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Gender
Introduction
It may seem trite and rather obvious to say so but one of the few unambiguously universal features of human societies is the fact that they all consist of males and females. ... On the conceptual level, for example, although such a distinction tends not to be made in popular usage, it is sociologically essential to distinguish between "sex", the different biological and hence genetically transmitted characteristics of males and females, and "gender", the learned, socio-cultural differences between them in their habituses, personality and behaviour. ... Gender, by contrast, is more fluid and open and, particularly since the 1960s has come, to varying degrees and in different ways to be regarded as problematic and fought over - an issue of "cultural politics" - in all the industrial societies of the world, especially those in the West.
Underlying the emergence of gender and gender relations as a fought-over issue of cultural politics have been such relatively covert processes as declining family size and changes in household technology which have contributed between them to the defunctionalisation of the traditional mother/housewife role. ... Indeed, there is reason to believe that it has come to be one of the key sites where struggles over gender identities; gender roles and gender relations are currently taking place. ... This control was exerted on both a class and gender basis with only male-approved activities being sanctioned for women (McCrone, 1999). ... This pattern of gender differential in sports participation is replicated in other societies where data from the 1990s shows male predominance in Japan (60. ... The 1993/94 General Household Survey figures suggest increasing female participation and the narrowing of the gender gap, although not in outdoor team sports. ... Religion and gender combined to affect participation particularly among Muslim women. ...
Perspectives on gender
Early interventions into this field were almost exclusively feminist based (Birrell, 1999) and their major concern was to deconstruct traditional roles and establish a more equal position between the sexes. ... Gender discussion involves many different perspectives, including sexual orientation, and there is increasing research into the area of masculinity (Kidd, 1999; Messener and Sabo, 1990). Subsequently, there is no common, universal interpretation of the nature and extent of gender conflict which remains in a state of dynamic flux and is interrelated to class and ethnic considerations. However, there is growing recognition of sport as an academic vehicle for the investigation of gender since many of the traditional sporting behaviours of men and women can now be seen as being determined by “social custom rather than genetics” (Riordan, 1999).
The idea that the life course is not a biologically determined constant accompanied by typical stages of psychological development but a socially constructed and therefore widely variable phenomenon is supported by both historical research into the images of the life course in western culture and cross cultural studies of the life course (Featherstone and Hepworth,1999)
Sociologists with a Functionalist bias, relying on an essentially linear, Darwinistic approach to social development, see social issues such as gender from a non-confrontational perspective and rely on natural development to produce the society best suited to that place in time. ...
The solution to the gender issue lies in the abolition of capitalism. ... Class structures, gender relations, racial attitudes are all viewed as concomitant with this and as random or accidental processes. However, the restructuring of societies along socialist lines where these issues have been addressed, but not solved (Riordan, 1999), leads to the conclusion that a broader perspective that could, for example, account for a situation where there was equality in economic terms yet continuing inequality in terms of opportunity based on gender needs to be employed. ... However, they also employ the wider perspectives of the dynamic and fluctuating natures of power balances, together with a range of social and human factors, to paint a much broader canvas than Marxists in discussing gender and sport. ... As a result struggles between groups, including social classes and gender groups continue to be of crucial significance in the determination of the unplanned yet structured and determinable dynamics of such societies.
Gender relations are fundamentally affected by the character and overall structure of the society including the level and type of economic development, the status of inter-societal relationships and the trajectory of that societys civilizing process and the level reached in that connection. ...
As the “civilizing process” unfolds and men’s power balances in relation to women alter, for example in the reduction of the threshold of acceptance of inter gender violence, the need for the male majority to retain their feeling s of power and dominance has led them to view sports as one of the last bastions of a previously universal male dominance. ... In this way “males and females actively collaborate to maintain the existing gender arrangements” (Kidd, 1999). ... In an effort to move to a more pluralist position than Marxism there appears to be a danger of devaluing the importance of the economic power balance that is crucial to any discussion of gender and sport. ...
In our patriarchal society masculinity and sport are intertwined (Riordan, 1999) and sport is inextricably allied to commercial interests, gender, class, and race/ethnic relations.
Approximate Word count = 6597
Approximate Pages = 26.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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