The social construction of gender is a theory in the humanities and social sciences about the manifestation of cultural origins, mechanisms, and corollaries of gender perception and expression in the context of interpersonal and group social interaction. Specifically, the social constructionist theory of gender stipulates that gender roles are an achieved "status" in a social environment, which implicitly and explicitly categorize people and therefore motivate social behaviors.
Social constructionism is a theory of knowledge that explores the interplay between reality and human perception, asserting that reality is shaped by social interactions and perceptions. This theory contrasts with objectivist epistemologies, particularly in rejecting the notion that empirical facts alone define reality. Social constructionism emphasizes the role of social perceptions in creating reality, often relating to power structures and hierarchies.
Gender, a key concept in social constructionism, distinguishes between biological sex and socialized gender roles. Feminist theory views gender as an achieved status, shaped by social interactions and normative beliefs. The World Health Organization highlights that gender intersects with social and economic inequalities, a concept known as intersectionality. Gender roles are socially constructed and vary across cultures and contexts, with empirical studies indicating more similarities than differences between genders. Judith Butler's distinction between gender performativity and gender roles underscores the performative aspect of gender, influenced by societal norms and individual expression.
Gender identity refers to an individual's internal sense of their own gender, influenced by social contexts and personal experiences. This identity intersects with other social identities, such as race and class, affecting how individuals navigate societal expectations. The accountability for gender performance is omnirelevant, meaning it is constantly judged in social interactions. Some studies show that gender roles and expectations are learned from early childhood and reinforced throughout life, impacting areas like the workplace, where gender dynamics and discrimination are evident.
In education and media, gender construction plays a significant role in shaping individuals' identities and societal expectations. Teachers and media representations influence how gender roles are perceived and enacted, often perpetuating stereotypes. The concept of gender performativity suggests that gender is an ongoing performance shaped by societal norms, rather than a fixed trait. This performative view of gender challenges traditional binary understandings and opens up discussions on the fluidity of gender and the impact of socialization on gender identity.
Basic concepts
Social constructionism
Social constructionism is a theory of knowledge that posits that the way we understand the world does not simply reflect an objective reality. It asserts that the meanings, categories, and knowledge we use are constructed through language and social interactions, and vary according to time and place.
The social constructionist approach emerged as a critique of sociological positivism; that is, social constructionism rejects the premise that knowledge can be objective and value-free, while positivism is defined by it. Much literature on the subject of social constructionism focuses on the relationship between social constructs and power relations.
According to Fitzsimmons & Lennon, the constructionist accounts of gender creation can be divided into two main streams: Materialist theories, which underline the structural aspects of the social environment that are responsible for perpetuating certain gender roles; Discursive theories, which stress the creation, through language and culture, of meanings that are associated with gender.
They also argue that both the materialist and discursive theories of social construction of gender can be either essentialist or non-essentialist. This means that some of these theories assume a clear biological division between women and men when considering the social creation of masculinity and femininity, while other contest the assumption of the biological division between the sexes as independent of social construction.
Theories that imply that gendered behavior is totally or mostly due to social conventions and culture represent an extreme nurture position in the nature versus nurture debate.
Gender
Gender is used as a means of describing the distinction between the biological sex and socialized aspects of femininity and masculinity. According to West and Zimmerman, gender is not a personal trait; it is "an emergent feature of social situations: both as an outcome of and a rationale for various social arrangements, and as a means of legitimating one of the most fundamental divisions of society. Pdf. According to Kessler and McKenna, a world of two "sexes" is a result of the socially shared, taken-for-granted methods that members use to construct reality.
As a social construct, gender is considered an achieved status by feminist theory, typically (though not exclusively) one which is achieved very early in childhood. The view as achieved is supported by the contemporary constructionist perspective, as proposed by Fenstermaker and West, asserts regarding gender as an activity ("doing") of utilizing normative prescriptions and beliefs about sex categories based on situational variables. These "gender activities" constitute sets of behavior, such as masculine and feminine, which are associated with their sexual counterpart and thus define concepts such as "man" and "woman" respectively. It is noted, however, that the perception as masculine or feminine is not limited or guaranteed to match the expression's typical or intended nature.
