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Masculinity and femininity
Society's expectations of gender roles
Society's expectations of gender roles
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Sexism in the Workplace Gender Roles Children learn from their parents and society the conception of "feminine" and "masculine." Much about these conceptions is not biological at all but cultural. The way we tend to think about men and women and their gender roles in society constitute the prevailing paradigm that influences out thinking. Riane Eisler points out that the prevailing paradigm makes it difficult for us to analyze properly the roles of men and women in prehistory "we have a cultural bias that we bring to the effort and that colors our decision-making processes." Sexism is the result of that bias imposed by our process of acculturation. Gender roles in Western societies have been changing rapidly in recent years, with the changes created both by evolutionary changes in society, including economic shifts which have altered the way people work and indeed which people work as more and more women enter the workforce, and by perhaps pressure brought to make changes because of the perception that the traditional social structure was inequitable. Gender relations are a part of the socialization process, the initiation given the young by society, teaching them certain values and creating in them certain behavior patterns acceptable to their social roles. These roles have been in a state of flux in American society in recent years, and men and women today can be seen as having expanded their roles in society, with women entering formerly male dominions and men finding new ways to relate to and function in the family unit. When I was growing up a woman was never heard of having a job other than a school teacher or seamstress. Our(women's)job was to take care of the house. We had a big garden out back from which we got most of our vegetables?A garden is a lot of work you know?We also had to make clothes when there were none to be had(hand-me- downs) Gender can be defined as a social identity consisting of the role a person is to play because of his or her sex. There is a diversity in male and female roles, making it impossible to define gender in terms of narrow male and female roles. Gender is culturally defined, with significant differences from culture to culture. These differences are studied by anthropologists to ascertain the range of behaviors that have developed to define gender and on the forces at work in the creation of these roles.
No country in the world can yet say they have achieved gender equality (Eitzen, Zinn, and Smith 2012). Every society treats women and men differently. Research shows that sex and gender are entirely separate concepts, yet, society lumps them together and the terms oftentimes are used interchangeably. We can distinguish that sex indicates biological differences between males and females, and gender assigns cultural and social behavior based on sex. However, everything in society is needlessly gendered; advertising, occupations, institutions. Society makes gender a huge factor that determines what roles children and adults alike fulfill. This fosters a culture where roles are pre-fabricated for us, somewhat eliminating free choice, and limiting
“Gender” refers to the cultural construction of whether one is female, male, or something else (Kottak 2013: 209). Typically, based on your gender, you are culturally required to follow a particular gender norm, or gender role. Gender roles are the tasks and activities a culture assigns to the sexes (Kottak 213: 209). The tasks and activities assigned are based upon strongly, seized concepts about male and female characteristics, or gender stereotypes. Gender stereotypes…are oversimplified but strongly upheld ideas about bout the characteristics of males and females (Kottak 2013: 209).
The clusters of social definitions used to identify persons by gender are collectively known as “femininity” and “masculinity.” Masculine characteristics are used to identify persons as males, while feminine ones are used as signifiers for femaleness. People use femininity or masculinity to claim and communicate their membership in their assigned, or chosen, sex or gender. Others recognize our sex or gender more on the basis of these characteristics than on the basis of sex characteristics, which are usually largely covered by clothing in daily life.
Gender differences are best understood as a process of socialization, to organize the roles each individual have to fulfil in society. From parents to teachers, religions, media, and peers; we observe and make sense of the behaviors exhibited by the people around us since young. We imitate and construct our own understanding of how to be of a particular gender, and of how to position ourselves. Parents socialize their children based on their biological sex, and this process starts as soon as the sex of the baby is known. Gender is hence socially constructed.
Gender is based on cultural beliefs that classify on what job positions should be held based on biological sex. Therefore, gender inequality affects people in the workforce because of the gender wage gap in institutions. For example, jobs are sex segregated based on gender roles and status. The gender wage gap is based on the differences of income between women and this causes for males and women to earn different wages because society classifies men to be superior to women, Even if they have the same positions, males are looked as authority. Men are favored because of the concept of being dominant. Ridgeway says “Not only the existing sex composition of the job, but also the stereotypical gendered nature of the work or the status
Both men and women are equal, sexism is not prevalent in the workplace is one of the most common notion that one come across these days. Sexism is invisible to the majority of people in the society because it is instilled in the society so deeply that we cannot even see it and the other reason that the people feel that it does not exist as it does not affect everyone. It is not surprising that the people who do not see sexism are the people who are not affected by it, this does not mean that this is the view of men alone but women as well may share this view.
