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Social Constructionism: A Sociological Analysis

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The ideology that gender is socially constructed is a view that has been present in a variance of philosophical, sociological and psychological theories. This view shares an understanding that gender is a product of enculturation through a prescribed ideal as well as what is socially appropriate behaviour for a person of the specific gender. Society is shaped globally through social order. Each culture and society share a social order that is defined as a particular set of customs, relationships, values and practices that are maintained and enforced in society. These customs are engrained within society through contexts and shared meanings. There are multiple variables that comprise social ordering, one of them being gender. Gender is …show more content…

When looking at gender with this percpective,
(David buss Robert sapolsky Judith lorber )
Although biological determinism makes their arguments within the ring of truth, there are multiple accounts and instances where it is evident that socialization had a key role in gender. Alike many other sciences, sociology critiques biological determinism and essentialism. Sociology itself is understood as the study of social behaviour, behaviour in groups that includes the organizations, institutions, and development. Thus, sociologists conceptualize gender with a social constructionist perspective, aiming to understand and demonstrate how society relies on social interaction in order to develop.
Social constructionism is defined as “ the theoretical orientation that sees the expression and organization of gender not as the outcome of biology, but as the result of historical and cultural change, [and] the socialization of individuals…” (Kimmel 111) Through the examination of past experiments, situations, and case studies it is evident that the implantation of culture and socialization is a key aspect in the development of the …show more content…

It offers a sense of fluidity between the two by explaining gender as the product of enculturation rather than a specific set of traits. Gender is examined as product of social constructionism and enculturation by exploring three distinct levels in which gender is present.
The first being the perspective that gender is not defined as a set of characteristics but rather an identity. As we progress through our daily lives, gender takes form in how we act, carry ourselves and interact with individuals. This can be understood as how each individual internally experience gender. This could take shape in male, female, neither or along a spectrum. As well, an individual’s gender identity is not solidified by their birth-assigned sex, allowing the individual the freedom to identify themselves without binary categories.
The second level of gender is interaction. Over time, men and women have been taught how to act in accordance with gender conformed behaviours, and looked upon as “abnormal” if they deviant from what is expected. Gender is evolving within each generation as the individual partakes in a gender identity daily by either reinforcing instilled norms, or with an attempt to normalize deviant

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Burak defines gender socialization as “the process of interaction through which we learn the gender norms of our culture and acquire a sense of ourselves as feminine, masculine, or even androgynous” (Burack, 1). According to Burack, people of different genders behave differently not due to biological factors, but due to socialization that teaches individuals to behave in a particular way in order to belong to a certain gender. For example, women may tend to be nurturing, not because they are biologically programed to be caretakers, but as a result of society teaching them through toys and media to act as mothers. In this way, gender becomes a performance based on expectations rather than natural behaviors or biology, a phenomenon called “doing

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The biological categories of gender strongly influence the social dynamics of gender (Conley 281). Gender matters because it structures relations between people, but as gender structures relation it does this on unequal ground.

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1. In chapter two Judith Lorber argues how gender is human production and it is created and re-create by people in society who follow “gender doing”. In addition, Lorber explains how gender is taught at birth when a child is given a gender status. Parents use “gender markers” such as a child’s name and clothing to distinguish if they’re a boy or girl.

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In recent years, gender has become a hot topic of discussion. Gender is defined as “the state of being male or female”, however, some gender theorists suggest that gender is a social construction that was not founded on sex. According to gender theory, the term gender is not expressing the state of being feminine or masculine. Many suggest that the separation between gender and sex has to deal with dominance being associated with gender as opposed to physical characteristics being associated with sex. Until the rise of industry in the West, the strong divide of gender was not prevalent.

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Additionally, gender as part of one’s identity is socially produced through repetition

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Gender is “a social construct that prescribes the roles, attitudes,

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Gender like race, is socially constructed. In other words, Guest notes (Guest 2013) that Family, friends, the media, doctors, educational institutions, religious communities, sports, and law all enculturate us with a sense of gender that becomes normative and seems natural. We as humans learn to behave as a man or woman and to recognize behaviors as masculine or feminine within a cultural context. For example, you are brought up by family members that confines you to a specific gender category. Over the span of our lives, we accept those general norms.

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Challenging the boundaries of gender can be seen as threating to the status quo and to those who view gender in a very two-dimensional way. However, gender should be a social choice not entirely based on biology; many people work to battle against the constraints of fixed gender molds they were placed in at birth (Fausto-Sterling, 2008). There should be freedom to define our own gender and one should not have to conform to the strong masculine and feminine boundaries and molds (Fausto-Sterling,

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Accordingly, social constructionist claims that gender is a social construction that changes

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How an individual is taught how to socially behave in accordance with their gender which is given at birth which is considered biological. Gender role socialization is done through communication. In the article dramatic fiction The Social Construction of reality, it stated that "gender distinctions are human creations and do not exist independently of cultural ideas about them." In the 19th century women in the U.S were ignored and suppressed. The government had laws that conflicts with true happiness for women.

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Unlike ‘sex’, which typically refers to the biological and physiological differences, gender is a sociological concept that describes the social and cultural constructions that is associated with one’s sex (Giddens & Sutton, 2013, p. 623-667). The constructed (or invented) characteristics that defines gender is an ongoing process that varies between societies and culture and it can change over time. For example, features that are overly masculine in one culture can be seen as feminine in another; however, the relation between the two should not be seen as static. Gender socialization is thought to be a major explanation for gender differences, where children adhere to traditional gender roles from different agencies of socialization. Gender

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Gender, we said, was an achieved status: that which is constructed through psychological, cultural, and social means". Doing gender means, "creating differences between girls and boys and women and men, differences that are not natural, essential, or biological". Our society teaches us gender is a fixed biological sex category. Women are shown to be soft, passive, nurturing, caring, housekeeper. Men are inculcated to be strong, provider, problem, and problem solver.

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A few years later, the children declare themselves as boys or girls and behave as such. The Human Rights campaign define gender identity as “One 's innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither – how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. One 's gender identity can be the same or different from their sex assigned at birth.” For years the origin of gender identity has been studied from different sciences such as biology, sociology, anthropology and psychology but this query hasn’t been totally clarified yet. There has been a lot of controversy regarding the influence of nature and environment on the development of gender roles.

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Gender can be effected social behavior of each individual. It was assigned to them in accordance to their biological sex start at birth. Thus, gender socialization is the learning process to instruct individuals

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An explanation on how family structure influences gender socialization Society expects different attitudes and behaviours from boys and girls. Gender socialization is the tendency for boys to be socialized differently. Boys and girls are raised to conform to the male gender roles and girls are raised to conform to female gender roles. A family structure influences gender socialization by using certain mechanisms that people adopt without recognizing the patterns they create within social context.

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