Social Construction Of Gender Is A Process, Stratification System And Structure

Many people have different understandings of what gender means to them. To some, gender might mean you are either male or female depending on what you are assigned to at birth. To others, gender might mean what you identify as. However, there is one constant definition of what gender really means. Throughout the years, modern scholars have studied what it means to be a man and a woman and have come up with a specific definition. Modern scholars define gender as a socially constructed term of men or women. This socially constructed definition is based on everyday life roles. This could be from how you interact with others and how you expressed yourself physically or emotionally to the rest of the world. An example would be, women wear dresses

The gender describes how our understandings and perception of differences between masculinity (what society deems appropriate behaviour a “man” and femininity (what society deems appropriate behaviour for a “woman”) are influenced.

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.

In sociology, we make a distinction between sex and gender. Sexes are the biological traits that society uses to assign individuals in the class of either male or female. Sociology of gender analyzes how society impacts our understandings and view of the differences between masculinity and femininity. Gender norms can be defined as socially acceptable ways of acting out gender. Gender norms are learned from birth through childhood socialization.

Sex and gender are words that we interchange, but they mean completely different things. Sex refers to the biological characteristics that a person receives while they are developing, like their primary and secondary sex characteristics. Gender is the cultural or social norms that society places on a given

Secondly, humans have the same genetic makeup yet in different cultures/societies gender roles vary indicating greatly that these roles are socially constructed. Lastly, Bandura’s Social Learning Theory is the main driving force for gender roles being socially constructed, as gender roles are learnt from one another. Gender roles are usually constructed through the application of the two sex qualities, masculinity and femininity (masculinity being the qualities associated with men and femininity being the qualities associated with women). These two sex qualities are usually taught to children directly and indirectly through family, friends and other members of society. One direct way masculinity and femininity are taught to children is through schooling.

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

“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

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.

Gender is the “normal” or average way male and females are supposed to act or function. Men and women have to perform a certain way to be considered average. According to Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler authors and researchers of “Keywords for American Cultural Studies” Judith Halberstam believes gender is “a bodily performance of normativity” (118). In other words, gender is a roles that men and women are expected to portray to be considered normal. For instance, being athletic is a normal gender trait for men while being nurturing is a normal trait for women. Men usually perform in sports, while women are usually helping and caring for others.

According to social construction theory, gender is formed by our own beliefs and actions. For instance, many people would believe a farming job would be for a male but it can also be a female job as well. Usually women do house work while men do other duties outside such as landscaping. The definition of gender clearly states ‘“ the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex or one’s sex.”’. (Lecture 3, Page 2). Many people would believe that gender has to do with gonads or reproduction organs but it actually refers how an individual clearly view themselves. A female could be born by sex but then could identify the gender as a male because in their life, there could be masculine acts involved. Other words, socially constructed also means that “society or culture creates an idea, a physical object, a

Argument/Conclusion: Gender is a social construction or a process in which human beings are brought up to believe that only two genders (male or female) were normal and that based on your sex you are classified to a specific gender.

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

Merriam-Webster provides two definitions for the meaning of gender. The first is simply that gender is a synonym for sex. The second, however, states that gender is “the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex (Merriam-Webster).” This is the definition for gender used in this paper, while sex is defined separately, as the biological differences between males and females.

There are distinct differences between Sex and Gender. Sex is divided up into two divisions, male or female, based upon their reproductive system. Gender is the notion set by society on what social behaviours are acceptable for males and females, for example the expectation that females are more caring or nurturing than men. Gender can be further divided into two subcategorise: identity and stereotype. Gender identity is the concept that your sex and gender do not have to be the same but can different, i.e. a male at birth can identify as a female. These notions of acceptable behaviour set by society create gender stereotypes for both male and female, which can cause a person to reject their gender identity if they do not conform these gender stereotypes.