Sociological Concept Of Femininity And Masculinity

Sociological concept of gender: Femininity and masculinity Introduction

There are various approaches to analyse gender and femininity and masculinity in sociology. In general way, sociology of gender focuses on exploring men and women social differences, status in society and family through culture, job, governmental institutions, politics. In sociologists view gender can not be classified with biological factors but should be understood as social category where gender is learned behaviour and culturally produced identity. On one hand, gender as a social construct appears during socialization process which is influenced by culture and could be explained from macro level approach. On the other hand, there

We can find this definition of gender: “Gender is social classification based on one’s identity, presentation of self, behaviour, and interaction with other”. Some authors describe the process when individual from a social environment not only takes over the social categories and symbolic manifestations (masculinity and femininity) attributed to his gender, but also actively modify and adapt them. Looking from macro-level approach gender’s social categories are social institutions that shape the person's self-awareness and define the social interactions between men and women and organizational structures of a hierarchical nature that unequally distribute public goods (money, prestige, power, social mobility opportunities) between different sexes. Functionalists in mid-twentieth century claimed that men fill instrumental roles in society whereas women fill expressive roles. Gendered division of labour was most important for smooth functioning of a society. From this functional perspective our socialization into prescribed roles lead to gender inequality because it makes men and women make different choices about family and

He is trying to explain the group and the individual in functional analysis, where always be arguments on subjectivity and objectivity, social determination and individuality. He is saying: “The analysis of such aspects as economics, education or social control, and political organization defines the type and level of the characteristic activities in a culture, discloses the totality of motives, interests, values of the individual, and gives insight into the whole process by which the individual is conditioned or culturally formed, and of the group mechanism of the this process. The analysis into institutions gives the concrete picture of the social organization within the culture”. This statement could be seen similar to what we call socialization and culturally formed gender concept. Social gender shaping is a process of socialization in which an individual chooses the gender roles that are acceptable in his culture, society, and group. Boys and girls try to be similar to those of the same gender. In this way it is determined by specific cultural norms, traditions. Every individual knows and uses information “set” about the personal characteristics of women and men, patterns of behaviour, and the peculiarities of