The Importance Of Gender Identity

To begin with, one of the fundamental aspects of social interaction depends on an individuals´ gender identity. By interacting with others, individuals within a society create their gender identity through their sense of dominating cultural ideology, and “it is through these interactions that one of the most fundamental divisions of society, male and female, is legitimated” (West & Zimmerman, 1987, p. 126). That is to say, society creates gender, not vice versa. This gender categorization and basic distinction between genders, children learn early on from their parents and other influencing adult figures. As a result, when children mature they take on these adopted characteristics of their societal attributes and emerge into intermediate adolescence

In the beginning, the genders are much the same. Yet, boys in preschool often assign roles to playmates, while girls tend to inquire which role their playmate wants to take on (Gleason & Ely, 2002, p. 139; Sachs, 1987). However, in early adolescence basic differences begin to emerge, as they learn social behavior from their environment. As Blair´s (2000) observed in her study on intermediate adolescents, they mostly mixed in segregated groups “often mimicking and mocking the other gender” (p. 316). This demonstrates that, not only does the linguistic environment of their home environment influence their behavior, but most importantly, their peer socialization also has major effects on their attitudes (Gleason, 2005, p.

In 1990, Tannen described the difference in men and women´s style of communication and named it Genderlect Theory. The main purpose of the theory was to recognize the linguistic and cultural differences between genders. Furthermore, it categorizes the genders language into two different types of dialects (genderlects); the power, instrumented, assertive speech men use and the women´s politer, relational, empathetic speech variation. Children´s, on the other hand, have an innate ability to adapt to their gendering society and acquire gender-specific speech registers. Like adults, they too position themselves within their social group with their