Gender is not about the biological differences between men and women but rather the behavioral, cultural and psychological traits typically associated with one sex. Gender is socially constructed meaning it 's culturally specific, it 's learned and shared through gender socialization. What it means to be a woman or man is going to differ based on the culture, geographical location, and time. What it meant to be a woman in the US in the 19th century is different than what it means to be a woman in the 21st century. As cultures evolve over time so are the ideals of what it means to be man or woman.
Over 27,000 claims filed through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the fiscal year 2013, alleged sex-based discrimination (Sex-Based Charges). Most of these gender related accusations are gender discrimination. Stephanie Sipe and Donna K. Fisher, both professors at Georgia Southern University, and C. Douglas Jonson, a professor at Georgia Gwinnett University, state “Gender discrimination occurs when employers make decisions such as selection, evaluation, promotion, or reward allocation on the basis of an individual’s gender” (Sipe, Johnson, and Fisher 342). Most of the time gender discrimination is subjected towards women in the work field, where women are thought as being lower than males in the same organization. In today’s world, society has come a long way since the general stereotyping of men bringing home the bacon and the women staying home to cook it. Today, women are out in the workplace working alongside the opposite sex. Even though the general feminist stereotype has been extinguished, women are still not promoted as widely as men in the workplace. On the contrary to the first definition of gender discrimination, Julie Walters, an Oakland University professor, and Connie L. McNeely, a George Mason University professor, emphasizes that “even in the 21st century, women faculty members are generally paid less, promoted more slowly, receive fewer honors, and hold fewer leadership positions than their male counterparts, discrepancies that do not appear to be based on productivity or any other objective performance measures” (323). Sex discrimination is easily portrayed in all companies and can be slightly difficult to recognize, however, it still exists. The data shows that women in the workplace are discrimi...
During the past few decades, we have made great adjustments in accepting new definitions of gender roles. Social media, family, and friends all have an affect on our lives and how we often portray gender roles. However as the years have passed, there have been new opening opportunities for both genders. Women are no longer discriminated against at their workplace. A large amount of women that work full time, while having serving are as the primary responsibility for taking care of their home and
Society in the U.S. has evolved immensely over the past century. With this evolution there has been a redefinition of what gender and gender roles are and this redefinition has influenced a change in the common structure of families and marriages in the U.S.
Finding a simple or concrete definition of gender maybe near impossible. Gender roles are what men and woman learn and internalize as the way they are supposed to act. These roles are commonly thought of as natural rather than a construction of culture. Gender is thought to flow from sex, rather then being a matter of what the culture does with sex. This theory is widely and exhaustively debated, according to Wood “Sex is based on biology; Gender is socially and psychologically constructed” (Wood 19). This statement suggests that culture’s discourses and ideologies form the complexities of gender and gender roles. It is easy to say that girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice and boy are made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails, but we are actually more intricate then that.
Human beings have been, and always will be, dichotomized into either male or female. When determining a person’s sex we often look for differences in facial features, body shape or mannerism’s, but another promising way to determine a persons sex and one that is most often used today, is through gender roles. Gender roles are behaviors that portray masculinity or femininity. The theory behind gender roles through multidisciplinary viewpoints is the focus of this paper. Throughout history and in every culture these roles have shifted and transformed into what society says is expectable. In this analysis, gender roles will be examined through a sociological, biological and evolutionary scope.
Historically, the roles of men and women have evolved overtime. For thousands of years, static gender roles were the accepted norm. In the 18th century “the idea that women and men naturally possess distinct characteristics” was a view that many people had (Emsley). Women were believed to be controlled by their emotions whereas men were thought of as
It is, therefore, natural for most companies to think that women cannot be as capable as men in terms of assuming strenuous or challenging positions because women, by default, become less participatory and more vulnerable when they start to have family and children. Apparently, this situation has led to various gender discriminations in the labor market. In conclusion, although the roles of men and women have radically changed over the turn of the century, it is still inevitable to have various gender-related occupational differences because the social and biological roles of women and men do not really change. Society still perceives women as the home makers and men as the earners, and this perception alone defines the differing roles of men and women in the labor market.
Gender is a socially constructed term to make clear distinctions between the two sexes; male and female and to define their characteristics through gender roles. Gender roles let individuals understand their identities including, but not limited to, being a man, woman, transgender, intersex, genderqueer and other gender positions. Culture projects much of what people consider masculine or feminine. In most