The World Health Organization stated in 2023 that
In the context of feminist theory, the word status deviates from its colloquial usage meaning rank or prestige but instead refers to a series of strata or categories by which societies are divided, in some ways synonymous with "labels" or "roles". The semantic distinctions of "labels" and "roles" are homogenized into the term "status" and then re-differentiated by the division into "ascribed status" and "achieved status" respectively.
Gender roles
Gender roles are a continuation of the gender status, consisting of other achieved statuses that are associated with a particular gender status. In less theoretical terms, gender roles are functional position in a social dynamic for which fulfillment is a part of "doing gender". The concept was first introduced in the 1950s by psychologist and sexologist John Money.
Empirical investigations suggest that gender roles are "social constructs that vary significantly across time, context, and culture". Ronald F. Levant and Kathleen Alto write:
American philosopher Judith Butler makes a distinction between gender performativity and gender roles, which delineates between the social behaviors of the individual seeking to express the behavior which articulate their own perception of their gender; and behavior which creates the perception of compliance with societal gender expressions in aggregate. This is not to imply that participation in gender performativity cannot correspond to pressure to fulfill a gender role, nor that fulfillment of a gender role cannot satisfy the desire for gender performativity. The distinction refers primarily to context and motivation, rather than particular behaviors and consequences- which are often closely linked. Research by Liva and Arqueros describes gendered behaviors being taught. In Argentina, missionaries intending to educate the Qom people reinforced a conversion to gender norms and European modernity on the indigenous community.
In some subdomains of feminism, such as intersectional feminism, gender is a major though not solitary axis along which factors of oppression are considered, as expressed by Berkowitz, who wrote "The gender order is hierarchical in that, overall, men dominate women in terms of power and privilege; yet multiple and conflicting sources of power and oppression are intertwined, and not all men dominate all women. Intersectionality theorizes how gender intersects with race, ethnicity, social class, sexuality, and nation in variegated and situationally contingent ways".
Berkowitz also asserts that gender at large, especially gender roles, contribute greatly as a prolific and potent avenue by which manipulations of social perceptions and expression manifest reality. Specifically, a reality in which women are typically oppressed by men within a social structure that establishes roles for women, which are of explicitly lesser capacity for accruing and exercising arbitrary power. The system which manifest and exercises this power, is typically referred to as "patriarchy". To clarify, the term arbitrary here is used to denote the source of power as being derived from status as feminist theory describes it. The particular model of patriarchy prescribed, does not make any distinction of stratification or power originating from competence or prestige.Berkowitz, D., Manohar, N., & Tinkler, J. (2010). Walk Like a Man, Talk Like a Woman: Teaching the Social Construction of Gender. Teaching Sociology, 38(2), 132-143. Retrieved April 1, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/25677742
Socialization
In sociology, socialization is the process of internalizing the norms of society. Socialization encompasses both learning and teaching and is thus "the means by which social and cultural continuity are attained".Clausen, John A. (ed.) (1968) Socialisation and Society, Boston: Little Brown and Company Gender socialization is the process through which individuals develop a gender identity and learn the behaviors associated with their society’s categories of male and female. It begins in early childhood and is shaped by a complex interaction of influences.
Anthropologist Catherine L. Besteman observes the differences in gender roles in the context of parenting by Somali Bantu refugees in Lewiston, Maine; The separate roles communicate the agency of individuals based on their gender – agency in which males tend to be favored in terms of social power. Girls seemed to be "under increasing scrutiny to behave respectably as parents attempted to protect them from America's public sexual culture in the only way they know: early arranged marriage and lots of responsibilities for domestic tasks".Besteman, Catherine (2016). "Making Refuge". Duke University Press. p249 Boys, however, were given less responsibilities and more freedom. The distinction between the responsibilities of boys and girls define the refugees' children's understanding of what it means to belong to a particular gender in America with association to "parental authority". Besteman observed the contrast to be a result of a lack of traditional male chores in America compared to Somalia, such as farm work, while the traditional female chores were able to be maintained.
Research on gender socialization draws from sociology, psychology, and psychoanalysis, and has evolved through several major theoretical approaches.
Gender identity
Gender identity is a related concept, but instead of referring to the external social understanding developed between persons, gender identity refers to the internal sense of ones own gender on an individual scale. It was coined by psychiatry professor Robert Stoller in 1964.