Gender Identity And Socioeconomic Status

​Gender identity has changed its definition over time. The psychological definition as stated from the social learning theory is that gender identity is the sense of being male or female. Seems simple but we now know in todays world the definition has broadened. Gender identity is now defined as one 's personal experience of one 's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with assigned sex at birth, or can differ from it completely. All societies have a set of gender categories that can serve as the basis of the formation of a person 's social identity in relation to other members of society. From the past when we had many strong women’s rights activist who fought so what your gender was did not

Sex, gender- gender roles and gender identity, are words that one might assume to mean the same but in reality they don’t. It is an incorrect assumption and everyone should understand the difference. They each have their own distinct meaning, for a reason and purpose. The definitions are concrete and make sense once a person hears and applies them.

​​Gender is defined as whatever behaviors and attitudes a group considers proper for its males and females. Unlike sex, gender is something that we learn from the day we are born. “Young children begin to acquire gender role stereotypes at about the same time they develop gender identity and by the age of 3 or 4 most children” (Amanda Youmans). Peers, community, media, religion and our upbringing all play a role in the understanding of our culture and what is considered acceptable for males and females. When the sex of a child is revealed, they are automatically placed into a gender specific role with certain expectations. There are things in this world such as colors, toys, media depiction and taught behaviors that play into these gender roles.

Debates about identity as environmentally or biologically constructed have been on going in several studies. The belief that identity is innate is a form of common sense understanding that is challenged by the constructionist perspective of identity. The sex/gender identity is when a person who is determined as male or female based on biological criteria is required to act according to assigned gender roles of masculinity or femininity (Carrera et al. 2012). That being said, the sex/gender identity creates limitations on the categories a persons identity can fall under. Although we have these fixed categories, gender identity is socially constructed because there are groups outside of being a man and woman. Also, there are different types of gender identities across the world and identity is created over time.

In a sense, a person’s social statuses define who they are and where they stand in the complex structure of social standings with our fellow humans. Some of these statuses we strive to obtain, such as the development of friendships or climbing up the hierarchy of a profession; others are thrust upon us at birth or by happenstance. The former are achieved statuses, a fitting name as such status must be obtained by the achievement of goals set by either individuals or society itself. The latter, those statuses thrust upon individuals, are called ascribed statuses. These include a person’s sex at birth, their race, physical and mental handicaps, etc. Social statuses greatly affect a person’s life, as different statuses beget different reactions from society. This paper will touch on such differences in three areas: sex/gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Sex/gender concerns what sex a person was born into, and what kinds of expectations were placed upon them as they grow into women and men. Race/ethnicity concerns the physical differences of individuals based upon their families’ geographical origins- which can have an impact on traditions passed down within their family as well as determine how they are viewed within our culture. Socioeconomic status is a person’s social class, which is determined by wealth, quality of life, and profession. These classes include the upper class, upper middle class, lower middle class, working class, and the lower class.

Prior to a couple of years ago, no one ever questioned my gender. After reading about cisgender privilege, I realized I had it in spades compared to now. I was easily able to put on a feminine appearance during job interviews and at weddings. It felt fake and I hated feeling

Gender identity is an extremely personal part of who we are, and how we perceive and express ourselves in the world. It is a separate issue entirely from sex or sexual orientation. There are dozens of dynamic and evolving terms related to how people identify. “Although Children are taught that their genes decree whether they will grow into men or women, people are not born socially or culturally female or male. Like race and ethnicity, gender can be thought of as socially constructed” (Marsiglia & Kulis, 2015, p. 196). I identify as female because I was taught as a child that I am female because of the genital parts I was born with. I also feel like I am a female. I do have my beliefs on what being a female or male entails.

