Gender identity and stereotyping begin the moment a child is born. The first question asked by relatives and friends is, “Is it a “boy” or a “girl”? Society has already formed a classification based on the two genders. The two genders have identifiable features, mainly contributing to gender identification and stereotype. They include body shape, hairstyles, walking styles, clothing types, voice, etcetera. These can be said to be some of the main identification attributes that society forms to identify the two genders. We can define gender identity as “the ability for one to label their sex accurately” (Bergin & Bergin, 2019). Various complex concepts play an integral part in the gender identity in children.
One of the concepts is the distinctive qualities and features that define us in our gender and how comfortable we feel. The other is how we define ourselves and are proud to identify with our gender. The conformity and content in our gender is also a critical concept. These concepts play a critical role in how people live their lives from childhood to their adult life. Starting at infancy and in toddlers, in my opinion, it is arguably to state that infants can create categories, and one of them is gender. At a very early age, they can distinguish between males and females using some of the features earlier discussed. They progress to differentiating between a boy and a girl as they start to label people like girls and boys as early as two years of age. It is also critical to note that their gender labelling ability is mainly influenced by appearances (Bergin & Bergin, 2019). Therefore, if one gender disguises as the other, they may not tell the difference in this early stage of development.
They also become curious about distinctive features that differentiate girls from boys early. Gender stereotyping kicks in when they can tell the difference between the toys that are supposed to be for girls and boys. Parents also play a critical role in children’s gender typing; for example, a father may involve his young son in physical activities while the mother may encourage her daughter to play with dolls (Halim, Walsh, Tamis-LeMonda, Zosuls, & Ruble, 2018). Gender nonconformity may tend to show in some children as they grow. In middle childhood, one can argue that gender is apparent to the young ones. They can understand that gender is constant. At this point, they know that one cannot change their gender even if their behaviours and mode of dressing reflect the other gender. In my opinion, their gender stereotyping is solid at this point, and they tend to become sexist.
Middle childhood is argued to be the stage that children tend to bully or punish others who step out of their gender boundaries. However, boys show more aggression in their gender boundaries than girls. Children tend to lessen their sex and gender rigidity regarding stereotypes at the end of elementary school (Halim et al., 2018). They begin to understand the bigger worldview in gender stereotyping and how it will affect their adult life between about 7 to 15 years. As they enter adolescence, children become more content with their gender and feel more typical (Bergin & Bergin, 2019). This phase of their lives plays a critical role in better understanding their gender, values, and characteristics that define them.
Moreover, I believe children’s “gender crisis” ends in adolescence as they understand themselves and become content with their gender. However, for others, this is the start of their internal gender conflict when forced overtime to conform to their gender-type values. Youngsters also drop activity stereotyping in adolescence as they become comfortable getting involved in activities deemed to be associated with the opposite gender.
References
Bergin, C. C., & Bergin, D. A. (2019). Child and Adolescent Development in your Classroom, 6, Pp. 545-547.
Halim, M. L. D., Walsh, A. S., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Zosuls, K. M., & Ruble, D. N. (2018). The roles of self-socialization and parent socialization in toddlers’ gender-typed appearance. Archives of sexual behavior, 47(8), 2277-2285.
Gender disparity has always been an actively discussed topic in the field of medicine. In recent years, more papers started to focus on specific subjects of medical science, including radiological technologies. As research suggests, in emergency radiology in the United States of America, only 22.2% of specialists are female, making the field dominated mainly by men (O’Neill et al., 2017). Other scientists suggest that in North America, among 2826 radiology specialists, only 32.6% were women (Hamidizadeh et al., 2018). This large difference between the number of male and female specialists in modern medicine becomes a demotivation for the latter to pursue careers in radiological technologies.
Radiological technologies, like any other medical field, continue to expand and develop. Therefore, ensuring diversity and equality within that field is an essential part of its development. This paper will briefly look at the literature regarding the topic of gender disparity in radiology and find the reasoning behind why women are hesitant to pursue it professionally. Finally, it will try to provide possible solutions for the issue of small gender diversity.
Historical Background of Gender Disparity in Radiology
Radiation continues to be one of the least gender-diverse fields of medicine. According to Piper et al. (2017), despite the upward trend in the number of women in medicine, radiology continues to be a mostly male-dominated sphere. Based on the same research, in 1980 the number of female radiology residents amounted to 19.2% (Piper et al., 2017). Thirty years later, in 2013, the amount increased to 26.9% (Li et al.,2021). Medical scientists and doctors believe that the reason behind the underrepresentation of women in radiology is due to decreased quality of patient care, teaching, and research (Piper et al., 2017). Thus, radiology continues to be the most male-dominant sphere among others in modern medicine.
Male dominance in radiology continues to be an issue not only in practical medicine but also in the academic field. As a result, despite women being more likely to pursue academic careers in medicine, they still struggle to reach senior positions (Zenner et al., 2020). In the medical field, academic advancement is mostly driven by peer-reviewed original papers, editorial publications, and scholarly accomplishments. These factors serve as a standard for academic promotion. According to Li et al. (2021), women in theoretical radiology do not publish their peer-reviewed articles with the same frequency as men do. Moreover, even though there is almost an equal number of men and women enrolling in medical schools and residency, the first is less likely to participate in major research programs or apply for academic scholarships (Adam et al., 2022). Thus, it can be said that women are not only underrepresented in radiology but are also demotivated to pursue that career academically.
Analysis on Gender Disparity in Radiology
Due to gender disparity in the sphere of radiology, women are not only demotivated to pursue both academic and residential careers but are also paid less. According to Zenner et al. (2020), all payments for women who work in radiology were significantly less compared to men. While the mean payment for men was $19,153.44, women had only $1,370 (Zenner et al., 2020). The only sphere where the difference in salary was not drastic was education. Based on the same research, despite women being 13% of total radiology physicians, they only received 1% of industry payment, which identifies the issue of gender disparity and its effect on the financial sector (Zenner et al., 2020). This is the most extreme gender and payment gap among all medical spheres, including ration oncology and ophthalmology, for which the total payments for women were 5% and 9%, respectively (Zenner et al., 2020). That way, there is a proof of a strong gender bias in the field of radiology.
Possible Solutions to Gender Disparity in Radiology
Before proposing ways of solving the issue of gender disparity, it is essential to find the reasons why women prefer not to choose radiology as their academic or residential career. As Adam et al. (2022) suggest, women link the lack of patient-doctor interaction in radiology as the main reason why they do not pursue it. Additionally, the lack of acknowledgment from patients and higher competition in the field are also possible reasons for the reluctance over residential radiology. As Zenner et al. (2020) state, many patients still do not address female doctors as so. Moreover, this field of radiology requires knowledge of physics, which most the female respondents find challenging. Thus, these reasons explain why women prefer other medical fields during their studies rather than radiological technologies.
Diversity and gender equality are important not only because of ethics. They also help in gaining more profit and improving performance of the organization. According to Li et al. (2021), who link research by Ernst Young, a company with 30% of female leaders can add 1% more to its net margin and improve team performance by almost 21%. Therefore, medical facilities should prioritize reducing the gender gap more and encourage women to pursue radiology.
