Social Construction Of Gender And Gender Roles

Throughout this course, we have discussed how the differences in the social construction of gender, race, class, and sexuality have led to discrimination and inequality of those classified under a variety of these categories. Through understanding the significance of these social constructs on society it becomes apparent the intersectionality they have when it comes to understanding why certain groups may face discrimination or inequality. This paper examines gender inequality and how the social construction of gender makes it difficult for the pursuit of equality amongst genders.

In many shops, there seems to be an obvious separation between boys and girls items, for example, the birthday cards, books, clothes, and toys. This is shown in a variety of ways the boy's items are mainly the color blue and the books have pictures of either action figures, superheroes or tools. Whereas the girl's items are mainly the color pink. The books show pictures of fairies, princess, and Bratz. The cards also have the theme of the color pink for girls and blue for boys. The girl's cards have a lot of sparkles and pretty pictures whereas the boy's cards are covered in camo kind of illustrations and also have action figures on the covers. The children's clothes are separated into sections where there are labels for the boy's clothes and labels for the girl's clothes. The girl's clothing is all pretty and pink, it is covered in sparkles. Whereas boys clothing has camo patterns, blue colors, and pictures of action figures.

In present day all around the world, society has certain expectations for the actions and behaviors of males and females. There are many factors in our everyday lives that contribute to the gender norms that society has set. This essay will discuss how situations in life can play a part in how people treat other people based on their gender. It is believed that males are the leaders of our world, but in present day woman can do as much as men can do. From The Journal of Marriage and Family, Hu states, “Differentiated gender roles in adulthood are rooted in one’s gender role socialization. In order to understand the persistence of gender inequalities in the domestic sphere, we need to examine the gendered patterns of children’s housework time.”(2015, P.1). Gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females that they must be taught. These roles define how females and males are viewed in society, their household, and workplace. In The Journal of Sports behavior by Hardin, he states, “Although gender role differences from biological and “Natural” exists in popular consciousness, research has long demonstrated that instead, many are long time socially constructed… Individuals understand their gender because they are given names and treated in particular ways, such as dress in pink for girls and blue for boys, that reflect social construction of gender. Bandura's social cognitive theory is key in understanding the factors in socialization”(2009, P.3). Bandura's theory of of social cognition is that behavior, environmental events, and cognitive factors are the main keys that shape attitudes and actions of an individual. Although, gender roles play a very big part in our society, specific genders are treated differently while dealing with peer influence, media influence, as well as employment.

Every Christmas morning as a child, I would be disappointed because I would always get toys that I didn’t like. My mom scolded at me for being ungrateful as I would complain that Barbie dolls wasn’t what I wanted for Christmas. My mom replied, “Barbie dolls are what girls are supposed to have. Girls don’t play with Transformers or Power Rangers. You aren’t a boy!” As a child, I didn’t understand what she meant. Acting like a boy wasn’t my intention, as I simply expressed that I would rather have action figures instead. I was simply blinded by the fact that there was a social construct happening, and realized the social constructivism of gender roles. As the troublemaker child that I was, I disagreed with her. Instead I had these questions like,

Gender or sex roles are the expected patterns of behavior assumed to follow from a person's sex. Gender roles are not natural. They are formed by and vary within society, culture, geographic location, politics and time. There is a strong relationship between the social construction of gender and compulsory heterosexuality. People are programmed into certain gender roles and social categories through socialization and interaction with others.

Societies today are highly affected by the way people are believed to act. Gender roles are created by society, and they are a way to define how a gender should or shouldn't act. In “Answers” by George Singleton, there is a husband and wife thinking about getting divorced, and they begin answering questions in a book, and realize that the other turned out to be less manly or trustworthy, than they believed to be. In “Public Relations” by George Singleton, a man and his wife are out eating with his boss and his wife. While eating he gets fired for talking about how women should act, and how they will amount to nothing without an education. In both of these stories, men and women act differently than the stereotypes put on them by their

