Gender, which is different from sex, is defined as the social construct of being masculine or feminine, represented as a spectrum. Gender identity, however, is ones own perception of being male, female, or neither. In other words, it is how a person sees themselves.
A popular theory explaining the stages of gender development was proposed by Kohlberg
(1966)1
. He theorised that there were three stages of gender development, namely, gender labelling, gender stability and gender constancy.
According to Kohlberg, the first stage, gender labelling, occurs around the age of 3 and involves the child being able to differentiate between boys and girls. This is usually through simple physical characteristics or activities engaged in such as length
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This is usually through observation of gender models, e.g. parents and other influential adults. Some children, however, struggle during this stage, as their internal feelings may not match what society expects of them. Many of these children may grow up to understand that they are transgender, or any other non-binary gender. Two of the main theories that influence gendered behaviour in children are social and biological theories.
Biological theorists believe that gender is affected by factors that are predetermined by the sex of the child, for example, hormones and sex organs. Biological theorists of gender therefore believe that sex causes gendered behaviour, e.g. the fact that a female has much lower levels of testosterone will lead to gendered behaviour, e.g. passiveness.
Social theorists believe that gender is influenced by factors that are in the environment in which the child is brought up in. This can include parents, peer groups and the media.
A study that can be used to support biological explanations of gendered behaviour and consistency is that conducted by Dr Imperato-McGinley (1970)2. She travelled to Cuba to investigate rumours of children that were being raised as girls growing penises and
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Looking at social factors, the influence of parents and other relevant adults in the lives of children have been noted as the main factor in gendered behaviour and consistency in said children. A study that can be used to explain the effect parents have on their children behaving gender consistent was conducted by Lytton and Romney (1991)3.
In this study it was found that parents subconsciously influenced their children on what gender appropriate or not. For example, buying boys more active toys such as cars and buying girls less active or passive toys such as dolls reinforces gender stereotypes. Parents were also found to say less obvious things such as "Boys like football" or "Stop running around like that, you're a girl". All of these play a significant part in gendered behaviour an consistency, as parents, or any other relevant adult, are usually role models for children, and they usually try to do things that would please these adults.
This study was, however, conducted in the western world so it may not be applicable to other parts of the world. There is, however, significant evidence to support heavily enforced gender stereotypes in the Middle East and Africa ("Majority of men
While sex refers the biological characteristics that make up a person, their gender is determined by the behaviors and attitudes considered “proper” by society according to their sex.
The critical rank for reducing gender inequalities should be education, labor force participation, and lastly, wages. There are obvious differences between men and women whether it’s anatomically, financially, and so forth. The gender inequalities women face compared to men is alarming and saddening. Gender stereotypes reinforce gender inequalities because stereotypes can often be internalized which results in biases against either sex. These biases against a person can result in negative results. Gender inequality has been within our society for a long time especially amongst women.
The clusters of social definitions used to identify persons by gender are collectively known as “femininity” and “masculinity.” Masculine characteristics are used to identify persons as males, while feminine ones are used as signifiers for femaleness. People use femininity or masculinity to claim and communicate their membership in their assigned, or chosen, sex or gender. Others recognize our sex or gender more on the basis of these characteristics than on the basis of sex characteristics, which are usually largely covered by clothing in daily life.
The second stage is when the female protagonist has to confront her biological femaleness. This happens with the little girl in 'Remember the Titans' when she starts spending time with Coach Boone's children, who are more conventionally "girly". At first she scorns them, but after a while a friendship grows up between them. She...
The Social Expectations of Race and Gender “.Race, gender, and social class play a key role in why stereotypes and inequality are so challenging to erase (Gender & Society). ” How a person sees others should not be determined by what he or she assumes to know about them based on stereotypes. Even the way we impose a racial interpretation on someone draws on traditional customs that reflect both gender and race. Overall, it is astonishing how consistent the design of ethnic fluency is within societal expectations about what other people do, and even what we anticipate from women compared to that of men. Ultimately, race and gender can put individuals at odds with social expectations.