Recruiting more women into radiology is the main and most obvious action that can be taken to reduce the gender gap. Less exposure to and lack of interaction with patients can be compensated by introducing the subject of radiology as early as possible to the students during their studies. Additionally, more scholarships and mentoring programs should be introduced to female students. As was discussed earlier, women publish research papers significantly less frequently than their male peers. Therefore, giving the first the opportunity to publish more, and conduct scientific research can encourage them more to pursue a career in radiological technologies. According to Piper et al. (2017), female first publishers are more likely to work under mentoring of female senior publishers. Considering the fact that there are more male publishers, this can indicate that women are limited to only female mentors who are already in the minority. Therefore, more young female researchers should be welcomed to work under the supervision of both male and female mentors.
Conclusion
To summarize, radiological technologies are still one of the least gender-equal spheres of modern medicine. Lack of peer-reviewed articles by female publishers, higher competition, and gender bias in the field are the reasons why women are less motivated to pursue radiology. Moreover, women consider doctor-patient interactions and doctor acknowledgment from patients to be one of the main factors before choosing a professional career in medicine, which are lacking in the radiology department. Therefore, medical facilities should prioritize exposing female residents to radiology more, provide more scholarships and mentoring programs, and recruit more female staff. Thus, they can ensure higher motivation for women in radiology and, additionally, benefit their own company by making more profit and improving the facility’s performance. Nowadays, every facility should prioritize reducing the gender gap and gender disparity to ensure equality, better performance, and more effective communication.
O’Neill, S. B., Maddu, K., Jalal, S., Yeo, S., Khurshin, K., Qamar, S. R., Nicolaou, S., & Khosa, F. (2017). Gender Disparity in Chest Radiology in North America.Current Problems in Diagnostic Radiology, 50(1), 18–22. Web.
Zenner, R., Lee, S. Y., Visscher, K. L., Ricketts, M., Speer, S., & Wiserman, D. (2020). Women in Radiology: Exploring the Gender Disparity.Journal of the American College of Radiology, 13(3), 344–350. Web.
Issues about gender in psychology have been under investigation for the longest time since the works of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution; where he investigated and highlighted the importance of variability and individual differences that in a way authenticated the study of variations in behavior including the behavior variations as per gender. Due to this fact, for a very long time in psychology, gender differences have been considered as an important field of study.
Phrenologists and neuroanatomists began with studying the intelligence difference between the two genders. It was a belief that females possessed smaller brains than males and that the brain size was an indicator of high intelligence levels and women therefore were not as intelligent as men (Hyde, 1994). When people who are not experts discuss the gender comparison issues, most of the time they ignore the similarities between the two genders and most of them tend to concentrate only on the differences.
In this study it will be very important to ask ourselves whether women really differ in their cognitive abilities from men and also how they differ in their attitudes related to motivation and success.
By addressing the above issues we shall be able to understand why men are more likely to become engineers than women and therefore be able to trace the gender career whether it is influenced by the cognitive differences or the social surroundings where one finds him or herself when born.
To analyze their topics, psychologists have been using several methods to review their research either by using a box score approach or the Meta analysis approach. In the box score approach, the researchers are supposed to read all the necessary studies in a particular topic and then draw conclusions based on the tally of outcomes.
Meta analysis on the other hand involves using a statistical method that is able to combine numerous topics on a single topic where a statistical analysis follows thereafter combining the results of all the studies. This method is more preferred due to its capability of analyzing the overall differences between the two genders and thus more preferred.
Literature Review
The differences in academic capabilities and preferences between the two genders have been put under consideration using several methodologies. Some of these methodologies have been helpful while others are not.
However, it is important to note that all studies which have been aimed at understanding the gender differences are quasi experimental and not experimental. Due to this fact, it becomes very difficult to understand whether it is the person’s gender that causes the difference or whether it is other numerous variables correlated with the gender.
Most studies, which have been conducted especially on course and career choices, have relied on correlation designs. It is just in the recent past that statistical techniques such as the structural equation techniques were introduced to allow psychologists test and analyze complex models of various families, peers and even cultural effect to the people’s perception of their academic abilities and academic preferences in relation to their cognitive abilities (Priess & Hyde, 2010).
Whereas disputes arise when trying to describe the cognitive abilities between the two genders, there are several areas where there is no difference between the two genders. For example there are gender similarities when it comes to general intelligence. The temperature of these debates of which gender is more intelligent than the other tends to rise further and compounded by uncertainties surrounding intelligence and gender differences (Halpern, 2000).
Despite these problems psychologists have always remained interested in the extent to which the gender differences are reflected in cognitive functioning and a variety of different measures have been devised to try and ascertain the nature and the extent of these. It is this area of gender difference rather than the intellectual or cognitive superiority or inferiority that is a main issue of discussion (Downing, Chan, Lam & Kwong, 2008).
Halpern and Lamay (2000) indicated that there were difficulties in addressing the academic, sociological, and political differences of using intelligence tests as a measure of gender differences due to the fact that there have been contradictory studies all over.
When referring to works done by Maccoby and Jacklin, Downing et al indicates that their study found no significant differences in general abilities and intelligence in the elementary years between the two genders but they did identify some differences in verbal, visual-spatial and mathematical reasoning in the onset of adolescence.
Males were seen to demonstrate better visual spatial and mathematics ability while the females performed better on verbal tasks such as spellings, pronunciation, and reading. However, Halpern and Lamay (2000) found no gender differences in terms of the overall intelligence. Critical reviews have shown that men and women exhibit differences in their cognitive abilities and skills. The studies also suggested that men were better at manipulating numeric and visual while women were better in their verbal ability.
Kimura (1999) explains that males outperform females on some spatial tasks with targeting and three dimensional rotations showing the most reliable sex difference. In other aspects of spatial ability, females dominated males in remembering task of location that is remembering where an object is located and identifying which objects in an array have been moved from a prior location (Silverman & Eals, 1992). These contradictions make it hard to be definite about some of the cognitive abilities the two genders possess.
Cognitive Psychology
To analyze the cognitive differences between males and females, it will be important first to understand what cognitive psychology. According to Halpern (2000), “Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with how people think, learn, and remember, which in turn is related to intelligence” (p.3). Intelligence is not usually unitary rather it is an interrelationship between different intellectual abilities.
Intelligence is usually divided into two cognitive abilities: verbal and performance skills which are then divided into several subdivisions. In the verbal ability we have factual knowledge, arithmetic, spelling and comprehension among other factors while the division on performance has the skills of picture arrangement, picture completion, and digit symbol and object assembly among other skills.
Gender Differences in Cognitive Abilities
Among several studies which have been conducted, it has been evident that girls perform better in verbal memory verbal skill and school performance while males had advantage at quantitative and spatial activities.
Verbal ability
Verbal abilities apply to all components of language usage, word fluency, spelling, reading ability, and grammatical usage among other factors. Halpern (2000) when reviewing past researches suggests that females are more language proficient and able to communicate earlier that their male counterparts he also noted that females acquired language with greater speed and accuracy than boys.
Similar sentiments about female outdoing males in verbal ability are shared by Browne (2006) where she puts it that the female advantage in verbal abilities even exceeds the mathematical advantage that the males usually possess. However, while females are such good performers, males outperform females when it comes to the verbal portion of the Scholastic Assessment Test even though it’s by smaller margins (Browne, 2006).
Experts believe that dyslexia and stuttering are two of the most prominent reasons which bring about the verbal ability between the two genders. Dyslexia is usually a brain dysfunction that affects the comprehension and the ability to read of a rather normal person while stuttering on the other side is the inability to produce a fluent speech. It is four to five times as many in boys compared to girls to experience dyslexia while in stuttering three to four times more males than in females (Browne, 2002).
