philippines, India, Mexico, Kenya and Japan. Researchers integrated themselves into the societies and conducted systematic 5 minute observations of the children’s daily lives.
These roles are not neutral but characterised by different possibilities for making choices, and different rights and deci¬sion-making powers; generally to the disad¬vantage of women. In contrast to the societal-ly-shaped role, or gender, the biological sex is determined at birth and is unalterable. Gender is an issue for every sector and every level of intervention. It is clear that in the context of our work gender should be seen as a cross-sectoral theme which is relevant at various levels of intervention and across all sectors, including those often termed "technical sectors", such as transport and construction. In very few instances, say projects covering solely the supply of materials and equip¬ment, can projects adopt a non-gender-differen¬tiated procedure.