The focus of this week assignment is to discuss the interactions of gender, ethnicity, and identity development. In addition I will discuss the role of stereotyping and how it influence male and female gender identity. In conclusion I will discuss the impact that ethnicity and gender have on children when it comes to choosing between the ethnic identity of their family of origin and their culture.
People often believe a person 's gender is based on their biological sex; biological sex is defined as the anatomy you are born with. Gender is the identity of a person based on their environment and how they have been influenced. Which shows that the biological makeup of a person and what gender they identify with has nothing to do with each other. Today gender and sexuality has become so fluent that gender role stereotypes should be changed too; over decades of powerful movements have been made to change stereotypes but the work is not over.
Gender differences are influences on gender behavior in the way that one must fit through the assumptions and inevitable confusion to distinguish the reality of the assumption. Men and women are obviously different inherently, but not in what they can and cannot do. Men and women are different and have different roles because this is society presented them to the world. Women have the most difficulty getting through these complicated times. There should be equality among all men and women of all races and ethnicity. This is a never-ending issue. We as a society should always know and act on the importance of gender roles, gender equality, and challenges with education in developed and developing countries.
femininity. She first expresses two different ways of thinking about the nature of gender: as
The word gender refers to a general classification of human beings into male and female with socially and culturally constructed characteristics, behaviors, attributes and roles preconceived and labelled as appropriate for each class. The society and culture today have placed human beings in a box which to a large extent dictates how we act in the world.
Gender refers to psychological and emotional characteristics that cause people to assume, masculine, feminine or androgynous (having a combination of both feminine and masculine traits) roles. Your gender is learned and socially reinforced by others, as well as by your life experiences and g...
Sex denotes to the bodily and birth features of men and women. Sex is the categorization of people into male and female groups based in biological characteristics. While gender is the cultural or social interpretation of sex; putting people into male behavioral and female expectations groups based on association with biological being a socially characteristics appropriate man or woman. In “The Social Construction of Gender”, “When sociologist refer to the social construction of gender, they are referring to the many different process by which the expectations associated with being a boy or girl are passed through society”. (p.22)
Social Construction of Gender Today’s society plays a very important role in the construction of gender. Gender is a type of issue that has raised many questions over the years in defining and debating if both male and female are equal. Today, gender is constructed in four different ways. The The first way gender is defined is by the family in which a child is raised.
The gender issues in today’s society are issues to discuss because they are tainting the lives of people from an early age. This is important because girls and boys are showing increasing levels of insecurities that are arising due to fundamental gender issues in society. The masculine stereotype is one the most prevailing causes of gender issues in society, especially the issue of sexism. Our society must address this issue because the cycle of sexism only feeds into peoples’ insecurities. Men should not feel obligated to objectify women to feel masculine and women should not feel like they must be sensual and beautiful to have value. The stereotypes that are being placed on men and young boys effect the attitudes of the women around them and creates a cycle of hypersexualization and sexism, leaving the relationships between genders tainted and women feeling less confident in themselves. By changing the way people think men and women are supposed to be, we can change the way our society values one another and in turn, become a more equal and respectful society.
Different sociologists have given different definitions for gender. However, in its simplest term, gender refers to the socially expected roles and relation between men and women. For example, boys are expected to be the strong ones, aggressive and competitive and girls are to be sweet, caring, and gentle and handled with care. These characteristics, amongst others, are what the society actually expects from individuals based on their sex, but it does not mean that it is imperative for a girl to be feminine or a boy to be masculine which implies that gender is independent of sex. Robert Stoller, an American psychoanalyst, is the first person to have made this observation. While gender is closely linked to sex, they do not have the same meaning. Stoller differentiated between sex and gender by stating that the physical characteristics of a being makes him either a male or a female contrary to gender which makes an individual either masculine or feminine. In other words, it means that sex is what we are born with; either a male or a female and is difficult to change, whereas gender is the character given to us by the society.