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GENDER ROLES.
Term Paper ID:28653

Essay Subject:
Discusses biological & cultural influences on attitudes. Concepts of "feminine" & "masculine."... More...

7 Pages / 1575 Words
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Paper Abstract:
Discusses biological & cultural influences on attitudes. Concepts of "feminine" & "masculine."

Paper Introduction:
In every society, children learn from their parents the concept of "feminine" and "masculine" and what that means in a given culture. After all, much about these conceptions is not biological at all but cultural. The way we tend to think about men and women and their gender roles in society constitute the prevailing paradigm that influences our thinking. This may change over time, and in the last forty years or so we have seen the concept undergo considerable change in the face of the feminist movement and related efforts to challenge traditional attitudes and ideas with something more egalitarian. At the same time, as we can all see in our own family situations, there are certain gender roles and attitudes that do not change that much. Men and women are differentiated biologically by sexual function and by the general role of women

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The fact that verbal and nonverbal cues alike contribute to how weview gender shows how influential society at large is in this debate. "Society and Sex Roles." In Gendered Voices, Karin Bergstrom Costello (ed.), 5 -58. Gould finds that the issue is explosive but that thereis no firm evidence on either side, though he rightly points out that thishas become a political question: "Biological determinism has always beenused to defend social arrangements as biologically inevitable. Womenhave made advances toward the equality they seek only to encounter abacklash in the form of religious fundamentalism, claims of reversediscrimination by males, and hostility from a public that thinks thewomen's movement has won everything it wanted and should thus now besilent. The problem with the argument over nature versus nurture isthat it is not simply a scientific issue but one with consequences, andmany have shaped their answer based not on research but on how they viewgender differences themselves. Christine Gorman finds that there is new research suggesting thatthere is a strong role for biological determinism, though this does notmean it should be used to protect the status quo as has been true in thepast. As women entered the 199 s, they faced a number of problems. . She notes thatpatriarchies are the prevalent form of society, though not the only form,and that they "appear to be strongest in societies in which men controlsignificant goods that are exchanged with people outside the family"(Friedl 51), thus associating this type with a certain economic structureas well. Stephen Jay Gould considers the issue in terms of biologicalpotentiality (which could be developed, or nurtured, through socialinteraction) and biological determinism (where physical attributes aredecided and set by biology). New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996. Women canbe women and still begin on an equal footing with the other half of thehuman race--men. Men and women are more likely to work together in equalsituations, but men and women are still differentiated by dress, attitudes,and some behaviors. However, shealso notes that "Most of the gender differences that have been uncovered sofar are, statistically speaking quite small" (Gorman 29). Barash indicates how something as common and as pervasiveas language contributes to the socialization process and helps shape genderroles. ." (Gould23). Many of the gender-based cues wesend out would be awkward if put into words, which makes it all the moreevident that we should do what we can to change those messages because theyare having a real impact and are perpetuating attitudes we consciouslyconsider embarrassing. Sandra L. Ernestine Friedl emphasizes the importance of societal attitudes inshaping these attitudes in subsequent generations. The nature-nurture debate isheard in the question of how gender roles are developed--is it because ofthe nature of the sexes, or is it the nurturing process of socializationthat creates one accepted role for boys and another for girls in a givensociety? It is clear that for most of history women were expected to becontent with a certain sort of life and were trained for that purpose.Clearly, circumstances of family life have changed in the modern era.Industry has been taken out of the home, and large families are no longereconomically possible or socially desired. Mostdiscussions of gender hold that it is the latter that is most important indetermining social attitudes and behavior. The change in sex roles that can be discerned in societyis closely tied with changes in the structure of the family. Gender is culturally defined, with significantdifferences from culture to culture. "Sizing Up the Sexes." In Gendered Voices, Karin Bergstrom Costello (ed.), 26-35. They areencountered in the workplace, in the home, in every facet of life. Behavior which is brought aboutconsciously may not have the same clear communicative quality. This issue raises thequestion of which dominates, nature or nurture, meaning inherent traits orthe power of training and socialization in a cultural setting. Obviously, what we identify as gender roles in Western societies havebeen changing rapidly in recent years, with the changes created both byevolutionary changes in society, including economic shifts which havealtered the way people work and indeed which people work as more and morewomen enter the workforce, and by pressure brought to make changes becauseof the perception that the traditional social structure was inequitable.Gender relations are part of the socialization process, the initiationgiven the young by society, teaching them certain values and creating inthem certain behavior patterns acceptable to their social roles. The gender roles of the parents areconveyed to the children and also serve to create conflicts and harmonieswith children of different sexes, depending on the specific situation. