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Essays on gender studies
Essay on gender theories
Gender theories essays
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It would seem that gender is simple to understand. When most people think of gender they think of the basic characteristics of being male or female but Gender Theory calls for more than just thinking about gender in a way that has only two categories. When talking about theories of gender it requires a separation of sex and gender. One must reject the stereotypical attributes that are associated with belonging to a certain sex. This essay will identify and define four approaches to gender development under the biological, interpersonal, critical and cultural theoretical approaches to gender. I will then specify the one that I believe is most valid.
Throughout the years there have been numerous major theories proposed to explain gender development.
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Psychodynamic theories put a focus on the family/caregiver relationships which is female dominated. It is through the interactions with our family or caregivers that we build our identity. For males, this theory suggest they must find a way to separate themselves from the identities of their caregiver so that they can establish their own independence. The psychological theories of gender development include the social learning theory and the cognitive development theory. According to the social learning theory, children learn masculine and feminine behavior through imitation and validation. Children imitate their family members and things like television and video games. Their behavior is then validated by an authoritative figure or a positive (or negative) type of reinforcement. According to a study by Diane Ehrenhart (2011), children are not molded by their parents to become transgender or nonconforming, it is rather part of their true-self which they inherit at childbirth. When the child discloses their true gender identity to their family, reactions vary and can lead to psychological distress for the child, siblings, and parent(s). When reactions to gender nonconformity are negative, parents either have a hard time breaking from the beliefs of traditional gender or transcend the cultural norms and move into a transformational style of parenting. Cognitive …show more content…
These links are simply culturally constructed. Critical theories reject the idea that masculinity is the dominant and femininity is the subordinate. There should be no hierarchical relationship placing males “on top” or “above” females. Also, sexual orientation has no connection with gender identification meaning gay men are not more feminine than straight men and lesbians are not more masculine than straight women. One of three key theories under the critical theories of gender is the standpoint theory, first, this theory is about the different ways we experience situations. Perception is key, have you ever been on a date and he’s having a great time, and you’re ready to call it a night? Second, the standpoint theory focuses on experiences we’ve lived, our own lives are significant sources of "expertise." One could say that women are more understanding of life and how it works because we interact in the male dominated workforce as well as our homes which is not so dominated by men. So women understand both the workforce and the household better than men
To begin, I think it is important to analyze the difference between “sex” and “gender”. Up until researching for this paper, I though that the two terms were interchangeable in meaning, rather, they are separate ideas that are connected. According to Mary K. Whelan, a Doctor of Anthropology focusing on gender studies, sex and gender are different. She states, “Western conflation of sex and gender can lead to the impression that biology, and not culture, is responsible for defining gender roles. This is clearly not the case.”. She continues with, “Gender, like kinship, does have a biological referent, but beyond a universal recognition of male and female "packages," different cultures have chosen to associate very different behaviors, interactions, and statuses with men and women. Gender categories are arbitrary constructions of culture, and consequently, gender-appropriate behaviors vary widely from culture to culture.” (23). Gender roles are completely defined by the culture each person lives in. While some may think that another culture is sexist, or dem...
Basically, what one needs to know before proceeding to read through this analysis of gender development is that gender identity refers to “one’s sense of oneself as male, female, or transgender” (American Psychological Association, 2006). When one’s gender identity and biological sex are not congruent, the individual may identify as transsexual or as another transgender category (cf. Gainor, 2000). Example, Jennifer in the book, She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders, who brought us through the struggle of living a transgendered life from start to finish. Also, the formation of gender identity is influenced by social factors, such as family, friends, the environment, etc. For example, fathers tend to be more involved when their sons engage in gender-appropriate activities such as playing baseball or soccer rather than wanting to become a dancer or a cheerleader.
Gender roles are how you act, say or do that shows if you 're a man or woman. According to society a man has to be strong, independent, a leader, and so. A woman has to be dependent, know how to cook, and submissive. These stereotypes seem unfair and sexist. A women can be strong, independent, and bring home the money and it wouldn’t make her man she would still be a woman. A man can be shy, have feelings, and insecure and that wouldn’t make him a girl. In the 1920s gender roles had a big impact on everyday life. Men would go out and work whereas the women would stay home and look after the kids, clean the house and cook dinner. As a child they would be taught where their place in society was. It wasn’t until later on that gender roles shifted. In today’s society a woman can go to work and the man can stay home and look after the kids and it is perfectly normal. In fact 20% of women make $5,000 more than their spouse. That shows that women now have more opportunities and that gender roles have evolved. There are still gender roles in some parts of the world. Gender roles won’t vanish completely but they will
Fresh from the womb we enter the world as tiny, blank slates with an eagerness to learn and blossom. Oblivious to the dark influences of culture, pre-adult life is filled with a misconception about freedom of choice. The most primitive and predominant concept that suppresses this idea of free choice involve sex and gender; specifically, the correlation between internal and external sex anatomy with gender identity. Meaning, those with male organs possess masculine identities, which involve personality traits, behavior, etcetera, and the opposite for females. Manipulating individuals to adopt and conform to gender identities, and those respective roles, has a damaging, life-long, effect on their development and reflection of self through prolonged suppression. This essay will attempt to exploit the problems associated with forced gender conformity through an exploration of personal experiences.
This article was written to bring attention to the way men and women act because of how they were thought to think of themselves. Shaw and Lee explain how biology determines what sex a person is but a persons cultures determines how that person should act according to their gender(Shaw, Lee 124). The article brings up the point that, “a persons gender is something that a person performs daily, it is what we do rather than what we have” (Shaw, Lee 126). They ...
One theory of gender role development would be Kohlberg's theory of gender development (1966). His theory indicates that gender develops throughout different stages. Therefore, he predicts that children think about gender in characteristic ways in each stage. Going through the various stages children develop a more complex understanding of behaviour. The different stages are gender identity, gender stability and gender constancy.
