Gender and Socialization

gender

gender • Refers to the SOCIAL characteristics that distinguish the sexes.

Social construction of gender • The social construction of gender is a subtle and complex process that includes: 1. tangible presentations of people

Social construction of gender • 2. a sexual division of labor between women’s and men’s work

Social construction of gender • 3. subtle behavioral and attitudinal expectations

Gender is embedded in the social and cultural heritage of a group

Individuals are introduced to gender as they encounter differential expectations

Gender and Socialization • Socialization is the lifelong process of learning to become a member of the social world, beginning at birth and continuing until death

SOCIALIZATION • Socialization is a major part of what the family, education, religion and other institutions do to prepare individuals to be members of their social world

socialization • Interaction is the basic building block of socialization…. • Out of the process of interaction we learn culture and become members of society • Interaction shapes us into human beings with social selves (which are perceptions we have of who we are)

socialization • Socialization is necessary not only for the survival of the individual but also for the survival of society and its groups

SOCIALIZATION AND THEORY *most theories of socialization focus on micro-level processes (ie: how families, peer groups etc. teach us how to live in our respective cultures…. * There are important macro processes as well……….

SOCIALIZATIONFUNCTIONALISM • (functionalist) perspectives of socialization tend to see different levels of the social world operating to support each other (ex: boy and girl scouts stressing national values/patriotism)

SOCIALIZATION-CONFLICT THEORY • Conflict theorists believe that those who have power and privilege use socialization to manipulate individuals in the social world to support the interests of elites

Socialization and Symbolic Interactionism • For symbolic interactionists the central “product” of the process of socialization is the self……. • The self refers to the perceptions we have of who we are

SOCIALIZATION-SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONIST THEORY • Throughout the socialization process our “self concept” is derived from our perceptions of the way others are responding to us…

The self • George Herbert Meadsymbolic interactionists who felt individuals take others into account by imagining themselves in the position of the other, a process called “roletaking”…………

Mead and the Self • The self develops only with social experience • *the self is not part of the body and does not exist at birth • Mead rejected the idea that personality is guided by biological drives or biological maturation • *the self develops only as the individual interacts with others

Mead and the Self • *the key to the development of the self, is learning to take the role of the other • *infants respond to others through imitation • *as children learn to use language and other symbols, the self emerges in the form of playsignificant others

We are introduced to gender as we are exposed to dissimilar treatment emphasizing differences

Differences between males and females-sexual dimorphism • Sexual dimorphism refers to marked differences in male and female biology besides the contrasts in breasts and genitals • Men and women differ not just in primary and secondary sexual characteristics, but in average weight, height and strength

How significant are these differences??

The behavioral, attitudinal and status differences between men and women emerge from culture and society rather than from biology

Margaret Mead and Gender • Anthropologist Margaret Mead did early ethnographic study of variation in gender roles (Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies) • Work based on fieldwork in three societies in Papua, New Guinea: Arapesh, Mundugumor, Tchambuli

ARAPESH

MUNDUGAMOR

Tchambuli

Gender roles-tasks and activities that a culture assigns to the sexes

Gender stereotypes-oversimplified but strongly held ideas about the characteristics of males and females

Gender stratification describes an unequal distribution of rewards between men and women reflecting their different positions in a hierarchy

Feminism • Feminism-the view that biology is not destiny and that stratification by gender is wrong and should be resisted • ARE YOU A FEMINIST?