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996.Bem, Sandra L. Gender can be defined as a social identity consisting of the role aperson is to play because of his or her sex. "Transforming the Debate on Sexual Inequality: From Biological Difference to Institutionalized Androcentrism." In Gendered Voices, Karin Bergstrom Costello (ed.), 38-49. At the same time, as we can all see in our own family situations,there are certain gender roles and attitudes that do not change that much.Men and women are differentiated biologically by sexual function and by thegeneral role of women as nurturers of children, something that no amount ofmale parenting shift will ever change fully simply because it cannot bechanged. The basicinstitution for socialization is the family, and this is especially truefor small-scale societies where the education process in the family unit ismore extensive and longer-lasting, as well as often being the onlyeducation of note the child receives. The role of women in American society was conditioned byreligious attitudes and by the conditions of life that prevailed throughmuch of American history. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996.Gould, Stephen Jay. Daniel P. Bem indicates the way the question has become politicalbecause of the fact that many use the biological idea that there is sexualinequality to discriminate in social and business situations, as if thiswere a natural consequence of biological differences instead of itselfbeing a cultural artifact. These differences are studied byanthropologists to ascertain the range of behaviors that have beendeveloped to define gender and on the forces at work in the creation ofthese roles. Most ofthese problems have been around for some time, and women have challengedthem and even alleviated them without solving them completely. Friedl also finds biological reasons why women did not develop ashunters the way men did, given that it would be difficult to be a hunterwhile also being involved in pregnancy and child care (Friedl 53). Both are people, of course, and are such in part because theyhave brains of a certain size to differentiate them from the smaller brainsof other primates. Women may indeedbe different from men, but this is not a result of brain size and hasnothing to say about the level of achievement women can reach. "Sexism: Strategies of Reproduction, or When Is Beeswax Like a Ferrari?" In Gendered Voices, Karin Bergstrom Costello (ed.), 3-17. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996.Friedl, Ernestine. To some degree, masculine and feminine arewhat we think they are, though there are some biological constraints thatdirect our thinking. Gould considers specifically the issue ofsexual differentiation in terms of how men and women use their brainsdifferently. Weknow that nonverbal cues are widely used to send out messages that would besocially awkward if expressed verbally. As can be seen from the essays in Costello, the question of genderroles is associated with the nature versus nurture debate, which alsoemerges in a number of other sociological issues. Changes inboth family structure and sex roles over the last century have produced theferment we still see today, and one of the problems with the changing roleof women is the degree to which society perceives this as causing unwantedchanges in the family, though it is just as true that changes in the familyhave altered the roles of women. Gouldargued against this sort of analysis, as have other theorists andresearchers. Afterall, much about these conceptions is not biological at all but cultural.The way we tend to think about men and women and their gender roles insociety constitute the prevailing paradigm that influences our thinking.This may change over time, and in the last forty years or so we have seenthe concept undergo considerable change in the face of the feministmovement and related efforts to challenge traditional attitudes and ideaswith something more egalitarian. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996.Gorman, Christine. Works CitedBarash, Daniel P. These changes involve the new ability ofwomen to break out of the gender roles created for them by a patriarchalsociety. Gorman does cite a number of ways in which men and women differ.She notes that there are "neurological differences between the sexes bothin the brain's structure and in its functioning" (Gorman 27). The home is no longer thecenter of the husband's life, and for the traditional wife there is only anarrowing of interests and possibilities for development: "Increasingly,the woman finds herself without an occupation and with an unsatisfactoryemotional life". There is a diversity in maleand female roles, making it impossible to define gender in terms of narrowmale and female roles. Paul Broca was a researcher who "argued againsthigher education by claiming it would divert women's limited complement ofblood from their reproductive organs to their brains" (Bem 39). The first distinctions made in terms of sex are based on what wecan immediately see: There has been no human society that has not distinguished the sexes, by their anatomies and by their behavior. Biological Determinism." In Gendered Voices, Karin Bergstrom Costello (ed.), 18-25. Clearly, though, the process of child training in different societiespromotes different sets of values, and even within a given society therecan be differences in emphasis in the education given. Both the needs of women today and the backlash that has developedderive form the changes in social and sexual roles that have taken place inthe period since World War II. Accomplishing such a change would be verydifficult, of course, and can only be brought about if nonverbalcommunication becomes a subject for study and classroom learning just asverbal language is. "Biological Potentiality vs. At the same time, it is not clear that this sort ofshift can be accomplished at all, since by its very nature nonverbalcommunication is largely unconscious. Theseroles have been in a state of flux in American society in recent years, andmen and women today can be seen as having expanded their roles in society,with women entering formerly male dominions and men finding new ways torelate to and function in the family unit. The culture of Europe and America was based forcenturies on a patriarchal system in which exclusive ownership of thefemale by a given male was considered important, with the result that womenwere relegated to the role of property with little or no voice in their ownfate. In every society, children learn from their parents the concept of"feminine" and "masculine" and what that means in a given culture. Insome societies, the father is the center of authority and affection, andthis can lead to a clash of roles that places both father and child in apsychological conflict. But we tend to focus on the superficial differences--dress, hair, length, body shape--and most of us don't really know what makes a woman female and a man male (Barash 3).Barash also states that "the biological difference between men and women isabsolutely crucial to comprehending sociobiology's arguments for thebehavioral differences between them" (Barash 4).

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