Carole S. Vance's Social Construction Theory?

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Throughout history our understanding of the world has been manufactured through the judgment of human beings. The overall change and shift in paradigms can be explained by social construction theory. An article written by Carole S. Vance discusses the topic of social construction theory and illustrates how it impacts gender roles. Social construction can be defined as: a critical subject of reality that analyzes the ideas of a particular group or culture based on society and the aspects of society (education, religion, government etc.) Another article “Feminist Critiques of the Public/Private Dichotomy” written by Carole Pateman explains how men had placed women in a hypothetical bubble that is dominated by men. Men have always been looked …show more content…

Vance, challenges the nature of any given domain. It proposes that any given domain, for instance the accepted gender roles of women, are a product of human creations and not natural or real. When humans are born into this world they are a blank canvas. As they grow older and begin to interact they pick up behaviors and aspects of society such as media, religion education system, the government etc. As mentioned in the lecture, concepts such as gender roles, women have been portrayed as the underling of men because of ‘historical, economical and cultural forces.’ For example, most religions in India veiw women only as housewives and the bearer of their …show more content…

This ideology that women be accounted for the private lives, separate from men in the public lives is an overall result of what Patemen describes to be patriarchal- liberalism. This is where social construction theory take place. This idea of a patriarchy is a result of history. Rooted in the mid 19th century, the role of a woman happened to be limited to simply a dependent individual who has her own limitations that were imposed upon her by society, history and culture. It was viewed that the man work for his family so he could provide food while the mother ‘performed unpaid tasks’ like taking care of the children and cleaning. As we move towards our current generations, we see a shift between gender roles. There are stay at home fathers who take care of the children while the women work. Nature plus biology gives us this being(women), who physically differentiates from another being (man). Had she been given the chance she holds the same capacity, strength and intellect from that of a male she would be viewed as an equal rather than insignificant. However, through the influence of social initiation, relations and culture she was identified as dependent. This is proven by female figures such as Rhonda Rousey, Oprah Winfred and Molalla

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