gender culture

Examples of gender culture in the following topics:

• Context of Culture and Gender

  • Understanding the cultural and gender context of your speech is vital to making a connection with your audience.
  • Both culture and gender play key roles not only in how you perceive your audience, but in how your audience perceives you.
  • In the example above, we have both a biological, physical characteristic (sex) with a superimposed cultural construct (gender).
  • When considering both gender and cultural contexts, we often encounter bias, both intentional and unintentional, and implicit or explicit.
  • Pay attention to the unique dynamic and interplay of your gender and cultural identity in relation to the cultural and gender identities of your audience members, as they invariably influence one another.

• Gender Bias

  • Gender refers to the social definition and cultural expectations of what it means to be "man" or "woman. " Additionally, some people may identify with a gender different from their sex, often identifying instead as "transgendered. "
  • Gendered communication is often culturally constructed as well, meaning that what is considered masculine or feminine in one culture may not hold true in another.
  • How people express their gender often relies on the cultural constructs of the society in which they live or identify.
  • In certain cultural contexts, men may be dismissive of a female speaker.
  • The late Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, faced both gender and cultural bias in her two brief terms as a world leader.

• Defining Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

  • Gender, on the other hand, denotes social and cultural characteristics that are assigned to different sexes.
  • "Gender" is a term that refers to social or cultural distinctions associated with being male, female, or intersex.
  • Scholars generally regard gender as a social construct—meaning that it does not exist naturally, but is instead a concept that is created by cultural and societal norms.
  • For example, in American culture, it is considered feminine (or a trait of the female gender) to wear a dress or skirt.
  • Similarly, the kilt worn by a Scottish male does not make him appear feminine in his culture.

• Gender and Sociology

  • From birth, children are assigned a gender and are socialized to conform to certain gender roles based on their biological sex.
  • "Gender," on the other hand, refers to social or cultural distinctions associated with a given sex.
  • Scholars generally regard gender as a social construct, meaning that it does not exist naturally but is instead a concept that is created by cultural and societal norms.
  • In American culture, masculine roles have traditionally been associated with strength, aggression, and dominance, while feminine roles have traditionally been associated with passivity, nurturing, and subordination.
  • Cross-cultural studies reveal that children are aware of gender roles by age two or three; at four or five, most children are firmly entrenched in culturally appropriate gender roles (Kane, 1996).

• Gender Identity in Everyday Life

  • Gender identity is one's sense of one's own gender.
  • Gender identity is one's sense of being male, female, or a third gender.
  • Gender identity is not only about how one perceives one's own gender, but also about how one presents one's gender to the public.
  • Gender identities, and the malleability of the gender binary, vary across cultures.
  • This extreme cultural variation in notions of gender indicate the socially constructed nature of gender identity.

• Development of Gender Identity

  • Gender identity is a person's subjective experience of their own gender; how it develops is a topic of much debate.
  • In many Western cultures, individuals who identify with a gender that is different from their biological sex (for example, they are assigned female at birth but feel inwardly that they are a boy or a gender other than a girl) are called transgender.
  • Competition for economic and social power can also influence one's gender identity, as gender is highly stratified (with men having more societal and economic power and privilege than women and other genders) in our culture.
  • It describes how sex-linked characteristics are maintained and transmitted to other members of a culture.
  • Apply social-learning theory and gender-schema theory to the context of gender identity development and the gender spectrum

• Gender Messages from Peers

  • Gender role theory posits that boys and girls learn the appropriate behavior and attitudes from the family and overall culture in which they grow up, and so non-physical gender differences are a product of socialization.
  • Division of labor creates gender roles, which in turn lead to gendered social behavior.
  • Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, and which differ widely across cultures and historical periods.
  • Through gender-role socialization, group members learn about sex differences, and social and cultural expectations.
  • These gender differences are also representative of many stereotypical gender roles within these same-gendered groups.

• Gender as a Spectrum and Transgender Identities

  • This social dichotomy enforces conformance to the ideals of masculinity and femininity in all aspects of gender and sex—gender identity, gender expression, and biological sex.
  • In some cultures and subcultures, gender has traditionally been viewed as fluid, or existing along a spectrum.
  • In the United States, the gender spectrum was formed as an extension of the limiting gender binary that viewed man and woman as the only two gender options.
  • The gender continuum (sometimes referred to as the gender matrix) is an extension of this gender spectrum that includes additional gender identities.
  • In Western cultures, those who identify with the gender that was assigned to them at birth based on their biological sex (for example, they are assigned male at birth and continue to identify as a boy) are called cisgender.

• Gender

  • Genderism is the cultural belief that gender is binary, or that there are, or should be, only two genders—male and female—and that the aspects of one's gender are inherently linked to the sex in which they were assigned at birth.
  • Gender neutral language and gender inclusive language aims to eliminate (or neutralize) reference to gender in terms that describe people.
  • Other gender specific terms, such as actor and actress may be replaced by the originally male term "actor" used for either gender.
  • Gender-neutral language should not be confused with genderless language, which refers to languages without grammatical gender.
  • It has become common in academic and governmental settings to rely on gender neutral language to convey inclusion of all sexes or genders (gender inclusive language).

• Gender Socialization

  • The most intense period of socialization is during childhood, when adults who are members of a particular cultural group instruct young children on how to behave in order to comply with social norms.
  • Gender is included in this process; individuals are taught how to socially behave in accordance with their assigned gender, which is assigned at birth based on their biological sex (for instance, male babies are given the gender of "boy", while female babies are given the gender of "girl").
  • Gender stereotypes can be a result of gender socialization.
  • Gender fluidity also shows how gender norms are learned and either accepted or rejected by the socialized individual.
  • Explain the influence of socialization on gender roles and their impact