Sociology of Gender

Introduction

Gender refers to the communally created roles, behaviors, activities and attributes as well as biological characteristics that a given community finds suitable for men and women. Our society has many different opinions and specifications on the on breaking down what it means to be male or female (Giddens, et al. 2000). In the process of developing these opinions, the society created norms and beliefs that affect the daily lives of different sexes (Giddens, et al. 2000). These standards and expectations consequently established gender roles in the society. The sociology of gender describes the perception of sex and the resultant behavior by the community. Sociology of gender divides the argument into two broad fields, male and female (Wharton, A. S. 2009). The essay discusses the sociology of gender. It reviews these gender roles in detail and how they affect key fields in the community today. The article shows how gender roles created in society are creating gender inequality.

After assessing the articles, thoroughly I realized that Gender identity affects politics in vast ways. It affects policy making as well as participation in the policy of a state. The ideology of gender roles created inequality in the political participation of men and women. Majority of the states in the world barely have any women leaders (Wharton, A. S. 2009). There is a lot of research studying gender role attitudes and their effects on the levels of women’s political representation. The study shows that traditional gender role attitudes act as a barrier to women’s legislative representation at each stage of the requirement process (Paxton, Kunovich& Hughes, 2007). It starts from the point of women’s decision to participate in politics, to party policies and decisions regarding the candidate or to decisions on the day of the election made by the voters.

According to the articles, there are many opinions regarding politics that result in these three conclusions. The society may instill norms that make women believe that competitiveness and political ambition is a masculine characteristic. As a consequence, women hesitate to participate in politics because they perceive it as a man’s world. The society demoralizes the women making them believe that they are incapable of achieving in this field through such norms (Eagly, A. H. 1995). The society also has traditional gender stereotypes that can impose restrictions on women seeking to indulge in politics (Paxton, Kunovich& Hughes, 2007). The stereotypes pressure the women to prioritize family responsibilities. Another issue identified that affects the participation of women in politics is the limited support they get. In a society that believes that the policy is a man’s domain women tend to get less support as compared to men (Paxton, Kunovich& Hughes, 2007). It disheartens women preventing them from taking part in politics. Gender roles also exist as powerful social set ups that shape policies in many ways.

Political institutions influence the impact of social policies on gender. It is hard to create policies that favor women because, in most cases, women are significantly underrepresented in political systems (Wharton, A. S. 2009). However over time women found ways to influence the political domain to their advantage. It includes the use of female groups (Paxton, Kunovich& Hughes, 2007). Women groups are especially making considerable progress in effecting social change in the economy and social policies. These actions help create policies supportive to women. The prevailing ideologies among the decision makers have an impact on gender relations to politics. It depends on whether the policymakers have strong socialist-oriented ideologies or have a dominant ideology of individualism and free- market capitalism. The cultural or tradition of a location may affect its beliefs on gender preference in terms of politics (Giddens, et al. 2000).

Cultural ideals of gender create expectations for and influence the structure and functioning of the family. In the broad context, a family includes a father mother and children. Gender roles affect the very structure if a family (Giddens, et al. 2000). Gender identity assigns roles to each member of the family. The males, that is the father and the sons do the hard activities such as mowing the lawn and fixing broken items (Anderson, K. L. 1997). The females (mother and daughters) deal with the hygiene and the cleanliness of the family. Gender roles place the male as the head of the family and associate them with security and financial support and sometimes the disciplinarian of the family. The females get associated with the stability and continuity of the family. All of these roles vary according to cultural concepts (Anderson, K. L. 1997). The articles illustrate that many children by a particular age are aware of their sex and the differences and the ideology sticks for the remaining part of their life. Even at early stages many of these children will develop gender stereotypes on certain activities, items such as toys or even clothes (Giddens, et al. 2000). Socialization discusses the roles given to different sexes, for example, how a parent will associate roughness and physical play with boys than girls. It is also true that adults will communicate differently with boys than girls. Study shows that both boys and girls as they grow old they develop different communicative patterns such as boys using aggression to acquire attention (Anderson, K. L. 1997).

According to the articles, traditional concepts of the masculine character dominating the feminine character create reason for gender violence in the world today (Anderson, K. L. 1997). It simply means that the society institutionally positions women as inferior and objects worth of violence (Anderson, K. L. 1997). The culture makes violence against women normal and silences victims of violence. In a society, there are three main fields where gender violence dominates. They include; in the family, traditional practices like female genital mutilation and in the community as whole for example raping or sexual harassment (Anderson, K. L. 1997).

Sexuality refers to both sexual behavior and sexual desire. Cultural beliefs and customs expect and find the heterosexuality normal in society. The cultural beliefs created from the perspective of the embodiment of people in society affects people's outlook on sexuality. Very many people in the world as whole consider heterosexuality very normal (Valocchi, S. 2005). The high number of matrimonial unions vividly clarifies the normality of heterosexuality. Due to the normality of heterosexuality it is impossible to believe that there are other sexualities. The society will discriminate against other sexualities and consider them perverse and unnatural (Valocchi, S. 2005).

The conflict theory of sociology is imminent in the essay. The domination of men in society is apparent. The article suggests that the male superiority in modern civilization is a function of culturally-installed patriarchy that favors men and oppresses women in our community. According to the social order of things, men are the dominant group and women are the subordinated group in our society. In this essay, men’s dominance is imminent in the political domain. Women are highly underrepresented in most states due to communal beliefs that created a system where man dominates over women. Even in the family background the male gender is associated with dominance in the household activities as well as responsibility. There are also retrogressive cultures that oppress human through gender violence that is justified by cultural norms.

Conclusion

An individual’s gender is intricate, revolving around countless characteristics of appearance, speech, movement and other factors not entirely limited to biological sex. Gender disparities exist in nearly every social experience from the moment a person gets born till they die. Gender presumptions affect how boys and girls are viewed. In fact, gender prospects may begin before birth as parents select out colors for the decorating room, clothes and toys and decorate the baby’s room with stereotyped gender ideals. I believe it is important fully to comprehend the field of sociology of gender. It helps us understand people’s behavioral patterns in the community. Full comprehension of this topic allows an individual and a community at large make amends to beliefs that affect the social health.

Reference

Anderson, K. L. (1997). Gender, status, and domestic violence: An integration of feminist and family violence approaches. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 655-669.

Eagly, A. H. (1995). The science and politics of comparing women and men. American Psychologist, vol. 50 issue 3, page 145.

Giddens, A., Duneier, M., Appelbaum, R. P., & Carr, D. (2000). Introduction to sociology. New York: WW Norton.

Paxton, P., Kunovich, S., & Hughes, M. M. (2007). Gender in politics. Annu. Rev. Sociol., vol. 33, page 263-284.

Valocchi, S. (2005). Not Yet Queer Enough The Lessons of Queer Theory for the Sociology of Gender and Sexuality. Gender & Society, vol. 19 issue 6, page 750-770.

Wharton, A. S. (2009). The sociology of gender: An introduction to theory and research. John Wiley & Sons.

Carolyn Morgan is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in write my nursing research paper services. If you need a similar paper you can place your order from essay already written services.