Chapter 5: Socialization and Gender Roles

Summary

Chapter Five begins by distinguishing sex from gender, showing that sex is biological whereas gender is social. Furthermore, it describes gender identity as one's perception of their self and gender roles as societal attitudes that change throughout the course of one's life.

Next, the chapter provides an account of the nature vs. nurture debate, where it is questioned whether biological facts or social facts are more responsible in determining gender roles or gendered behaviors. Health differences between men and women, the impact of sex hormones, and unsuccessful sex assignments all indicate that biological makeup is a vital factor. Alternatively, cross-cultural variations and successful sex asssignments both indicate that social makeup is a vital factor.

Why do gender roles differ? -- Gender roles differ in terms of sociobiology (impact of biology), social learning (learning behaviors through reinforcement techniques), cognitive development (maturation with respect to environment), symbolic interaction (social construction of norms), and feminist theories (sexism).

How do we learn gender roles? -- Children learn gender roles often by how they are treated when little -- specifically by their parents, peers, school, and media. For instance, the chapter describes how boys are into physical games and are allowed play roughly whereas girls spend more time in nonphysical games and do not play roughly.

Traditional Views and Gender Roles -- Traditionally, there are instrumental roles and expressive roles. Instrumental roles are often assumed by the husband or father; responsibilities include providing, protecting, and procreating. Expressive roles are often assumed by the wife or mother; responsibilities include providing emotional support, sustaining the family unit, and supporting the husband/father. There are benefits and drawbacks of keeping these traditional gender roles; for example, a benefit is that expectations are understood by both parents as to what they are responsible for, while a drawback is that many women nowadays do not like focusing on domestic work and would rather earn alongside their spouses.

Gender Roles in Adulthood -- This section discusses gender stratification -- the differences in the daily lives of people based on their gender. Wives/mothers do a significant amount more domestic work than men, taking on a "second shift" at home after their paid jobs. Besides domestic work, gender differences are seen in decision making in the household (women do more decision making), workplace discrimination (women discriminated against, but less than in the past), and sexual harassment (against women), politics (glass ceiling that women have experienced), education (math and sciences for boys, english for girls; discrimination to female professors), religion, and interactions (men talk more, but women talk more about themselves).

A Global View: Variations in Gender Roles -- This section shows how gender differs not only within American culture but cross-culturally. By assessing literacy rates and education, occupations and domestic roles, this section shows that men and women are rarely equals but that some differences from our own American experiences can be more drastic in some countries than others (the islamic middle east vs. england, for instance).

What I Learned

In this chapter, I learned to what great extents some scientists believe biology to factor into how people behave and view others. Before, I have seen analogies where biological processes are taken to be like those social processes at work in the social sphere (where we can discuss survival and adaptation of social norms), but I did not know that some hold gender roles to be biological.

Question/Concern

Symbolic interactionism encompasses sociobiology, social learning, and feminism. There are obvious physical appearances between male and female, but what is sociologically significant is not the physical appearances but the physical behaviors and how meaning emerges from those behaviors (i.e. how certain behaviors are symbolic and how in being symbolic they can conform with or deviate from gender-concepts). So sociobiology would fit under symbolic interactionism in that biology is vital to (symbolic) behavior (i.e. action). Social learning would fit under interactionism in that one learns only through interacting with symbols. Feminist structures would fit as a manifest or latent function for the way that we as a society construct symbols -- the feminist claim would be that our symbols (either intentionally or unintentionally) favor men rather than women (e.g. symbols of "strong" vs. "weak").

I suppose the resulting question and concern is how, if symbolic interactionism (or social construction) can explain all facets of gender roles, identity, norms, etc., then why does the nature vs. nurture debate gain the recognition that it does? A biological explanation for gender is not nearly as comprehensive as a social explanation. To imagine a world devoid of symbols or meaning is to imagine a world in which we cannot make any gender claims because we do not have the vocabulary for them. To imagine a world devoid of biology is still to imagine a world in which we cannot make gender claims, but for the trivial reason that we could not exist to make them. Nature has an impact, but clearly not as much as the meanings that we use to perceive, comprehend, and interpret gender.