Night To His Day: The Social Construction Of Gender

Every society around the world has traditional gender roles that are accepted as normal and are rarely even consciously thought about in any detail. The man’s role is often to provide for and protect the family, while the women’s role is to care for children and look after the duties of the home. Analyzing Judith Lorber’s Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender, will help understand the concept of “gender as a structure” and “gender as a social institution” along with demonstrating the significant differences that gender categories have for individuals and society.

Gender is defined as the state of being male or female. In most instances, this state is determined based on the biology of an individual’s genitalia. Those born

The Socialization of Gender Roles is the framework I will be using in this analytical anchor assignment. Socialization is the term used to explain a rather large idea, that of a constantly fluid process of learning and unlearning the environment, relationships, and interactions that shape who we are and how we act. Socialization is how society molds our minds into becoming functional individuals. The socialization of gender roles is more geared toward the gendered nature of society and how gender becomes internalized amongst individuals. The gendered process starts at birth and is very difficult to avoid even with the most progressive and forward thinking parents, as the very structures of society around them are built to label and gender all

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

Discuss the construction of gender and how it is formed from a young age and continues through to adulthood, linking to the formation of gender and sexual identity. I will use Szirom example of gender socialisation: primary, secondary and territory environments.

“The social construction of gender comes out of the general school of thought entitled social constructionism. Social constructionism proposes that everything people "know" or see as "reality" is partially, if not entirely, socially situated. To say that something is socially constructed does not mitigate the power of the concept. These basic theories of social constructionism can be applied to any issue of study pertaining to human life, including gender. This is

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

When describing something that influences your gender, most people would assume that your “sex” or our biological identification given to us at birth would be the most definite source; however there are multiple factors and processes that contribute to one’s gender identity. The multitudes of institutions that assist in the socialization of an individual vary from person to person, but are all beneficial in creating a sense of gender. According to Michael Messner, there are two types of institutions, the gendered and the gendering. The gendered institution is described by Messner as “an institution constructed by gender relations. As such, its structures and values (rules, formal organizations, sex composition, etc.) reflect dominant

sense of being male or female in various combinations; gender roles are then defined as

People's conceptions of masculinity and femininity, ideas concerning the fairness of differential treatment  or expectations of women and men, internalized schema that evoke different judgments of women's and men's actions, rules about proper male and female behavior applied to children – all these and more concern the influence of ideology on gender identities, differential treatment of women and men, and the organization and persistence of gender

For my non-participant observation, I went to a Cheesecake Factory in a strip mall located nearby an urban city. “Doing Gender”, a journal article by West and Zimmerman, describes the nature of gender and sex in society. When I was observing people, I was really trying to locate patterns among genders, or assumed genders. Gender can be defined as “an achieved status: that which is constructed through psychological, cultural, and social means” (West and Zimmerman pp. 125). The article describes gender as something that is achieved, grown up with, and taught to by others who perform gender. Performing gender is conforming to stereotypes and ideals put in place by members of society in order to be seen and accepted as a specific gender.

A social construction is something that is created by society and believed to be natural. Social constructions are both a myth and a reality because social constructions aren’t natural, but it has real effects on the people who experience them. What society identifies as masculine and feminine is the social construction of gender. For example, masculinity and femininity is closely tie to being a man and a woman, respectively. In our society, men are supposed to be aggressive and unemotional, while women are supposed to be soft and gentle. This social construction of gender affect individuals lives because it makes those who don’t fit into these gender roles feel as if they aren’t the ideal man or woman. Women and men can both develop problems

Sociologists have long recognized that gender, unlike biological sex, is rooted in social beliefs and varies considerably across cultures. Proponents of structural-functional theory understand that gender is a state of being that is socially constructed and point to earlier societies that organized social roles based on the division of labor which allowed society to function at an optimal level. The development of gender identity is grounded in social norms, comprising accepted behaviors and rules that allow an individual to conform to a particular group. On a day to day basis, individuals display gender as “a performance, a stylized repetition of acts” (Lucal, p114) through culturally based mannerisms, appearance and behavior, all of

Gender can be defined in many different ways based on the opinions of the person you are asking. To me, I believe gender refers to the behaviors and roles that our society deems appropriate for men and women. Although gender roles have changed over time and males and females have become more equal, a certain stereotype of behaviors and tasks which are acceptable for men and women still exists today. For example, cooking and cleaning, home repairs, and being the ‘breadwinner” in the family are all tasks which we as a society usually perceive to be done more often by one gender over the other.

Definition of Gender: If we talk about men and women in a society gender states to the social characters and status alteration. These roles are directed by the social, cultural and economic activities of the society.