Quantitative (mathematical ability)
The two genders also differ in their mathematical performance. According to Kimura (1999) males tend to excel in tests of mathematical reasoning especially those involving abstract reasoning although the margins are very small.
A study conducted by Robinson, Abbott, Benninger and Busse (1996) while conducting a study focusing on the advantages of males over females in mathematical ability as well as visual ability found that girls had higher achievements during their primary years compared to the boys while in high school boys tended to have higher mathematical ability that the girls.
Robinson et al. (1996) concluded that boys were likely to use spatial strategies even when dealing with verbal word problems however within problems involving spatial and mathematical abilities, girls were found to have a higher correlation than boys. The sex differences were very small but due to the variability in performance this made the effect size to be larger in most samples.
Halpern (2000) however indicated that although males outperformed males on tests of mathematical concepts, females outperform males when it comes to tests of computation. This led to Halpern concluding that the greater the test emphasized on mathematical reasoning the more advantaged the males were and the opposite was also true.
From above it can be concluded that males have a cognitive advantage over females when it comes to mathematical ability although girls performed better at junior and elementary levels. Females were found to score higher than males when it came to mathematical sentences and mathematical reasoning with researchers relating this advantage to the verbal advantages female have over males. While where male performed better in geometry, probability, and statistics it was related to their advantage over females on visual spatial strategies.
Visual Spatial Ability
While the females performed better on verbal ability tests, there is evidence which shows that males perform better than females when it comes to both spatial and mathematical abilities. There are three categories in which spatial ability can be analyzed and they include: spatial perception, mental rotation and spatial visualization.
The ability to identify the vertical and horizontal presence of distracting information is usually the spatial perception and boys were found to have a small advantage over girls on this task, however, gender difference increase as they become older (Brannon, 1996). Mental rotation which is the second category is spatial ability is the ability to mentally transform and manipulate images.
Such skills are better used in certain fields such as engineering and carpentry. Men substantially outperform women on the mechanical comprehension of engineering fields such as Air Force qualification test in the USA. According to Hedges and Nowell (1995) in any top 10 percent in the field of mechanics, male outnumbers the female by a very huge margin.
Space visualization is the last category and it mainly concerns the ability to process spatial information. This task usually requires analytical ability. According to a study done by Montello, Lovelace, Golledge, and Self (1999), when a group of females and males were given a battery for psychometric tests, the results indicated that males outperformed females on tests dealing with newly acquired spatial knowledge of places from direct experiences.
A question that enters into ones mind is “are there evolutionary pressures on mathematical abilities. ” There is a requirement to make inferences about the relative degree on the biological and cultural influences on cognition are needed. According to Geary (1996) the reason behind this is the fact that children’s mathematical development occurs early in their school and as a result, the mathematical performance sometimes reflects some cultural influences.
Although we have seen above that the two genders perform almost equally in every aspect with very little advantage over the other gender, Geary (1996) continues and argues that the notion that certain features of counting, numbers and arithmetic are biological, it should not be taken to mean that all numeric and arithmetic abilities are biological in nature.
There are many skills and knowledge which are usually socially geared. For example parents teach their children during their early periods in life. Most of the complex mathematical domains are usually learn as these complex concepts such as algebra and calculus are introduced later in life as the formal education progresses.
Whereas the majority of the gender differences are small to worry about, the differences in mathematical problem solving and visual spatial ability are quite significant. Understanding the cause of gender differences in performance could provide clues to educational strategies that would minimize the differences.
Some researchers are of the idea that cognitive aptitudes are as a result of genetic factors while others believe these variation may have resulted from sociological factors. The two explanations have been in opposition as we shall see below. We shall begin with the biological explanations:
The first discipline in genetics explains that the differences in the cognitive abilities of males and females are influenced by the genetics, hormones and brain organization. According to Halpern (2000) the genetic theories are usually based on the fetal development. When one is born, genetic information is usually coded in one’s chromosome and every trait is transmitted through the genes.
In the cognitive theory, the cognitive sex assumptions are usually found in the assumption that the high spatial ability is usually a sex linked recessive trait that is carried on the X chromosome (Browne, 2002). Another assumption still based on the spatial ability is the assumption that there is usually an explicit pattern of relationships among parents, children, and other siblings.
For example Halpern (2000) indicates that it is assumed that a son’s spatial abilities should resemble the mother’s more than the father’s due to the fact that males possess only a single X chromosome which they inherited from their mothers. Thus, concluding that if the spatial gene is carried in this gene then on average the son should be more similar in spatial ability to his mother’s.
Another genetic relation which tries to explain the biological cognitive differences is the length of the fingers. Studies show that men with less of a male typical finger length ratio pattern performed better on the verbal fluency while women who possesses male typical finger pattern scored better on the mental rotation tests.
Another biological factor which has been attributed to the cognitive abilities is the hormones. According to experts, the sex hormones of progesterone, testosterone, and androgens influences the cognitive abilities. For example, a study done by Hausmann, Slabbeckoorn, Van Goozen, Coohen, and Gunturkun (2000) showed that the menstrual cycle affected the spatial cognition of females.
They concluded that high estrogen concentrations lead to a decrease in spatial MRT scores while a high testosterone levels lead to a high score. The results also indicated that high estrogen levels lead to improved verbal articulation and fine motor skills.
The other hormones such as androgens have also been found to have an influence in the cognitive ability of the two genders.
The sociological explanations of the different cognitive abilities that females and males possess are explained under several categories which include: sex role appropriate behavior, teacher’s influence, and socialization. According to the sex role behavior, the two genders receive different rewards and punishments based on their genders.
There are those expectations that the society looks upon from an individual according to their gender. During childhood, the child is shaped by three major forces which are the television and media, parents and teachers. While the parent of a boy may concentrate more on task assignments that of a girl wont put more concentration on to it. What children sees from the television and other media influence their lives to great extent.
Individual differences in gender play a major role in the spatial ability test performance. According to a study done by Massa, Mayer, Bohon (2005) if a test was described to be that of measuring spatial capability, the females performed poorly while if the same study was done to measure empathy, women performed better.
This forced Massa et al. to conclude that society and gender influenced the performance on cognitive abilities especially mathematics problem. Due to the society expectations, women are perceived to be more empathetic than men and men are said to possess better spatial ability.
Teacher’s influence is another contributing factor to the different cognitive abilities the two genders possess. Studies have shown that teachers who possess gender specific beliefs influences the way students perform. For example, there is a common belief among teachers that girls should exert more effort in order to achieve similar grades with boys and as a result this makes the girls to perform poorly in their mathematics tests compared to other assessments.
Lastly, socialization is the last social factor that influences the cognitive abilities of a student. Evidence shows that children who are usually rejected by their peers tend to have greater difficulties in interacting with and confronting other children as a result these children had difficulties in changing their structure of thoughts.
Conclusion
We can conclude that cognitive sex differences exist in some cognitive abilities in particular language fluency and certain forms of spatial and mechanical cognition. Although it is important for the two genders (men and women) to be permitted to choose what they want in life whether in their courses or careers, it is never sensible to assume in advance that the choices made will be or should be identical to what other members of the same gender are doing.
In the same direction, although to arbitrary indicate the social barriers associated with the choice of careers men and women choose, it is not ethical or sensible to assume that when women do not enter certain occupations in the same number as men their entry is necessarily impended by one of the social barriers rather than their cognitive abilities. Freedom to choose after all entails the freedom to choose differently.
