Social Construction of Gender

• Social Construction of Gender is the topic for discussion.

Review of Social Science Concepts

• Socialization is a specific type of social interaction.
• Socialization is a lifelong process where people learn what is necessary to survive in a society.
• Socialization occurs when children learn society rules or culture from parents or at school
• Status refers to any socially defined position within a large group or society.
• Statuses are not limited to higher positions.
• A person can hold multiple statuses at the same time.
• Ascribed status is given to a person by society, usually at birth, such as nationality, racial background, gender, and age.
• It often has social or cultural meanings.
• It can’t be changed.
• Achieved status comes through one's own efforts.
• Examples include student, professor, president, and pianist
• Ascribed status can influence achieved status as some women face difficulty getting certain jobs.
• Examples of Social Statuses: Being a daughter, Thai, 19 years old and female are ascribed statuses; being a roommate, friend, student, tennis club member and pianist are achieved statuses.
• People interact with each other as persons of a certain status with another person of another status, e.g. a daughter with a father
• Social roles are what sociologists use to refer to what we acquire throughout our lives.
• Sociologists define social roles as a set of expectations for people who occupy a certain status.
• Actions that people of a certain status should do are considered social roles.
• Each social status has particular role expectations.
• A student's social role is to study; a parent to take care of the children; and taxi driver to take customers to their destination Actual performance varies individually (e.g. students).
• According to functionalists, roles contribute to a society’s stability.
• Roles enablement allows members to expect the actions of others and form their own actions accordingly, like with a taxi driver.
• People are responsible to act as expected in order to keep social stability.
• Social institutions are established sets of norms and subsystems that support each society's survival.
• Each sector has certain tasks and different responsibilities that contribute to the functioning and stability of a society.
• Social Institutions help to decrease chaos and increase structure.
• Examples of social institutions include government, education, religion, gender, family, economies, and more

Gender as Social Construction

• Judith Lorber's "Night to his day”: explores the social construction of gender.

Difference Between Sex and Gender

• Sex is biological while gender is gained through socialization.
• Sex is biologically determined and one is born with it, can't be changed.
• Gender can be changed, not born with, but constructed (social construction).
• Gender is a social institution.

Gender as a Human Production

• Gender is a human production or a social construction.
• Gender is constantly created and re-created out of human interaction, out of social life.
• Everyone "does gender" without thinking about it.
• Biological sex (men and women) becomes a gender status through naming, dress, and the use of other gender markers.

Gendered Norms and Expectations

• Gender involves the social expectations of how women and men are supposed to act.
• Parenting is gendered, with different expectations for mothers and fathers.
• People of different genders work at different kinds of jobs.
• These experiences produce different feelings, consciousness, relationships, feminine or masculine skills.
• Gendered roles are based on gendered social norms and expectations.
• Man is for outside work and executive jobs.
• Typical jobs include physically heavy jobs, math, science, and engineering.
• E.g. construction, police officer, military, pilot, and medical doctor are typical for men
• Women is for domestic work such as housework and taking care of children.
• Women have supportive jobs.
• Light, easy, but repetitive and boring jobs are typical for woman.
• A job in field of social science, language, and music is applicable for women.
• E.g. nurse, teacher, admin officer, cashier, and receptionist.
• Gender categories and gender differences are currently blurring.
• Social groups maintain strict about gender differences. It is important to mark a child as a girl or a boy?
• Gender is one of the major ways human beings organize their lives as a social institution.
• Gender is used for the division of labor.
• Gender division of labor is addressed in Topic 4.
• The different tasks of society based on their talents, motivations, and competence are chosen by gender.
• Different people do different roles in the society.
• Sex represents the biological and physiological differences between human females and males.
• Gender is socially constructed.
• People mostly understand that sex and gender is essentially the same thing, but are simply not.
• Social statuses of gender are carefully constructed through socialization.
• Simone de Beauvoir said: "One is not born, but rather becomes, a women...; it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature ... which is described as feminine."

Individual: Gender as Sameness

• Gender statuses or gender institutions make people similar to each other. Women are women (feminine)
• Men are men (masculine).

Gender as Ascribed and Achieved Status

• Gender is an achieved status rather than an ascribed one.
• The social order constructs and holds individuals to strongly gendered norms and expectations after gender is achieved.
• The gendered practices of everyday life reproduce a society's view of how women and men should act.
• Moral hegemony of the dominant gender ideology = Gendered roles.

For Society: Gender as Difference

• Legally and socially recognized, there are only two gender statuses in most societies: "man" and "woman."
• It does not matter what actual men and women do.
• Instead, what is perceived as different persists in the social institution of gender.
• The United States Marine Corps requires its women to wear makeup, at a minimum eye shadow and lipstick.
• Spatial Segregation: Men and women are doing the same tasks or in the same team but they are often divided and ranked. e.g. executive members and administrative assistants.
• Gendered roles are based on gendered social norms and expectations.
• Gender roles are evolving and changing.
• Men can become nurses, and women become firefighters. Gender differences are socially constructed.
• The relationship and stereotypes between men and women are changing.
• The social gap between the sexes or the gender gap is also narrowing and decreasing.
• Gender diversity reflects recognition of more genders (men, women and more) beyond the traditional two that were once implemented.
• Biological men, for example, can behave like women in a feminine way via dressing a certain way. This illustrates third genders/LGBTQ.
• Gender diversity is addressed in Topic 13.
• People have have different gender identities: women, men, and LGBTQ.
• Genders are not biologically determined, however. Gender boundaries are erasable. The essential question remains; is is gender necessary?
• Gender is constructed only as two genders: men and women are socially constructed.
• Through the socialization process, or through women and men with people of their own gender, they construct and re-construct gender for both sexes in their family and workplace.
• Gender roles, norms, and expectations can change, and they are changing little by little.