Gender: The Characteristics Of Gender Roles In Society

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The term gender is used to describe the collection of characteristics that the society or a culture uses to differentiate between masculinity and femininity. The characteristics used to characterize gender hence depend on the context of the society and include sex. However, unlike some people mistake, there is a significant difference between gender and sex. This confusion is attributed to the fact that sex is the most common characteristic used to define gender roles in most communities. However, while sex refers to a biological characteristic of being male and female, gender differentiate people depending on the roles the society gives them. Or simply put, while sex comes biologically/ naturally from birth, gender is socially acquired by …show more content…

This assertion means that a person that is being culturalised with gender roles in a particular society may either choose to accept them or reject them. Communication, verbal and non-verbal, is the primary method through which gender roles are passed to individuals when they become members of a particular community. Often gender stereotypes are used to force the new member of the society into accepting societally imposed gender roles. This often works best when the person being culturalised is a child who has no previous experience with the gender functions. In this case, there is a high possibility that gender roles will be adopted and performed. However, there are times when the individual being socialized is an adult with a different understanding of gender, they may reject and actively rail against the new system. For example, in the Indian culture, the bride gives the grooms family payment in the form of dowry before they can get married. For a child born in India, this will be readily accepted and practiced without any challenge. However, for a person born and brought up in another place such as Europe or Africa who then relocates to India, the idea of paying a dowry to groom’s family may not be accepted even when the individual lives in the

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