Implications of the Conclusions
Differences in cognitive abilities are an issue of controversy in the field of education and psychology. Whereas there are differences in the cognitive abilities, the extent of the differences is not as much as people try to explain although in some fields we have seen certain genders to be better than the others. Researchers explain that there are two explanations for the gender differences in the cognitive ability.
The biological explanations which involve genetics and hormones while the social explanations involve sex role appropriate behavior, teacher influences, and socialization. It therefore implies that the differences in cognitive abilities do exist although there seems to be no agreement as to what really influences these cognitive abilities between the two genders.
Reference List
Brannon, L. (1996). Gender: Psychological Perspectives. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Massachusetts.
Browne, K. (2002). Biology at Work: Rethinking Sexual Equality. Piscataway, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
Browne, K.R. (2006). Evolved Sex Differences and Occupational Segregation. Journal of Organized Behavior. Pp 143-162.
Downing, K., Chan, S., Kwong, T.S., & Lam, T.F. (2008). Measuring Gender Differences In Cognitive Functioning. Multicultural Education & Technology Journal Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 4-18.
Geary, D.C. (1996). Sexual Selection and Sex Differences in Mathematical Abilities. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Vol.19 Iss.2, pp. 229-284.
Halpern, D.F., & LaMay, M.L. (2000). The Smarter Sex: A Critical Review of Sex Differences in Intelligence. Educational Psychology Review, Vol. 12 Iss. 2, pp. 229-46.
Halpern, D.F. (2000). Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities, 3rd ed., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, New Jersey.
Hausmann, M., Slabbekoorn, D., Van Goozen, S., Cohen-Kettenis, P., & Gunturkun, O. (2000). Are There Differences In Cognitive Abilities? Journal of Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol. 114, Iss. 6, pp 1245-1260.
Hedges, L. V., & Nowell, A. (1995). Sex Differences in Mental Test Scores, Variability, and Numbers of High-Scoring Individuals. Journal of Science. Vol.269, pp 41-45.
Kimura, D. (1999). Sex and Cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Montello, Lovelace, Golledge, and Self (1999). Sex-Related Differences and Similarities in Geographic and Environmental Spatial Abilities. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Vol. 89, Iss. 3, pp 515-534.
Priess, H.A., and Hyde, J.S. (2010). Handbook of Gender Research in Psychology Volume 1: Gender Research in General and Experimental Psychology. Web.
Silverman, I., & Eals, M. (1992). Sex Differences in Spatial Abilities: Evolutionary Theory and Data. In J. H.Barkow, L. Cosmides, & J. Tooby (Eds.), The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and The Generation Of Culture. Pp533-553. New York: Oxford University Press.
Traditionally, sex and gender have been considered the same issues. However, the further development of society and specific shifts in peoples mentalities resulted in the emergence of significant divergences between these two phenomena. Thus, sex could be determined as the biological differences between males and females such as genitalia, genomes, etc. (Hubbard 158). At the same time, gender is now a social construct that implies sophisticated relations between individuals and the way they accept one or another person (Lorber 65). In other words, the concept of gender depends on the way human beings “do gender” and how communities elaborate new desired behaviors (Lorber 65).
These definitions indicate that sex and gender are not the same as they refer to different aspects of the human society. In this regard, genitals might predetermine individuals sex but not gender as it is also associated with culture (Jolly 5). For instance, we could now observe a significant shift in traditional female and male roles and the redistribution of duties and responsibilities. Activities traditionally associated with men could now be related to women. The same goes with sexuality. The central aspect which determines this issue is not sex or genitals; however, it is the gender of a person, his/her set of perspectives, beliefs, and ideas that stipulate the emergence of particular behavioral patterns and responses (Hubbard 159). These differences between the conceptions mentioned above stipulate the appearance of a new environment and communities characterized by the significant divergence between these central ideas. Moreover, it is possible to predict the further increase in the gap between the concepts of sex and gender because of sophisticated social relations and growing differences in perspectives on sexuality and stereotypical behavioral patterns associated with biological peculiarities of individuals.
Works Cited
Hubbard, Ruth. “Gender and Genitals. Constructs of Sex and Gender.” Social Text, vol. 14, no. 1, 1996, pp. 74-165.
Jolly, Susie. “Gender and Cultural Change. Overview Report.” GSDRC, 2002. Web.
Lorber, Judith. “The Social Construction of Gender.” IEAS, 1994. Web.
The sex of an individual is normally classified in terms of biological factors. In most cases, external appearance of an individual is used to tell whether the person is male or female. When a child is born with a male reproductive organ, then new-born is identified as a boy. However, current advances in scientific studies on human beings have revealed shocking news.
An individual might have the XY chromosomes that are usually attributed to a male person but still appear as a female. Similarly, an individual may possess the XX chromosomes but acquire the external appearance of a male person (Gender innovations, 2012). In most cases, the latter may be occasioned by the inability of the concerned person’s body to process certain gender hormones.
It is imperative to mention that another special identity exists in human population. Such Individuals are biologically known as intersex. They usually possess both the male and female characteristics. This paper examines Jane Doe from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She is a female athlete who underwent testing to determine her sex.
This practice is usually a common requirement by many athletic bodies across the world. However, many organizations criticize this move by asserting that it is a form of gender discrimination. Jane Doe is an American citizen who is registered as a female person. She is currently 20 years old. She has been participating in athletics since she was 14 years old.
The sex issue came into limelight after she won several medals in the 800m race. She has a masculine physical appearance and quite a strong woman. The normal body conformity of a woman is less conspicuous in her case. For instance, she has tiny breasts, flattened chest and very narrow hips. Based on her physical appearance and the relation of her strength to masculinity, she has to be subjected to medical tests that can help to ascertain her true gender identity.
Human beings possess 46 chromosomes. These chromosomes appear in pairs that are 23 pairs in total (Gender innovations, 2012). As already mentioned, the types of chromosomes an individual possesses determine the sex and hence the gender of that person l. Most women have 23pairs of XX chromosomes while men have 23 pairs of XY chromosomes.
Any individual with a deviation from this arrangement is born with sexual abnormalities. These abnormalities may result into the exaggeration of either the male or female characteristics being expressed physically by the individual. The diagram below shows the images of the XX and YX pairs of chromosomes and their various numbers.
Figure 1: Karyotype of chromosomes in diploid human cells.
The first step involves some physical examination of the player in order to determine his or her phonotypical status. It entails examining her body’s conformity and development including the reproductive parts (Kafai et al., 2008). This enables the doctors to get an insight into what they should expect as they carry on with other medical methods that are used in determining gender.
This stage is critical bearing in mind that significant advances have been made in transgender surgeries. Such a surgery produces a perfect transformation that needs very keen observations (Faulkner & Lie, 2007). The athlete in question passed this physical examination. She had never undergone any form of surgery. Her body conformation proved that she was a female. She had normal, fully developed female organs.
That showed no physical evidence of abnormality or manipulations. This demanded for a more advanced medical testing. Chromosomal evaluation has been under criticism as a perfect way of telling whether an individual is a male or female. Studies have shown that an individual may contain XY chromosomes and still develop female features.
The complication is developed by a gene called SRY. This gene is responsible for the development of a fetus into a male or a female. It is mostly found on the Y chromosome although sometimes X chromosomes may possess this gene (Schiebinger & Klinge, 2010). For a fetus to develop into a male, the genes must be functioning well (Faulkner & Lie, 2007).
The location of the gene does not affect the results that are seen if the gene is functioning in a normal way. This implies that an individual may have XX chromosome and still develop into a male. On the other hand, a person may have XY chromosomes and develop into a female. The chromosome analysis is still a vital method since it is required in the medical report.
