At present, the South African constitution guarantees equality between males and females on a legal, social and political basis. This does not necessarily display the way we as individuals are towards the next person but rather what we as a country are aspiring to become as a nation. I agree with the statement that gender is in transition in South Africa; however, it is problematic to argue that it is in transition in the whole of South Africa due to the influence of patriarchy in the foundation phases of an individual’s socialization. Furthermore, the cultural difference between urban and rural people and people of different educational and socioeconomic backgrounds are also influenced by patriarchy. Evidence will be drawn from a South African context, as this essay will discuss the aforementioned whilst it will be noted as to the social construction of identity and how it is influenced by patriarchal values and practices and will finally outline how gender identity and will have evolved over the next 10 to 20 years.
Gender as noted by O’ Sullivan et al, (2006:100) is a social construction which refers to the roles and responsibilities associated with being male or female. It consists of an ideal set of behavioural traits which are used to distinguish males from females. Males are socialized to behave in a more masculine and protective manner whereas females are socialized to behave in a more conservative manner and are viewed as fragile beings. We as individuals become gendered through constant socialization which takes place throughout our life. Firstly it starts off in the primary foundation phase where our parents will teach us ways in which we are to behave in public and around friends. Socialization takes place at primar...
... middle of paper ...
...as generally been downplayed and research into this portray women as inferior, less intelligent and domesticated compared to men. These are some of the ideals which stem from patriarchal values and practices. Coetzee (2001:303) in school texts women are recorded as invisible actors in the histories of western civilization and are mainly portrayed as the weaker sex. Women are portrayed as damsels in distress or needing the attention of a male as this seems to be the happy ending. Thus, we can therefore deduce that from the aforementioned of the two previous paragraphs that South Africa’s schooling systems makes the distinction between males and females and their gendered roles in society. These distinctions are mainly used to reinforce the ideology of patriarchy but could be changed if set work books by female authors were to be part of the high school syllabus.
In today’s society boys become men when they hit puberty or lose their virginity. But women on the other hand become women when they get married and have children. It was commonly known that men earn more money in the workplace, and hold higher positions. Since years ago women have been able to do nothing, they had no say nor, could they vote. Women were expected to keep quiet when a problem occurred and not speak up for what they believed in. It was the stereotype that “a woman’s place was in the home”. The men were out making the money for the family so it was like what could you possi...
The South African constitution demands that we have a non-sexist society. We would, therefore, only understand the concept of what non-sexism is if we saw it in action.
The word gender refers to a general classification of human beings into male and female with socially and culturally constructed characteristics, behaviors, attributes and roles preconceived and labelled as appropriate for each class. The society and culture today have placed human beings in a box which to a large extent dictates how we act in the world.
The human species is qualified as a man and women. Categorically, gender roles relative to the identifying role are characterized as being either masculine or feminine. In the article “Becoming Members Of Society: Learning The Social Meanings Of Gender by Aaron H. Devor, says that “children begin to settle into a gender identity between the age of eighteen months and two years (Devor 387). The intricate workings of the masculine and feminine gender roles are very multifaceted and at the same time, very delicate. They are intertwined into our personalities and give us our gender identities (Devor 390). Our society is maintained by social norms that as individuals, we are consciously unaware of but knowingly understand they are necessary to get along out in the public eye which is our “generalized other” and in our inner circle of family and friends which is our “significant others” (Devor 390). Our learned behaviors signify whether our gender
Anthropologists have examined our assumptions about the ‘natural’ roles of men and women in society through investigating the past and present. This is important as the core of anthropology is the ability to understand and use our knowledge of not only the past, but also the present to question societal norms (Blasco, 2010). Gender roles, society’s image of expected roles and attitudes a particular gender should possess, continue to be of great interest to anthropological studies. These expectations result in many gender stereotypes and create a stigmatized definition of what it means to be a man or a women (Blasco, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to conduct a gender analysis of
What is gender? Gender is present everywhere in society. However, people do not consciously choose to do gender. Gender is intentionally and unintentionally taught and reinforced by family and society similar to how language is learned. Gender is not innate, but it is universally recognized, which is why people think that gender is a natural, essential, and biological behavior. Associated with gender are gender roles and gender characteristics that each gender is expected to perform in order to be considered normal in the eyes of society, who function as the reinforcing gender police. If a behavior t...