(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

The word gender can be described as the state of being male or female and is typically used to describe cultural differences as opposed to biological ones. Additionally, the definition of gender has continuously been a controversial issue due to its lack of clarity in regards to battling complicated social injustices. Furthermore, the construction of gender as a social category has recently been criticized for the lack of inclusiveness to women of color and the consistent habit to view both gender and race as restrictive divisions of experience and reasoning. Seeing those criticisms has led to the development of the term intersectionality which deals with various layers of subjection that women live with and addresses more than just the

Race is a system of categories put in place by society in order to make each individual fit into a certain social group. It is due to societies implementation of such a system that individuals in these racial categories do not always look at each other as equals, causing a race to not always identify themselves as a homogenous front. This essay will delve into the poetry of a popular Def Jam spoken word artist Black Ice, whose piece Bigger Than Mine looks into the dualism within Black society in the United States with an undertone of what it means to a man. A schism as described by Black Ice being between two distinct groups, Blacks and “Niggas”.

I am a strong believer that gender roles are a social construct. However, gender identity is not. Therefore, it is very important to know the difference. Gender roles are defined as “theoretical constructs involving of social and behavioral norms that are widely considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex. The perception of gender roles includes attitudes, actions, and personality traits associated with a particular gender within that culture. Gender roles are predominantly considered within a family context as well as within society in general”. I believe that gender roles and gender expression are social constructs. There is almost nothing that is intrinsically male or female and merely things that are coded as male or female by the culture we live

The construction of gender has always been a controversial issue. We tend to think that gender is developed through a natural process as we experience it everyday, while it shapes us unconsciously into who we are, to how we think and why we do certain things in a considered gender-appropriate manner. From a sociological point of view, according to Macionis and Plummer’s study, cultural meanings about what is considered masculine and feminine varies from one society to another and from one historical period to another (2012). According to their study, this is all part of a gender order, which are the ways in which societies shape notions of masculinity and femininity into power relationships, this enhances the differences between both genders and our expectations of them in society. This categorisation involves various factors including gender identity, gender role, gender stratification, patriarchy and feminism, all of the above aspects contribute to the social construction of gender.

The society has regulations in which people have to obey making social life be structured. Society has expectations for people to live by. People tend to live up to the norms in order to feel part of the world. Individuals do not want to be judged and labeled, so unconsciously live by the roles that they believe their gender has to follow. Gender is socially constructed concept in which society acts upon. The family is the first to influence individuals to this idea. Gender has roles in which boys and girls are supposed to follow. Depending on one’s gender, they are expected to dress, behave, and act accordingly to either portray a masculine or feminine personality. These gender roles are implied by society and if individuals do not follow are seen as outcast. It is difficult for people to comply to these characteristics and roles because they might have different life experiences and situations that might influence to act other than their gender roles imply.

Gender doesn’t necessarily reflect your biological sex. Gender is created and re-created depending on our social life (Lorber). It is something we construct, adjust since birth and might keep throughout our lives . Since gender identity is presented at a very early age, this social construction starts with parents because no matter how we think about it, as a society, we have gendered roles we follow(Lorber). When you're born, parents decide which way to direct you. It’s all about timing and the way gender is applied to us. “Parenting is gendered, with different expectations for mothers and fathers” Lorber says. It is from parenting where we start to learn how we should behave depending on our biological sex. That’s why the way parents dress

Gender roles have influenced our society our whole lives, without us realizing it. They determine the way in which we, as members of society, behave among others and what is deemed socially acceptable and what is not, all based on our gender. From the moment children take their first breaths, they are exposed to the gender roles society has set. This is all part of a social construction to categorize the two genders into believing that they should act in a particular matter, using toys as an advertising method. If the baby is a female, parents will opt to dress her in pink or purple, classifying the child as “girly”. However, if the child is male, parents will often opt for blue and green, avoiding pink in order to confirm the masculine gender by society’s standards. Even as kids, a girl will automatically head to the pink side of the toy store, just as a boy would head to the blue section due to their pre-exposed view of society.

The World Health Organisation defines gender as the “socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women”. (Who.int, 2015) These “socially constructed roles” were originally developed through the knowledge of Christian scripture and thus, the framework of moral guidelines which were laid down by the Bible as “required of Christian society”. (Slick, 2015) Passages found within Genesis, provide evidence of the aforementioned moral guidelines, particularly the idea of gender roles within a heterosexual marriage.