Another importance of this procedure is that it enables doctors predict any chromosomal abnormalities in an individual (Faulkner & Lie, 2007). These abnormalities may make the sex determination process to be more complicated. This procedure was taken and the result was positive for XX individual. This further strengthened the possibility of Jane being a female.
If she was found possessing XY chromosomes, then the next procedure was to test if her SYR was functioning well. This means that whether an individual possesses XX or XY chromosomes, it does not guarantee a specific gender (Faulkner & Lie, 2007). The next procedure was based on hormonal analysis bearing in mind she may possess XX chromosome but still be a male if her body is in a position to synthesize masculinizing hormones.
In Some rare cases, a fetus may still develop as a female event if the SRY gene is active and functioning (Beery & Zucker, 2011). The gene in such individuals expresses itself by affecting the Androgen sensitivity. Androgen sensitivity is a case whereby the cells have the ability to synthesize hormones in the required proportions depending on the gender of an individual (Beery & Zucker, 2011).
If an individual is insensitive to Androgen, then there is a possibility of developing as a normal female based on the external features. Androgen sensitivity tests were carried out to confirm if Jane has a normal female body. Normal levels of hormones are usually expected from females. If she has elevated levels of hormones associated with masculinity, then she becomes a special case that is even more complicated to ascertain in terms of gender.
The most commonly tested hormone is the testosterone. This hormone is found in both males and females. According to researches done, this hormone is responsible for the development of muscle strength and mass, bone strength, and energy. (Schiebinger & Klinge, 2010).
It is vital to note that the hormone plays an integral sexual role in both genders. This hormone is expressed in males at elevated levels than females. If a female has elevated levels of this hormone, then she must be Androgen sensitive (Beery & Zucker, 2011). The growth and overall wellbeing of a fetus is usually a function of an SRY gene that is associated with a particular trait.
The gene can also determine the gender of the fetus. The analysis of Jane’s testosterone levels revealed concentrations above normal levels of a female, but below the normal levels of a male. Hormonal analysis is a quite a complicated procedure. This is because females and males produce the same types of hormones but in different quantities.
An average female has less Androgen compared to an average male. Jane’s case was confusing at this point, her testosterone levels were a bit elevated compared to other women that we have ever tested. This might offer a scientific explanation as to why she is an athlete due to the functions of the hormone in the body. This argument cannot be used to dispute her feminine gender.
Athletes are not average males or females. A female athlete may possess more androgens than an average female (Kafai et al., 2008). If a female has higher levels of androgens than normal, she may possess a boyish look and appear flat-chested (Schiebinger & Klinge, 2010). Such persons are still females. It is just that they are not average.
It is therefore difficult to stop such athletes from participating in athletics as females. Jane’s case was simple since she is biologically female. All the tests needed to ascertain her sex proved that she is a female. She had very mild elevated levels of androgens. This was too mild to doubt her sex or her athletic capabilities. The gender determination process has proved to be rather complicated.
It may depict some males as females if the chromosomal classification of an individual into a certain gender is applied (Schiebinger & Klinge, 2010). On the other hand, some females may also appear as females if the same procedure is applied. The use of hormones is also complicated (Veitia, 2010). Androgen concentrations cannot be used to deny success for athletes with an argument that a female person has an unfair advantage over other competitors (Kafai et al, 2008).
What about some males who also possess elevated levels of androgens? Should they be stopped from participating in athletics on such grounds? Science offers vital data but the analysis of the same data to ascertain gender is quite different. Gender determination in most cases makes use of a default physical analysis procedure.
The involvement of in-depth analysis using gynecologists, geneticists, psychologists, and endocrinologists makes the procedure even more complicated (Schiebinger & Klinge, 2010). It is advisable to ascertain the sex of an individual before participating in any athletic activities due to increased levels of frauds. However, in-depth analysis of other aspects such as androgens may appear as unfair treatment of the female gender. This is because their male counterparts are not subjected to such procedures.
The best and most effective solution entails avoiding the unnecessary complicated sex determination procedures. The athletic body should come up with a clear definition of a male and a female. This will make it easy for the medical fraternity to analyze and give a complete report.
Jane’s case was not very complicated. Most of the data analyzed concluded that she was a female gender. Although she has elevated levels of testosterone in her blood, the effects can be considered to be rather mild. This is the reason why she was concluded to be 99.9% female. There is no way she can participate in athletics as a male person.
References
Beery, A. & Zucker, I. (2011). Sex Bias in Neuroscience and Biomedical Research. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 35 (3), 565-572.
Faulkner, W., & Lie, M. (2007). Gender in the Information Society: Strategies of Inclusion. Gender, Technology, and Development, 11 (2), 157-177.
Kafai, Y et al (2008). Mainstream Games: Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Press.
Schiebinger, L., & Klinge, I. (Eds.) (2010). Gendered Innovations: Mainstreaming Sex and Gender Analysis into Basic and Applied Research. Brussels: European Commission.
Veitia, R. (2010). FOXL2 Versus SOX9: A Lifelong Battle of the Sexes. BioEssays, 32 (5), 375-380.
Body image is a critical issue in the contemporary world, which has become particularly prominent due to the popularization of visual mass media. Online blogs, television, and films all provide examples of perfect female and male bodies. When real people compare themselves to these ideals, they experience dissatisfaction with their body that results in body image issues. Although women are perceived to be the primary victims of body image issues, men often suffer from them to the same degree.
The ideals that trigger these issues are different for men and women. A perfect female body today is considered to be fit, with low body fat and a thin waist. To achieve this ideal, many women use unhealthy diets or fasting, as well as exhausting exercises. For men, the perfect body is just as difficult to achieve. Woods (2017) notes that the ideal male body image is inherently connected to society’s ideas of masculinity. Thus, men are expected to be muscular and have sharp facial features. Attempts to gain muscle lead some men to engage in exhausting training that damages their health, as well as use anabolic drugs to improve how their body looks.
Body image issues are dangerous not only for physical well-being but for mental health, too. A study by Jones (2001) showed that body dissatisfaction leads to eating disorders, depression, and poor self-esteem, thus impacting other areas of a person’s life. Although my self-esteem is normal, comparing my body and face to those considered ideal by society causes unpleasant thoughts and makes me want to change the way I look. Contemporary movements, such as body positivity, aim to improve the diversity of images in mass media. This will likely result in the rejection of modern body ideals, preventing body dissatisfaction and improving people’s well-being.
References
Jones, D. C. (2001). Social comparison and body image: Attractiveness comparisons to models and peers among adolescent girls and boys. Sex Roles, 45(9-10), 645-664.
Woods, J. T. (2017). Gendered lives: Communication, gender, and culture (13th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publication.
Currently, many women around the world are devastated as a result of violence that has been meted against them. At the center stage of this violence is their male counterparts. In many instances, different cases of assault against the female gender are perpetrated by males. As many perpetrators are men, violent acts against women are gendered towards females. Notably, gender-based violence has a peculiar characteristic as it affects women and girls from all socio-economic backgrounds; the issue needs to be addressed in all countries of the world. The study of gender-based violence against women is of important value, as it is known to cost a significant proportion of many countries’ total gross domestic product. When this issue is addressed, the social structures within which it occurs, obtain a reprieve from the incessant public outcry. However, to reduce the cases of assaults on women, past occurrences of violence should be analyzed to ascertain the extent to which the society is affected.