Gender refers to psychological and emotional characteristics that cause people to assume, masculine, feminine or androgynous (having a combination of both feminine and masculine traits) roles. Your gender is learned and socially reinforced by others, as well as by your life experiences and g...
In this article, gender is identified as a social identity that is constructed and reformed throughout life in order to achieve a true sense of identity. It is not a term or label given from biological sex such as male or female that defines ones’ gender role. The writer claims gender is more than a social settlement, that it is not a binary construction of male or female and involves a matrix of genes, hormones, and social influence.
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.
It is only recently that sociology has begun to explore the topic of gender. Before this, inequalities within society were based primarily on factors such as social class and status. This paper will discuss gender itself: what makes us who we are and how we are represented. It will also explore discrimination towards women throughout history, focusing mainly on women and the right to vote, inequalities between males and females in the work place and how gender is represented in the media.
This course of women and gender studies, as would all courses, have produced awareness by coherently explaining the situations women are facing in the world today. One may not know of theses situations until taught. By learning of these occurrences, one can properly act upon them. Many women and men have taken the opportunity to attend classes on women’s and gender studies and have since then made strides to make a difference in the unjust society that must be faced.
Gender is such a ubiquitous notion that humans assume gender is biological. However, gender is a notion that is made up in order to organize human life. It is created and recreated giving power to the dominant gender, creating an inferior gender and producing gender roles. There are many questionable perspectives such as how two genders are learned, how humans learn their own gender and others genders, how they learn to appropriately perform their gender and how gender roles are produced. In order to understand these perspectives, we must view gender as a social institution. Society bases gender on sex and applies a sex category to people in daily life by recognizing gender markers. Sex is the foundation to which gender is created. We must understand the difference between anatomical sex and gender in order to grasp the development of gender. First, I will be assessing existing perspectives on the social construction of gender. Next, I will analyze three case studies and explain how gender construction is applied in order to provide a clearer understanding of gender construction. Lastly, I will develop my own case study by analyzing the movie Mrs. Doubtfire and apply gender construction.
Sex and gender are terms that are mixed up from day to day and seen as similarities rather than differences. Sex is what distinguishes people from being either male or female. It is the natural or biological variations between males and females (Browne, 1998). Some of these variations are genitals, body hair and internal and external organs. It is the make-up of chromosomes, men have one X and one Y chromosome and women have two X chromosomes, these are responsible for primary characteristics (Fulcher and Scott, 2003). Gender on the other hand refers to the sociological differences between male and female. This is teaching males and females to behave in various ways due to socialisation (Browne, 1998). Example: masculinity and femininity. Girls are supposed to show their femininity by being non-competitive, sensitive, dependent, attractive and placid. If and when some girls don’t succeed in keeping this image they will be referred to as a tomboy. On the other hand, boys show their masculinity through aggression, physical strength...
Identities are an important part of the human experience. One of the many identities that creates a person is gender. Society, being the entity establishing social norms and social roles, plays a part in effecting the individual’s gender, and how they choose to express themself. The underlying or overlying identities also have the same effect. Gender is not only an identity, it is a lifestyle inside and out. Gender, like race, class, and sexuality; is not limited to the binary scale, and that is normal, natural, and human. The concept of gender is man-made, but it forces one’s hand to analyze the thought processes behind an individual's perception on gender through self, through society, or through the dichotomy and/or correspondence of the
Gender is the psychological characteristics and social categories that are created by human culture. Doing gender is the concept that humans express their gender when they interact with one another. Messages about how a male or female is supposed to act come from many different places. Schools, parents, and friends can influence a person. Another major factor that influences millions of impressionable females and males is television. Not only does the television teach each sex how to act, it also shows how one sex should expect the other sex to act. In the current television broadcasting, stereotypical behavior goes from programming for the very small to adult audiences. In this broadcasting range, females are portrayed as motherly, passive and innocent, sex objects, or they are overlooked completely or seen as unimportant entities.