gender culture

Examples of gender culture in the following topics:

• Gender Differences in Social Interaction

  • Social and cultural norms can significantly influence both the expression of gender identity, and the nature of the interactions between genders.
  • Differences between "gender cultures" influence the way that people of different genders communicate.
  • However, both genders initiate opposite-gender friendships based on the same factors.
  • Gender cultures are primarily created and sustained by interaction with others.
  • Women adhering to a feminine gender culture often feel more comfortable being intimate with one another.

• The Cross-Cultural Perspective

  • Gender roles vary significantly across cultures.
  • Indeed, all gender roles are culturally and historically contingent, meaning that they cannot be analyzed outside of their cultural and historical contexts.
  • These social barriers to gender equality exist in the face of legal equality.
  • Chilean law has recently undergone some drastic changes to support gender equality.
  • Historically, gender has been an important principle of Japanese social stratification but the cultural elaboration of gender differences has, of course, varied over time and within social class.

• Gender Roles in the U.S.

  • There has been significant variation in gender roles over cultural and historical spans, and all gender roles are culturally and historically contingent.
  • The division of labor creates gender roles, which in turn, lead to gendered social behavior.
  • With the popularization of social constructionist theories of gender roles, it is paramount that one recognize that all assertions about gender roles are culturally and historically contingent.
  • This means that what might be true of gender roles in the United States for one cultural group likely is not true for another cultural group.
  • Family structures vary across cultures and history, and the term nuclear family refers to a family unit of two parents and their children.

• 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.

• 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.

• Theories of Gender Differences

  • Sociologists and other social scientists generally attribute many of the differences between genders to socialization (note that even physiological differences mirror existing gender socialization processes).
  • In gender socialization, the groups people join are the gender categories, "cisgender women and men" and "transgender people".
  • Preparations for gender socialization begin even before the birth of the child.
  • Blending aspects of Conflict and Symbolic Interaction theories, Feminist Theory critiques hierarchical power relations embedded within existing gender structures, cultures, beliefs, discourses, identities, and processes of self presentation.
  • Drawing on Conflict Theories, for example, Feminist Theory examines how women and other gender minorities are disadvantaged in relation to men and cisgender norms within patriarchal structures, cultures, and processes of social organization.

• Gender Messages in the Family

  • 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 that non-physical gender differences are a product of socialization.
  • Division of labor creates gender roles, which in turn, lead to gender-specific social behavior.
  • Socialization theory tells us that primary socialization - the process that occurs when a child learns the attitudes, values and actions expected of individuals within a particular culture - is the most important phase of social development, and lays the groundwork for all future socialization.
  • Children learn continuously from the environment that adults create, including gender norms.
  • Justify how the family acts as the most important agent of gender socialization for children and adolescents

• Gender and Research

  • Gender, and how it is shaped by societal influences, is an important focus of much sociological research.
  • Sociological research will study such things as social stratification between genders, the socialization of gender, influences of sexism on educational performance, gender and mass media, inequality in the workplace, gender roles and social norms , and other gender-related topics and social phenomena.
  • Other conceptions of gender influenced by queer theory see gender as multidimensional, fluid and shifting; something that cannot be plotted linearly at all.
  • Sex and gender research, therefore, focus on different areas of study.
  • Gender refers to social or cultural distinctions associated with being male or female (Diamond 2002).

• 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

• Gender Bias in the Classroom

  • Gender-based achievement gaps suggest the existence of gender bias in the classroom.
  • If test score gaps are evidence of gender bias, where does that gender bias come from?
  • Cultural norms could influence girls to prepare for their expected role of keeping a home and nurturing children, though such norms are less stringently enforced than in the past.
  • Sociologists would point to social influences and cultural expectations.
  • The gendering of school subjects may, in itself, lead to gender bias in the classroom, and, further down the line, gender inequality in the workforce.