Gender Differentiation Of New Zealand Society Essay

This workplace gender inequality is similarly evident in both the political and legal arenas, with 2012 statistics finding that ‘10 percent of all Federal Parliamentarians across Australia were women (66 out of 226)’. Furthermore, it has been identified that of the ‘current 932 individuals who make up the private Bar of the Queensland Bar Association, only 19.7 percent are women’, and of the whole of Queensland’s’ magistrates, only 36 out of 93, are women. As these statistics so clearly indicate, women are grossly underrepresented in the political and legal arenas, and the workplace in general. There are varying arguments that can reason this inequality, however, the most persuasive and logical places the blame on the orthodox gender roles that society has adopted and endorsed. As a result of these gender roles, men are automatically assumed to dominate more masculine occupations such as construction, engineering and law, while women often subjected to domestic occupations, such as, childcare, retail, nursing and education. Women are subsequently judged on their perceived gender role and not on their merits or competence, and are therefore unable to ‘equally contribute to and benefit from economic, social, cultural and political life’. The underrepresentation of women in the workplace is astounding and the reasons for why this inequality has riddled the Australian workforce can be answered by

Many people confuse the definition of gender and sex. “Gender, on the other hand, refers to the meanings, values, and characteristics that people ascribe to different sexes. Sex is a biological concept, determined on the basis of individual 's primary sex characteristics.” (Blackstone) Society gives social cues on the appropriate behavior for each sex. For example, women are to exert more feminine traits such as dependent, emotional, passive, innocent, nurturing, and/ or self-critical. On the other hand, men are to behave more masculine such as independent, non-emotional, aggressive, competitive,

Both Deborah Blum’s The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over? and Aaron Devor’s “Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes” challenges the concept of how gender behavior is socially constructed. Blum resides on the idea that gender behavior is developed mainly through adolescence and societal expectations of a gender. Based on reference from personal experiences to back her argument up, Blum explains that each individual develops their expected traits as they grow up, while she also claims that genes and testosterones also play a role into establishing the differentiation of gender behavior. Whereas, Devor focuses mainly on the idea that gender behavior is portrayed mainly among two different categories: masculinity and

Gender is actually a set of rules, customs and traditions assigned to people of a particular sex. Gender is not biological but sex is. Rather, according to Lorber, it is influenced by our society and our culture. By proving this claim, Judith Lorber has put forth the example of the man and this example is efficient in distinguishing “gender” as a practice than as an innate attribute.

Throughout many studies, researchers have said that gender develops from families, which is part of the social construction in children. According to Coltrane and Adams, Gender is defined as “To what it means to be a man or a woman in a specific time and place” (Coltrane and Adams). People in this world think that gender is automatically part of biological sex, but according to Coltrane and Adams, it is not a direct result of biological sex. The term is defined as “to refer relatively distinct biological differences between male and females such as genitals, hormones, and chromosomes” (Coltrane and Adams). For gender it is also social and it refers to how a person thinks that someone should look, act and feel (Coltrane and Adams). On the daily life, people will usually assume that a person “is” the gender that corresponds to his or her sex: females are feminine and males are masculine (Coltrane and Adams). In addition, gender also describes how the typical man and woman are supposed to present themselves. A man presenting himself as masculine and a woman presenting herself as feminine in particular cultures (Coltrane and Adams). In other words how women should act and how men should act.

Gender is considered an axis of social order. Its categorisation into masculinity and femininity is social constructed and maintained in everyday life (Clark and Page, 2005; Mackie, 1994). Gender identity is our innermost understanding of our self as ‘male’ or ‘female’. Most people develop a gender identity that matched their biological sex (their body). Gender identity can be affected by, and is different from one society to another, depending on the way the members of society evaluate the role of females and males. Our gender identity can be influenced from the ethnicity of the group, their cultural background, and family values. Gender like social class and race can be used to socially categorize people and even lead to prejudice and discrimination. From day –to-day, continuous production of gender has been called ‘doing gender’ (West and Zimmermann, 1987), meaning that gender is “made” by us in everyday lives in our interactions with others.

