What is gender? Different sociologists have given different definitions for gender. However, in its simplest term, gender refers to the socially expected roles and relation between men and women. For example, boys are expected to be the strong ones, aggressive and competitive and girls are to be sweet, caring, and gentle and handled with care. These characteristics, amongst others, are what the society actually expects from individuals based on their sex, but it does not mean that it is imperative for a girl to be feminine or a boy to be masculine which implies that gender is independent of sex.
Many people think that the way men and women communicate is determined by our sex, which is defined as the way we were created biologically. While others tends to think that communication differences between the men and women are because of our gender which is the way society has brought us up to think that men are to talk one way, an women another. West and Zimmerman explain it as” Gender is not something we are born with, and not something we have, but something we do” (qtd. Eckert and McConnell-Ginet 10). Men and women communicate differently not because it is a biologically encoded in our DNA but because society moles us to act upon our biological difference.
In his article Devor states, “People use femininity or masculinity to claim and communicate their membership in their assigned, or choose, sex or gender. Others recognize [individuals] more on the basis of these characteristics than on the basis of sex characteristics,” (505). This quote insinuates that in order for society to recognized one as male or female one must meet the requirements of what it means to be feminine or masculine because the structure of one 's anatomy alone is not significant enough to matter. People fear that by failing to exhibit these set gender traits they will fail to fit into a category of male or female. In Nelson’s article she announces how, “Tall women tell [her] they won’t wear heels because they don’t want to appear taller than their husbands or boyfriends, even by an inch,” (525).
Many believe sex and gender are the same but in reality they differ greatly. Gender takes in consideration what groups deem as normal behavior for a male and female. But sex is what your body parts consist of, your reproduction organs and a penis or vagina (Henslin, 2015, p. 291). You come into this world with a sex, but the world around you influences whether you choose to express yourself in a feminine or masculine way. Where you are in the world impacts what you and your society view as correct behavior for men and women.
Sex is defined by the physical body and is characterized by the initial biological structure from birth. The characteristics of each male or female body maybe different but the make ups are the same. Gender on the other hand according to Wood is unstable; it is a category or a means by which we understand the body. The cultures ideologies and discourses surrounding us make sense of the body and determine our gender in multiple ways. It gives us a social, political, symbolic, and economic understanding of our bodies and how they are similar and dissimilar from other bodies.
What are the differences between a male and a female? Shouldn’t the only difference be the body parts? Today and even in the past, people have this stereotype of the female. Society today tries to battel against the thought that there should be different rights for men and women, especially women. However, there are men that have the concept as a feminist would.
The emphasis on gender equality and women's empowerment does not presume a particular model of gender equality for all societies and cultures, but reflects a concern that women and men have equal opportunities to make choices about what gender equality means and work in partnership to achieve it. Because of current disparities, equal treatment of women and men is insufficient as a strategy for gender equality. Equal treatment in the context of inequalities can mean the perpetuation of disparities. Achieving gender equality will require changes in institutional practices and social relations through which disparities are reinforced and sustained. It also req... ... middle of paper ... ...e 2005 HEWETT, document from site page http://www.hewett.norfolk.sch.uk/curric/soc/gender/gender2.htm, accessed 09 June 2005 HEWETT, document from site page http://www.hewett.norfolk.sch.uk/curric/soc/gender/gender3.htm, accessed 09 June 2005 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development - Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC), document from site page http://www.oecd.org/dac/gender, accessed 06 June 2005 The People's Movement for Human Rights & Education (PDHRE), New York, USA, document from site page http://www.pdhre.org/rights/women_and_education.htm, accessed 08 June 2005
There are a few key terms to understand first in order to comprehend the effect this has on society. The key terms are as follows; Gender roles, gender role socialization, and men gender role. Until recently communities and society has not discussed the importance of gender roles. To start off with there isn’t a law that states women must do only this work, and men must
While sex refers to the physical and biological differences between men and women, gender refers to the attributes of masculinity and femininity that are based on biological distinctions (Tischler, 2011, p. 247). Gender is not something we are born with but is something we do (West and Zimmerman 1987). There are many common beliefs between males and females and how they are supposed to act and how they are supposed to be. In today’s generation, people are exposed to many forms or mass media like magazines, TV shows, movies and much more. Media gives off the ideas of what males and females are supposed to be like compared to how people actually are and can be in real life.
Gender refers to the cultural differences of men and women (i.e. by society/culture) according to their sex. Therefore, a person’s sex does not change, however, their gender on the other hand, can change. Chromosomes (female xx, male xy) the reproductive organs (ovaries, testes) hormones (estrogen, testosterone) make up the biological difference between male and female. According to McLead (2014) he seems to believe that there is no distinction between sex and gender, because biological sex creates gender behavior, and gender is determined by hormones and chromosomes.