Brett Kavanough: A Case of Sexual Assault among Teenagers
The sexual assault allegations against Judge Kavanough were a case that showed extreme hegemonic masculinity. Dr Christine alleged that Kavanough pinned her to a bed, groped her, and rubbed his genitals against her, sexually touched her and covered her mouth as she screamed for help. However, Kavanough defended himself, saying that he had never attended any party with Dr Ford. Further, he said that the whole confirmation process was being politicized. What angered Kavanough mostly was the questioning by the Democrat senators whom he accused of destroying his personal image. For instance, Kavanough poses a question to senator Klobucher instead of answering, he asks, “You’re asking about blackout, I don’t know, have you?” (Last Week Tonight 2018). The self-entitlement and arrogance depicted by Kavanough are characteristics of hegemonic masculinity which is a poor tradition that approves of male domination while insurbodinating the female. This toxic masculinity is illustrated further with Kupers (2005, 713 as cited in, Ging 2017, 3) describing it as “the need to progressively compete and dominate others”. As evident, the unfavorable characteristic of dominance in the case of Kavanough was exhibited through aggression and his defense.
Elliot Rodger: Use of Online Media in Advancing Toxic Masculinity
Furthermore, the incident of Elliot Rodger, a 22-year-old, stabbing his three roommates at his apartment complex near the University of California, was the worst scenario of hegemonic masculinity existing among the younger generation of men. According to a journalist, “He opened fire at a nearby sorority house, killing two women” (Democracy Now! 2014). Rodger continued his rave with a drive-by gunning down more pedestrians, killing one. The assault finished when he slammed his vehicle, discovered dead in the driver’s seat of what police called a self-exacted shot injury. The Santa Barbara slaughter of 2014 depended on the online recordings that the culprit, Elliot had posted before the occurrence. In the videos, Elliot says that he would take great pleasure in slaughtering all of the girls, and they will finally see that he was, in truth, the superior, true alpha male. Ging (2017, 3) contends that online social media is used to assemble “campaign revenge against women”. Essentially, Elliot was trying to legitimize his domineering attitude on the girls to which he thought were not attracted to him as they should have been.
Orlando Massacre: Family Setup Nurturing Public Violence
According to Yusufiy, Mateen’s ex-wife, Mateen was abusive in their marriage and this prompted her to flee from him. Later, years after separating from Yusufiy, Mateen opened fire on an Orlando night club killing scores of people. Karner agrees that, there exists “the constitutive nature of violence in normative notions of masculinity”(Haider 2016, 558). From the assessment, violence is deeply entrenched within the societies’ standard guidelines of determining what is good for male characteristics, and it is therefore permitted as part of society’s modeling of male. Moreover, female gender plays a subjective role in male violence as they become the receptors of such toxic behaviors. Haider (2016) stresses “the fact that women are the dominant victims of conflict”. Linking Mateen’s attack on Pulse Club to domestic violence, Soraya Chemaly says that “public violence is a direct tolerance of violence in homes” (Democracy Now! 2016). She proposes that the media should highlight the cause and execution aspects of domestic violence cases. Chemaly says “our media tends to erase the agency and perpetration factor” (Democracy Now! 2016). Therefore family social setup acts as a ground in which violence starts and thrives.
Alek Minassian: Promotion of Violence through Astern Cultures
Masculinity is associated with retrogressive cultures that view being male as having total control over women, and females are painted as disposable creatures. A good example is Alek Minassian, a Canadian fellow, who in 2018 rammed a rented vehicle on people, therefore ending up killing many people and injuring others. In the incident, Minassian targeted pedestrians who were using the road along, Yonge Street through the North York City Centre of Ontario Canada. After he had been arrested, a police officer asked him how he felt generally towards women. In his reply, Minassian answered that sometimes he was a bit upset that women chose to date obnoxious men instead of gentlemen. In the Minnassian case, Rebecca Solnit thinks that “it is part of a toxic brew in our culture right now that includes modeling masculinity as extremely as violence and women as worthless” (Global News 2019). Analytically, Minassian was viewing women as those creatures that he, together with other men whom he called “gentlemen”, had total right over.
Emma Sulkowicz: Campaign against Rape in Columbia University
Besides family, social gatherings, the criminal justice system, and media, institutions of learning are other social structures where gender-based violence is deeply entrenched. To illustrate, Emma Sulkowicz, a final year female student at Columbia University was raped by another student from the same university. Sulkowicz then came up with an artwork performance in protest of the sexual assault she had faced and she resorted to carrying a mattress within the campus, to force the institution to expel the perpetrator. Oliver (2016, 86), writes, “The mattress performance called “Carry That Weight” was designed to raise awareness on campus rape”. Accordingly, the university acted in support of the initiative and subsequently the media fraternity aired the rape issue. The case is one of its kind as the campaign highlighted the violence which was meted against the females in the learning institution yet the perpetrators were not apprehended.
Tracey Karner: Research on Violence Prevalence among War Veterans
There are high societal regards for gender that portray nature of being a man based on the social relationship the males had with their fathers and their roles upon the male children. Tracey Karner, as cited in Haider (2016, 558),
“carefully unpicks the disillusionment of a generation of young men through a social script that presented war and the military as spaces of idealized masculinity. Military service was seen as a natural rite of passage from boyhood to manhood. War movies of the era portrayed ‘war as a place of self-esteem’, proving ground of masculinity”.
The research was done by the sociologist Karner, as can be seen, regarded veterans of the Vietnam War, as heroes. In fact, entry to the military accorded the entrants the high social regards of which the characteristics of being male were viewed.
Accordingly, the relationship of male with violence is based on the gendered outlook of war in favour of males, and consequently, unpleasant male behavior came to existence. Ging (2017, 3) writes that “hegemonic masculinity may in some contexts refer to men’s engaging in toxic practices but hegemony has numerous configurations, including distancing oneself from such toxicity”. Precisely, the dominance of male gender in the society may make the men to undertake some unfavorable acts to females but it does not mean that they will totally keep away from such actions.
Conclusion
In summary, acts of gender-based violence against women are ingrained in the social structures and therefore there is a quickly minimize the cases to avoid recurrence. The US Supreme court judge Kavanaugh’s grilling before the senate team helps in understanding his high school teenage years, of sexual assault on women and misconduct. Additionally, the media also form part of the social structure that permits the younger generations of men like Elliot, to advance their erroneous masculine goals of meting violence on women. Also, family as a social unit makes public violence to thrive because, within the family, violence against spouses sometimes go unreported and can escalate to massacres like the Orlando massacre of 2016. Retrogressive cultures, learning institutions, and high societal regard for masculinity are also partly to blame for the misconducts of men like Alek Minassian, and rape on Emma Sulkowicz. Therefore, different social structures have acts of gender-based violence and other forms of violence situated within them.
References
Democracy Now! 2014. ‘#YesAllWomen: Rebecca Solnit on the Santa Barbara Murder & Online Rejoinder to Misogynist Brutality’. YouTube Video, 58:56.
Democracy Now! 2016. ‘While It Goes to Orlando Massacre, Domiciliary Brutality Is the Red Light We Aren’t Speaking Of’. YouTube Video, 19:51.
Ging, Debbie. 2017. Alphas, Betas, and Incels: Theorizing the Masculinities of the Manosphere. Sage Publishers. Web.
Global News. 2019. ‘Man accused in Toronto van attack admits frustration with society, discusses Incel community’. YouTube Video, 3:38.