(Eisenchlas, 2013) Humans, being labelled by social creatures, are greatly influenced and shaped by society as well as social interactions, because of this gender roles are socially constructed rather than biologically

Radical changes in modern society have decreased the intense constraints gender stereotypes once had. Stereotypes are generalizations about a group of persons, in this case, gender roles fit under the stereotype branch as they are expectations based off of society’s views of either sex. Thus, forming social constructs; the generalization and expectations held by a group or person due to society. Gender is the traits one picks up based on what sex they are; for example, the social construct of masculinity and femininity are gender roles that are derived from the stereotypes passed down from society. In contrast, sex is the body parts one has that has the primary function of reproduction (Source A).

At a very young age we are introduced to a gender identity based upon the sex we were born with. Girls are associated with the color pink, dolls, nurturing tendencies, and inclined to be more emotional. While boys are associated with the color blue, the nature of masculinity, sports, and said to be more outspoken. However, gender and sex are two different things. Sex is the biological differences between female and male, while gender is social construct attached with social roles

Gender is often related to how we are perceived and how we are expected to think and act, usually due to the way that society is organized, and in fact has little to do with our biological differences. Feminist Sociologist Ann Oakley states ‘most of the debate about gender differences is angled at proving that women are/are not different from men, rather than proving that men are/are not different from women. If this facts needs explaining, it is enough to point out the bias of our culture is still patriarchal…’ (Oakley,

Gender can sometimes be seen as biological characteristics humans have, when in fact it is the social characteristic ones society deems either masculine or feminine. Sex, on the other hand, is the biological differences in humans, for example, hormones and sex organs. People usually play gender roles in society, otherwise known as gender ideology. Gender ideology is when men and women have certain attitudes regarding their ‘fixed’ roles, responsibilities and rights. Throughout history men and women have been socialized to play these expected roles that have been placed on them due to their sex. In my own personal life I have encountered many instances where I have been socialized in relation to sex and gender.

The concept of gender has a strong social impact on me. When I was born, I was immediately assigned to a biological sex as a female with two X chromosomes. I was then socially classified as a girl in the society with feminine gender roles. Gender is defined as a social principle which attribute to the roles and expectations of males and females through the years of different societies (Phillips, 2005). Gender can be considered as behavioural, cultural and psychological traits

Gender is a learned social construction on what you do. It is a cultural system based on the binary opposition of men and women but there are also variations

Any society displays a certain degree of inequality. Researches, studies or media analysis in various fields such as history, sociology, philosophy or anthropology highlight the existence of at least one social division at any given time in the history of mankind. The issue raised and analysis below is “to what extend is social division in Aoteroa New Zealand organised around gender relations”. Gender relation refers to differences that appear in all aspects of men and women lives and how these differences impact on accessing resources and seizing opportunities for personal development. Social division can be defined as a group of individuals who share common economic resources which strongly influence their lifestyle. Relation and interdependence between gender and social division is a main topic in New Zealand as proven by an array of books, journal articles, statistic research including Simon Kumar’s peer review article “Differences that matter” or “The Political Economy of New Zealand” edited by Chris Rudd and Brian Roper or “New Zealand Society: a sociological institution” to name only a few. While the article “Differences that Matter” focuses on arguing that nowadays gender cannot be justified as a structural disadvantage, this paper aims to show using findings from Simon-Kumar articles, that in New Zealand government institutions through public agenda played a major role in determining the perception and understanding of gender inequality and differentiation at all

Women make up 51% of the New Zealand population, however, women in New Zealand parliament only make up just over 30% in parliament (2014). For women to be represented in parliament, it means that women need to be seen as a ‘norm’ in government, and therefore all positions of power. This under-representation can be linked to factors such as the environment and the culture of the New Zealand parliament and political parties. It is important to note that women are not a homogenous group; and we have to include ethnicity and class, which links into opportunity. This gender gap in parliament has caused societal issues to be silenced and minority groups to be left out of decision making and therefore society.