Gender Inequality between Males and Females in India

Blum consulted University of California at Berkeley behavioral endocrinologist Marc Breedlove about how hormones contribute to gender differences. Breedlove’s studies support the idea that there are biological differences between males and females that distinguish each gender’s behavior. This suggests that it’s worthwhile to look at human evolution to understand why these biological differences exist – what is the purpose of masculinity and why do masculine traits such as aggression develop predominantly in males?

In society these days there is a noticeable difference in the treatment of men and women, the most common examples would be found in the social, business and culturally convention realms. These ways of life have double standards in many different ways. There are many ways to convey the ways of discrimination towards women by men.

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

He argues in the book that the human mind makes a difference between men and women, but they cannot be judged because of their genders and mental and physical abilities. Thought the thoughts of males and females are entirely different because of internal biological differences society and culture play a part in the standards these genders should conform to fit in. Socialization to gender roles impacts the shaping of the male and female minds in society, and this Pinker did not emphasize. Gender is defined as the socially constructed behavior, roles, attributes and activities that our societies consider appropriate for women and men. The development process that shapes the mind begins in life early and heightens during adolescence stage for instance; researchers discovered that gender expectation negatively influences psychosocial development of girls. Thus inferring the fact that men and females cannot be judged by their mental and physical abilities is true but minus the influence of influences of cultural and religious biases the male and females mind would not be that different.

Sociologists reject the idea that behavioural differences between men and women are biologically determined. Outline the key grounds for this rejection and discuss what this means for a sociological understanding of gender.

According to sociobiology our sex, or, our biological differences are what determines our gender. Sociobiologists suggest that biological elements such as our hormones, chromosomes and the size of our brain are what influence our behaviour and consequently what differentiates our gender. Because men produce more testosterone and androgens than women, which are linked to strength and aggression, sociobiologists argue that this explains men’s dominant and aggressive behaviour. (Haralambos & Holborn, 2000)

The first main factor that is said to influence gender is biology. “Nature doesn’t give a flea’s hind leg for our social theories, fads, fashions, political ideologies and

Summary: The excerpt “The Gender Blur” from the book “Sex on the Brain,” written in first person by Deborah Blum, a science writer, in 1998, explains the sex difference and behavior that a person goes through on a daily basis. She also explains how their childhood may affect their adulthood. Blum states that “[s]ex differences are always generalizations: They refer to a behavior, with some evolutionary rationale behind it. They never define entirely, an individual. And that fact alone should tell us that there’s always—even in the most biologically dominated traits—some flexibility, an instinctive ability to respond, for better and worse, to the world around us” (240). Just because a person acts a certain way one day, does not mean they will

When it comes to gender, it is as easy to determine as quantum physics; all the pieces are there but it is impossible to put together. Without hard evidence, all people can do is to make assumptions. The two biggest arguments on how gender is determined right now is based upon social and biological construct. Arguing for the sociological aspect is Aaron Devor, writer of the article, “Gender roles behaviors and attitudes”. Dover believes that, “People use femininity and masculinity to claim and communicate their membership in their assigned, or chosen, sex or gender” (Devor 505). Devor considers that society has certain roles that are predetermined towards males, females and anyone in between. A man has to act a certain way to be masculine and a female a certain way to be considered feminine. On the not so opposite side of the spectrum is Deborah Blum, author of the work, “The gender blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over?”. Blum doesn’t necessarily disagree with Devor, but asks the question, “Do the gender roles of our culture reflect an underlying biology, and, in turn, does the way we behave influence that biology” (Blum 512). Blum is arguing that maybe it was our genetic makeup that built the foundation on how a gender should act. Both authors present valid points for their arguments, but in the end, it is Blum who comes over on top with her usage of tone, evidence, and the use of a counterargument.

Blum challenges the widespread idea that sees the society as the decisive factor in determining human behavior, and in understanding gender differences. The author points out how nature plays a crucial role by leveraging on her experience as a parent of two boys by describing males as biologically more aggressive than females. Also, to support her position, Blum mentions a study of testosterone in the Caribbean, which found that genders might be later discovered to be different from the gender at birth—as the result of a genetic defect. I believe that we are shaped by both, nature and nurture. However, the “brainwashing” one undergoes at the hands of family and society plays the lion’s share particularly in those most susceptible to suggestion—how

Gender inequality plays a critical role when it comes to social progress. As a woman,

Gender relations and inequality is experienced through lack of educational matters and unfair treatment of women and children, thus in many cases forcing women to run households, while the men are away at work in various seasonal migration jobs at unviable wages. As defined in a classic article, income inequality is “the distribution of total income amongst the represented population” (Gehring13). In outlined studies; evidence can conclude that poor gender relations in fact can be convoluted into other issues such as overpopulation, child malnourishment, low levels of GDP, and GNI. This in fact sounds to be true for what India is experiencing today. The predominant issue of gender inequality has led many down the pathway to poverty

In her paper on the biological differences in cognition between men and women, Doreen Kimura suggests that the social differences between genders arose out of biological necessity (Kimura 46). Even so, it is difficult to argue that social factors do play a large part in gender in society today. A closer look at both biological and social perspectives will reveal more about the processes that determine gender roles.

As evident from the generalized patterns found in differences in behaviour and outlook observed between the sexes, it may be tempting, as has been done in the past, to conclude that gender is an unavoidable aspect of human existence as determined purely from one 's genes. Indeed, human physiology is subject to sexual dimorphism; statistically significant differences in brain size and rate of maturation of specific substructures in the brain exist between males and females (Giedd, Castellanos, Rajapakese, Vaituzis, & Rapoport, 1997), yet these physical differences fail to explain how individuals form their concept of their own gender, and why they tend to conform to their perceived gender roles as defined by the society in which they live, when these roles are ever-changing. Thus, it is important to differentiate between the physical and nonphysical traits, and how the labels of femininity and masculinity should not confuse the two aspects. As defined by Unger (1979), “sex” would be used to refer to the biological differences in males and females, while “gender” describes socioculturally determined, nonphysiological traits which are arbitrarily designated as being appropriate for either females or males. With more recent awareness and interest in matters of gender nonconformity and individual gender identity, new research now explains how these concepts of gender are shaped by social influences (Perry

This paper talks about the problems women in India and other places around the world face in creating women. The major stem of this problem revolves around the gender inequality that still prevails in many countries. Due to less significance given to the working women, the unions made by them don't receive much important either. Provided are some examples of the SEWA and JFJ movements that have made significant changes in the working women in India and America.