Is Gender Socially Constructed or Biologically Determined?

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Although men and women have significant biological differences, the question whether gender-specific labels stems from these biological differences or are gender constructed remains a polarised nature versus nurture debate. Whether it is through the process of socialisation or genetic make-up, “gender identity” is given from a person’s birth, determining how a person culturally interacts and the expectations society places on them. Along with a “gender identity” comes a whole set of “norms”, “values” and so-called “gender characteristics”, which are supposed to define the differences between a male and a female. According to the World Health Organisation (n.d.), the term “sex” is often used to define the biological and physiological differences between a male and female. The World Health Organisation (n.d.) also state that the term “gender” refers to the social and cultural differences which are “socially constructed” and characterised by appropriate gender behavioural traits. Although scientists currently believe that since pre-historic times, men and women have been regarded as the “hunters and gathers”, laying the foundation for the “division of the sexes”, this long-term cast-iron notion has been recently challenged. For example, Pringle (1998) makes the point that American archaeologists, Professor Olga Soffee, Professor David Hyland and James Adovasio, proposed that hunting wasn’t about hurling spears, while the women watched on, but was a technique called “Net hunting” and was a communal activity which also involved the labour of children and women. Moreover, through anthropological research, Soffer discovered that women were critical for survival and “dug starchy roots and collected other plant carbohydrates essential to ...

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