In today’s society, it can be argued that the choice of being male or female is up to others more than you. A child’s appearance, beliefs and emotions are controlled until they have completely understood what they were “born to be.” In the article Learning to Be Gendered, Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell- Ginet speaks out on how we are influenced to differentiate ourselves through gender. It starts with our parents, creating our appearances, names and behaviors and distinguishing them into a male or female thing. Eventually, we grow to continue this action on our own by watching our peers. From personal experience, a child cannot freely choose the gender that suits them best unless our society approves.
Gender may be a universal concept, but the meaning of gender differs between societies. The way humans behave, speak, experience, think, and view the world is the final product of socialization. From the moment the sex of a fetus is known, humans are being molded into the person society wants them to be. Different parts of society have different functions in the gender-socialization process. The familial relationships and interactions one has with their immediate surroundings—peers, school, religion, and neighborhood—are the most influential aspects of gender development. Loosely connected societal influences like mass media, politics, and culture are influential as well. Throughout childhood, one’s family and interactions with their immediate surroundings teach and reinforce gender, while the rest of society acts as a reinforcer. During adolescence, the broader society begins to take on a minor instructor role in relation to the family in the further development of gender. Essentially, family always acts as the main gender instructor and reinforcer, while society acts as the secondary gender instructor and reinforcer.
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...
“And it’s a girl!” The doctor tells the parents in the hospital room. The first thing to run through a person’s mind after hearing those words is the color pink. It 's common knowledge to people in American society that if someone is having a baby girl, it is standard to get them pink clothes and toys, and for boys it is typical to get these things in blue. From this moment on, children are already told what is expected of them when it comes to their gender. This has been tradition in society for decades, but it may have some negative effects on the children that arise from it. How children are raised in society, either with traditional or modern gender roles, will influence how they act when they are older.
Heather A. Priess, a Professor of psychology with a focus on developmental psychology, writes in her article Adolescent Gender-Role Identity and Mental Health: Gender Intensification Revisited, "Parents were more likely to encourage independence, achievement, self-confidence, and competitiveness in sons than daughters, and more expressivity, warmth, and courtesy for others in daughters compared with sons." This speaks to the effect of someone's upbringing; furthermore, this is a crucial part of developing gender, and a parent will have a large role in developing a child's own identity. Not only this, but more and more children are beginning to question their identity. Robin Henig, an accomplished freelance writer with multiple science publications in various magazines, wrote in her article "How Science is Helping Us Understand Gender", "She’s questioning her gender identity, rather than just accepting her hobbies and wardrobe choices as those of a tomboy, because we’re talking so much about transgender issues these days." The fact that these issues are brought up more openly allow children to express how they're actually feeling rather than conform to gender roles within society. This does not only affect the children, but parents as well since they can be more accepting of child's choice of gender identity. The topic is not only limited to male and female genders but
As a child grows and conforms to the world around them, they go through various stages, one of the most important and detrimental stages in childhood development is gender identity. The development of the meaning of a child’s gender and gender can form the whole future of that child’s identity as a person. This decision, whether accidental or genetic, can affect that child’s lifestyle views and social interactions for the rest of their lives. Ranging from making friends in school all the way to intimate relationships later on in life, gender identity can become an important aspect to ones future endeavors. It is always said that boys and girls are complete opposites as they grow.
While the terms “gender” and “sex” are often used interchangeably, the two words have significantly different definitions. One could argue that sex refers to biological essentialism and the idea that we are who we are because of our genetic material. On the other hand, gender is associated with the social constructionist theory, which argues that the way we are is dependent on our race, class, and sexuality. Because each person is different in their race, class, and sexuality, their gender becomes socially constructed. To argue that gender is not socially constructed would be to say that all people, for example, that are biologically female have the same goals. However, this cannot be true because within the sphere of being female, that individual person varies from the next in their race, class, and/or sexuality, each of which affect their goals and perspectives differently from their sister, friend, and neighbor. One’s gender identity refers to his or her perception of self as a male or female, as well as being masculine or feminine. Because masculinity and femininity are fluid, rather than static, they are dependent on the perspective of the beholder. A person’s perspective is often influenced by their surroundings as well as values with which they were raised, both of which are never identical between two people. Race, class, and sexuality are the underlying factors that influence perspectives and values, thus differentiating the understanding and portrayal of gender identity from one person to another.
Gender is such a ubiquitous notion that humans assume gender is biological. However, gender is a notion that is made up in order to organize human life. It is created and recreated giving power to the dominant gender, creating an inferior gender and producing gender roles. There are many questionable perspectives such as how two genders are learned, how humans learn their own gender and others genders, how they learn to appropriately perform their gender and how gender roles are produced. In order to understand these perspectives, we must view gender as a social institution. Society bases gender on sex and applies a sex category to people in daily life by recognizing gender markers. Sex is the foundation to which gender is created. We must understand the difference between anatomical sex and gender in order to grasp the development of gender. First, I will be assessing existing perspectives on the social construction of gender. Next, I will analyze three case studies and explain how gender construction is applied in order to provide a clearer understanding of gender construction. Lastly, I will develop my own case study by analyzing the movie Mrs. Doubtfire and apply gender construction.
Human beings have been, and always will be, dichotomized into either male or female. When determining a person’s sex we often look for differences in facial features, body shape or mannerism’s, but another promising way to determine a persons sex and one that is most often used today, is through gender roles. Gender roles are behaviors that portray masculinity or femininity. The theory behind gender roles through multidisciplinary viewpoints is the focus of this paper. Throughout history and in every culture these roles have shifted and transformed into what society says is expectable. In this analysis, gender roles will be examined through a sociological, biological and evolutionary scope.