The other biological aspect of my identity is that I am a cisgendered female. What this means is that I identify with the sex I was assigned at birth. I am a female, because of my biology. Cisgender is dominant over transgender, and I feel like this put me at an advantage. People who are transgendered have to struggle with issues that I’ve never had to think about, like being born into the wrong sex. As a cisgender person, people always use to correct pronouns when addressing me. I’ve never had to think about my sex or even be confused about it; I’ve just always known it. I know what is the proper bathroom to use and never get questioned for it. I’ve never had to make an effort to appear female. An article on gender presentation from Sjwiki, explains that: “because most people do indeed diagnose gender based on external appearance, many people, especially those who are misgendered often, make a conscious or subconscious effort to align their external appearance with that which will allow them to pass as the gender they identify as” (‘Gender Presentation, Sjwiki). I as a cisgender female have never had to worry about displaying myself as female.

Everyone has a desire to push the boundaries and to find who they really are. Different people take different approaches to doing that. Some people chose to find a “gender” that they can connect with and understand. Consequently, because of people’s choices they make in life cause tension between them and others. There are two sides when it comes to gender identity: the people that believe that they should be able to express themselves through gender identity and the people who feel that there should only be females and males. According to Facebook, users used to have to choose between male or female. In 2014 Facebook has added at least 58 different genders to its site. (Goldman).

Since 1987, there have been plenty of change in specified gender roles and society’s attitude towards them. In the past thirty years, gender roles have changed drastically while still following traditional gender outlines. Families have become more co-operated by both parents and sometimes a third party. Work places, such as McDonalds, have changed slightly around gender role though females still can not assist in unloading trucks of supply. Relationships have become easier to manage when there are no gender roles. This paper is to discuss the changes gender role has caused in family life, work place, and the working of a relationship; this paper also discusses the attitude towards change and to what extent it goes too.

When it comes to gender identity, I identify myself as a masculine or a man. As a masculine I’m going to play the role of a female where I would go to a neighborhood close to where I live, wear a wedding dress, and see how people around the block reacting to my kind of behavior. Base of my moral norm, I think it would be shameful, and I expect people to feel disgusting by it because that’s how I would feel if I were the public. As we all know when it comes to the behaviors between men and women, there is a lot of thing women can do but man can’t do because if a man does it, it would look weird or shock the society. For instance, throughout the weekend I was thinking about an experiment to see what exactly a woman can do which would be normal,

The dependent variables in my research project are the questions asked in the survey. This consisted of four questions.

In relation to the status characteristic theory, it's a gender status belief that men are better than women. (Sociological theories ppt.) This conversation in class made me think of the time when I was in high school. I was auditioning as a snare drum percussionist for the marching band, which had majority of boys in the snare line. One summer band practice, the captain of the Drum-Line insulted my intelligence commenting, just because I’m a girl, he won’t pick up my slack. The drum captain liked to bully anyone who made a mistake, and would try to embarrass them in front of everyone.

Gender identity is the personal conception of being a man or a woman and the society creates standards and comes up with gender roles basing them on existing norms and traditions which will in turn influence gender identity. For instance, most societies associate strength and dominance to be masculine roles while caring and assisting or subordination known to be feminine roles. This clearly makes gender identity be bred within the society. One’s identity is important as it influences his or her life through events like life experiences, how one is being taken or treated, how to do one associate or socialize with others, the type of job one will have to do and also opportunities that may come up favoring a certain type of gender identity. One is also likely to face obstacles or discrimination due to his or her identity.

Do class and gender affect how individuals act or behave? Society has evolved throughout the years and with that evolution, the people have separated themselves by factors such as class and gender. This separation started many centuries ago and made a large appearance in the Great Depression and Civil Rights Movement. Along with this division of people, actions and behaviors seem to have been paired with certain classifications of people. In prior eras, women were seen as fragile and not earners due to needing to stay at home and take care of children. On the contrary, men were seen as masculine and earned a decent amount of money from working all day long. Even though genders evolved into how they are now with women working alongside men, the separation is still visible. Women are still fighting to get paid the same amount as men, resulting in a certain behavior based on the gender. This behavior is one where women try to get equal pay through comparable worth instead of just staying quiet like women used to. The factors of class and gender cause a difference in an individual’s actions and behavior in the ways of not socializing with certain types of people, creating stereotypes, and behaving in a way to fit the norms of the specific class or gender.