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Gender:
1. People acquire their gender identity and social roles based on expectations of men and women in the wider society. Understanding this process involves distinguishing between sex and gender.
The term sex refers to the biological or anatomical differences between males and females
Whereas gender refers to the social, cultural and psychological differences that define female and male bodies.
Gender socialisation refers to socially constructed understandings of femininity and masculinity.
Gender is not the direct result of biology.
Three approaches to gender:
1. gender has a biological basis
2. gender socialisation
3. social construction of sex and gender
The following provides an example of each:
1. Gender and Biology
• Some researchers maintain that biology or sex explains the differences in men and women’s behaviour. ... GENDER SOCIALIZATION:
Gender refers to the social, psychological and cultural differences of men and women.
Each society has certain traits and behaviours associated with masculinity and femininity.
• Children are born with a biological sex but acquire a gender identity. A child is born one or other sex (unless there are problems) but they learn their gender identity.
• Children acquire their gender identity through interaction with various agents of socialisation; primary agents are parents – secondary agents are siblings, friends, peers, teachers and the media (particularly television). ... This approach holds that gender inequalities come about because women and men are socialised into different roles.
• Gender socialisation theory is favoured by functionalist theorists who maintained boys and girls learned sex roles along with female and male identities (femininity and masculinity). ...
• Functionalists believe that agents of socialisation promote social order by ensuring smooth gender socialisation of new generations. ...
• Humans are not passive objects of gender programming. ...
• Feminist researchers demonstrate how media and cultural products are marketed to young audiences embody traditional attitudes towards gender.
• As Bourdieu (1990) points out, once a gender is assigned, society expects individuals to act like ‘males’ and ‘females’. ... The Social Construction of Sex and Gender:
• Social scientists taking this view, maintain that understandings of both sex and gender are socially and culturally constructed. Gender is a social creation (ie people in a society have cultural understandings of what if means to be male or female, suitable attitudes and behaviours).
• They reject all biological theories of gender difference.
• Social construction theory holds that people’s gender identities match social ideas about sex differences. So a society that equates masculinity with physical strength or emotional toughness, will encourage men to cultivate behaviours and a body image to match these expectations.
• They believe that people within a society give meaning to their body (eg biologically female breasts are mammary glands that can provide milk for a baby. ...
Theories of Gender Inequality
• Gender differences between men and women are rarely neutral and represent one form of social stratification.
• Gender structures the life chances or opportunities available for men and women in a society and the social roles each participates in starting from the home through to the organisation of the state. ...
• Gender inequality is a concern of (male and female) sociologists, who seek to explain men’s dominance of women in economics, politics, education and the family.
Following are theoretical explanations of gender inequality.
Gender inequality is defined as the difference in power, prestige and wealth between men and women in a society. The type of research and theory being developed is based on the following questions:
Do men and women have equal access to scarce resources in their society (eg money, education, time, power? ...
Functionalist Approach (Conservative view)
• Functionalist theory maintains that society can be viewed as a social system consisting of interrelated parts that, when in balance, produce social stability or solidarity.
Approximate Word count = 2951
Approximate Pages = 11.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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