Haider, Syed. 2016. The Shooting in Orlando, Terrorism or Toxic Masculinity (or Both?). Sage Publishers. Web.
Last Week Tonight. 2018. ‘Brett Kavanaugh: Last Week Tonight By John Oliver (HBO)’. YouTube Video, 29:11.
Oliver, Kelly. 2016. Hunting Girls: Sexual Violence from the Hunger Games to Campus Rape. New York: Columbia University Press.
Gender issues such as equality between men and women and gender roles evoke strong reactions in the contemporary world. Much like race, ethnic, and class stereotypes, gender stereotypes, exclusion, and discrimination are central to politics in many countries.
In particular, issues of feminist exclusion and discrimination characterized by a relatively low political participation of women remain unresolved and often elicit negative feelings in many societies. Additionally, these issues shape a society’s politics especially the policies of left-wing parties and feminist activist groups. For this reason, gender issues in contemporary societies require a cautious approach when addressing them.
Gender issues, particularly gender equality, roles, relations, and political participation are common stereotypes despite the massive awareness campaigns and legislations on these issues. Ideally, studying gender aims at promoting knowledge about gender exclusion and discrimination as well as encouraging the respect of rights of minorities (Spence, 1993, p. 632).
However, the high sensitivity and politics of gender issues with respect to economic, cultural as well as social inequalities are obstacles to studying gender. In addition, sample participation in gender studies is low; thus, decisive conclusions cannot be made. Future research should focus on understanding the gender roles within social contexts rather than on inequalities.
Major Challenges to Studying Gender
Most scholars studying gender issues focus on gender roles, as opposed to studying the broader gender identity along with its cultural, social, and economic aspects. In particular, social roles of each gender vary across culture; therefore, studies should focus cultural aspects. Stet and Burke study analyses the causes of social oppression against women as well as ways of fighting discrimination (1996, p.210).
In addition, other studies focus on social feminist movements and analyses the causes of feminist political activity as opposed to focusing on the social, cultural and political background of gender disparities. In my view, the ever-increasing interests on gender roles face stiff opposition from cultures, which hamper effective study of gender issues.
Indeed, masculinity and femininity are not only based on sexes but upon cultural and social conditions of an individual. Burke’s study shows that observed differences in social behaviors between women and men result from the cultural and cultural expectations of each gender (1991, p.838).
Traits and temperaments that are normally linked to one sex are, in fact, present in all the sex groups. In addition, far more variability in roles or identities does exist within each gender. Burke’s study concluded that, the “patterns of temperament vary among societies” (1991, p. 841). In most societies, male exhibit active and competitive temperaments while females are more cooperative and expressive.
However, according to Burke and Cast, in some societies the males show cooperative and expressive temperaments while females are more competitive (1997, p. 287). Consequently, their social roles are different compared to other societies. This shows that gender studies should be a function of social and cultural factors. In my view, studying gender should be in the context of the prevailing cultural and social factors in a given society.
Gender Identities in the Different Cultures
Gender studies also face a challenge of defining gender identity in social and cultural contexts. The gender identity phenomenon has many aspects. Certain behaviors, attitudes and attributes are exclusive to either male or female. However, the underlying issue is the society’s view of the qualities of being feminine or masculine.
Culturally, physical attributes, traits, and occupational preferences reflect masculine or feminine gender identities. A study by Burke and Cast established that individuals base their personal qualities on culturally defined gender characteristics to “define themselves as feminine or masculine” (1997, p. 278).
Moreover, gender identities tend to be more variable depending on the internalized behaviors that the individual engages. The behaviors then shape their identities and by extension their social roles (Drass, 1986, p. 301). In this regard, studying gender faces the challenge of defining gender identity in the context of a given culture.
In my opinion, studies should use a multidimensional approach as gender roles relate to gender identities, which are both dependent on social and cultural factors. In addition, gender inequality and underrepresentation in any given society influence gender studies. The politics and gender polarization in contemporary societies, in my view, hampers objectivity in gender studies with regard to political participation and representation in leadership.
In my opinion, future work on gender should focus on how societal institutions including political institutions, religion and economic structures can modify gender identity. Among the greatest challenges of studying gender, is the issue of gender identity in the context of cultural structures.
In this way, socialization can be improved in many social settings. Secondly, gender studies should focus on cross-cultural and sub-cultural differences in order to understand the meaning masculine and feminine roles and identities in the context of that culture. Since such roles or identities are not universal, the studies should provide insights on a society’s division of labor, power structure and responsibilities as well as help to modify the challenges of defining gender identity and roles.
Gender Attitudes Studies
Gender attitudes involve common views associated with an individual’s gender and are variable across cultures. In most cultures, masculine attitudes reflect justice while feminine attitudes in most situations tend to be in terms of care. In particular, the gender-role attitudes shape the gender roles and identities (Spence, 1993, p. 625). By extension, the gender-role attitudes influence the reproductive behaviors, family relationships, and the political participation of each gender in any given society.
Accordingly, children develop their gender-role attitudes from their experiences with social structures including the family and society. From these early experiences, the children identify the appropriate masculine and feminine roles within the society (Drass, 1986, p.298). The gender-role attitudes can be traditional, such as men providing for the family and female caring for children, or untraditional, where roles are assigned based on ability or circumstances regardless of gender. Additionally, the untraditional gender roles differ from culture to culture. As a result, gender attitude studies should be done across cultures, in order to draw meaningful conclusions.
Gender attitude studies conducted involving the Caucasian middle class adults alone cannot be conclusive. Firstly, the studies involve adults instead of children or adolescents whose present gender-role attitudes has an impact upon their roles in adulthood. Secondly, in my opinion, the gender-role attitude studies should involve societies with a history of gender inequality and discrimination. In particular, the studies should involve the African-Americans whose attitudes on gender roles has implications on gender participation in public affairs.
Conclusion
Gender studies in contemporary societies often face challenges from underlying social and cultural factor. Precisely, the gender roles and gender identity are dependent on cultural and political constructs of a particular society. In addition, these factors determine the political participation of either gender and are variable across cultures. In my opinion, studies should focus on understanding the gender roles and identities and how they are shaped by gender-role attitudes across many cultures.
Reference List
Burke, J. (1991). Identity Processes and Social Stress. American Sociological Review, 56, 836-849.
Burke, J., & Cast, D. (1997). Stability and Change in the Gender Identities of Newly Married Couples. Social Psychology Quarterly, 60, 277-290.
Drass, A. (1986). The Effect of Gender Identity on Conversation. Social Psychology Quarterly, 4 (2), 294-301.
Spence, T. (1993). Gender-Related Traits and Gender Ideology: Evidence for a Multifactorial Theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64 (2), 624-635.
Stet, E., & Burke, J. (1996). Gender, Control, and Interaction. Social Psychology Quarterly, 59, 193-220.
This paper is an analysis of a piece of popular music and how it represents gender. The chosen piece of popular music for this paper is Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You (Sheeran, 2017). The outstanding musical characteristic of this song is its chorus. It repeatedly praises the woman’s body shape, therefore sexualizing her. It also assures the woman of emotional support, displaying one crucial role of men in relationships. It helps to pass along the message of the entire song effectively through a catchy melody that is easy to sing along to. The song characterizes women as beautiful human beings who should be loved and adored. The artist describes the woman’s body and shape throughout the song in the chorus with admiration. There is the objectification of the woman as the artist focuses on her body during the majority of the song. During the song, the woman breaks up with the man, leaving a note behind. The man follows her across the city, indicating a lack of acceptance for the woman’s departure. The man refuses to lose her on her terms. He follows her to clear things up, indicating men’s inability to accept the finality of a relationship they have no control over.
The man freely expresses the desire for an intimate relationship with the woman in many parts of the song. He talks about the intimate things that remind him of her, such as her smell on his bedsheets. The song presents the men as the natural pursuers of women for a relationship as the woman waits for the man to make advances towards her and take her out on dates. Non-heteronormative genders are not represented in the song as the artist only focuses on relationships between the man and the woman. The song presents the role of providing financial support as a man’s responsibility. The video depicts the man taking the woman out on dates and paying for everything. The man’s role is to provide emotional assurance to the partner, as occurs throughout the video. The artist assures the woman he is wooing of emotional support if she accepts his proposal and also comforts her in the video when she is sad.
We live in a society that is characterized by rapid social, economic, technological and cultural changes. As such, we find that we have to adapt to the change occurring around us in order to survive through different situations. Rubin (2000) defines a society as a social group in which members coexist, endure and cooperate by developing interactive relationships with each other. In America, the different roles played by members define our society. In most cases, these roles are gender based.
However, over the past fewdecades, gender roles in the American society have undergone rapid and significant changes. With these considerations, this paper shall set out to explore how gender roles affect a woman’s professional and personal life in America today. This shall be done by performing a gender analysis and a personal reflection on the topic. A brief look at the roles played by women in previous centuries shall be provided as a basis for comparison.
A historical overview of women’s roles in America
In most historical accounts, women have been portrayed as the “weaker sex”. As such, their roles in society were limited to household duties such as cleaning, shopping, bearing and nurturing children and farming. It was not until the colonial period when women roles in society experienced a major change.
During the colonial period, America had a serious labor deficit. This led to a situation where the contribution of women was pivotal to the survival of their families and nation. As a result, women were no longer restricted to household chores and they had an opportunity to venture out,and try different approaches to life.
Consequently, women in today’s society have diverse roles, which include both the traditional and non-traditional roles. As such, women in today’s society can be categorized as entrepreneurs, working class and housewives. Each category has different roles that impact how the women behave personally and professionally.
However, due to hard economic times, the prevalence of women in these categories has changed significantly. More women are getting higher education and joining the American workforce, while fewer women settle for being housewives (Carter, Corra & Carter, 2009).
Gender Roles of Women in Society
Over the past years, women’s roles have changed significantly. This can be attributed to the implementation of affirmative action laws, as well as economic realities that call for more contribution from both the male and female sexes.
These changes have led to a situation whereby equality between the sexes is not only desirable, but necessary for the survival and continual development of our society. As such, women are no longer restricted to some roles, or denied participation in others. Equality has therefore been promoted due to the realization that it is a great unifying factor in today’s complex society (Giele, 2007).
My parents have been a great inspiration in regard to promoting equality. Since my early childhood days, my mother often encouraged me to help out in the house and emphasized on the importance of doing various womanly chores. These included maintaining a high level of personal cleanliness, learning how to cook and clean and ensuring that our house was always tidy.
My brother and his friends enjoyed freedom from such responsibilities, and while I thought that it was unfair, I came to realize that as a girl, I was expected to learn these responsibilities.
On the other hand, my father focused most of his attention in teaching my older brother how to be a responsible man. In his free time, he could call him and give him advice on his responsibilities, the value of a good education and how to behave in society. The fact that he could help my mother do some house chores perplexed me the most.
In addition, he had a keen interest in my educational progress and often insisted that I work hard in school so as to secure a brighter future for myself. I never understood why my parents pushed me harder than they did my siblings in regard to performance. As years went on, I started realizing that as a woman, I had to work twice as hard as my male counterparts in order to succeed.
By observing my parents, I learnt that while women participated significantly in the job market, they still have to play a supportive role to their families and husbands. Despite the fact that women today are more empowered and can gain useful employment in terms of status and pay rate, men’s careers and needs often take precedence over those of their women counterparts (Eich-Krohm, 2007).
Choices made often prioritize the man’s career. This is further insinuated by Eich-Krohm (2007) who asserts that men’s careers often take priority and in most family settings, if a man’s career is in jeopardy, women are forced to relocate with their families regardless of their careers.
This goes to show that society expect women to support their husbands even if it affects the woman’s career negatively (Eich-Krohm, 2007).Despite the fact that women are increasingly taking up office roles, their gender roles as mothers and homebuilders greatly hamper their professional development.
This is demonstrated by Eich-Krohm (2007) who states that, in as much as equality has taken form in today’s society, women are in most cases taking career breaks (maternity leaves and other family related leaves) in order to cater for the needs of their family members. In addition, the author states that women often request for a reduction in their working hours so that they can redirect some extra efforts to their homes. This further shows that gender roles affect the professional development of women in America.
Similarly, religion has been documented as being among the main factors determining gender roles in society. The Amish communities, as well as most Christians believe that a woman’s place is at home. As such, you may find that some women in such religions have little aspirations of developing a professional career. The truth behind this sentiment can be evidenced from results collected from a study by Bang et al (2005), which showed that religious fundamentalism had a significant impact on how people perceived gender roles.
In addition, the study also showed that religions that focused on the traditional gender role expectations had fewer women professionals. Women with greater religious commitment were inclined to carry out their traditional roles as dictated by their religion (Bang et al, 2005). As such, women with strong religious affiliations are more likely to cut short their careers in order to take up a more supportive role as homebuilders and parents as long as their husbands can provide for them.
Personal reflection
Rubin (2000) refers to gender as the activities, behaviors and roles that society expects from men or women. In as much as this is true, it should not be static since society is always evolving and changes have to be made so that we can adapt to current affairs. Gone are the days when women were considered as the weaker sex.
Basing on recent experiences, women are actively involved in politics and business management among other professions, which were in the past dominated by men. This is proof that women have what it takes to fight for equal opportunities with men, all the while, maintain their gender roles as mothers and home builders.
In addition, education has further promoted equality among the sexes in the sense that we all follow the same curriculum and learning process. As such, gender should not be the determining factor when it comes to delegation of roles.
In today’s society where the input of both men and women remain invaluable, sharing chores enables parents to build a better and stable future for their children. This means that gender roles should not be allowed to hinder the success of women because their contribution is as important as that of their male counterparts.
Conclusion
This paper set out to perform a gender analysis of today’s society. From the discussion herein, it has been argued that women emancipation is of great importance. In addition, a discussion on how gender roles affect a woman’s professional and personal life has been provided and a personal reflection on gender presented. Considering the hardships that are inherent in today’s society, gender should not mitigate people’s ability to succeed.
References
Bang, E. et al. (2005). Ethnicity, Acculturation, and Religiosity as Predictors of Female College Students’ Role Expectations. Sex Roles, 53(3/4): 231-237.
Eich-Krohm, A. (2007). Make It or Break It–Women’s Career Interruptions in the Age of Professional Migration. International Journal of Sociology, 37(2): 75-93.
Giele, J. Z. (2007). Homemaker or Career Woman: Life Course Factors and Racial Influences among Middle Class Americans. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 54(2): 393-409.
Rubin, M. (2000). Women in the American Society for Public Administration: Another Decade of Progress but Still a Way to Go. Public Administration Review, 60(1): 61-71.
Scott Carter, J., Corra, M., & Carter, S. (2009). The Interaction of Race and Gender: Changing Gender-Role Attitudes, 1974–2006. Social Science Quarterly,90(1): 196-211.
