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    Gender As A Social Construct 2 PDF

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    Marielle Joie Pineda
    This document provides an overview of a training workshop on applying a social construction framework to understanding gender. It defines gender as a social organization and result of socially constructed ideas about sex roles. It explains that gender is a social construct, relying on shared meanings that are reinforced over time to appear natural. The document discusses how gender is institutionalized through repeated performances and the socialization of children into gender roles and identities from an early age through various social institutions. Since gender is socially constructed, it can be changed, and it is the responsibility of those in development to support more equitable societies.

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    Gender As A Social Construct 2 PDF

    Uploaded by

    Marielle Joie Pineda
    69 views18 pages
    This document provides an overview of a training workshop on applying a social construction framework to understanding gender. It defines gender as a social organization and result of socially constructed ideas about sex roles. It explains that gender is a social construct, relying on shared meanings that are reinforced over time to appear natural. The document discusses how gender is institutionalized through repeated performances and the socialization of children into gender roles and identities from an early age through various social institutions. Since gender is socially constructed, it can be changed, and it is the responsibility of those in development to support more equitable societies.

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    This document provides an overview of a training workshop on applying a social construction framework to understanding gender. It defines gender as a social organization and result of socially constructed ideas about sex roles. It explains that gender is a social construct, relying on shared meanings that are reinforced over time to appear natural. The document discusses how gender is institutionalized through repeated performances and the socialization of children into gender roles and identities from an early age through various social institutions. Since gender is socially constructed, it can be changed, and it is the responsibility of those in development to support more equitable societies.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    69 views18 pages

    Gender As A Social Construct 2 PDF

    Uploaded by

    Marielle Joie Pineda
    This document provides an overview of a training workshop on applying a social construction framework to understanding gender. It defines gender as a social organization and result of socially constructed ideas about sex roles. It explains that gender is a social construct, relying on shared meanings that are reinforced over time to appear natural. The document discusses how gender is institutionalized through repeated performances and the socialization of children into gender roles and identities from an early age through various social institutions. Since gender is socially constructed, it can be changed, and it is the responsibility of those in development to support more equitable societies.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as pdf or txt
    of 18

    Training Workshop

    for
    Management Committee, Bahamas NGEP
    Presented by : Barbara Bailey, PhD
    June Castello, MSc
    2012, September 11-13
    Applying a Social Construction Framework to
    Understanding Gender
    Definitions of gender
    ‘Social organisation of sexual difference’ (Joan Scott,
    1988)

    ‘…the result of socially constructed ideas about the


    behavior, actions, and roles a particular sex performs’
    (The World Health Organisation).
    What is a Social Construct?
    1. Signs - direct relationship between two phenomena e.g
    females and menstruation

    2. Symbols – an arbitrary human assignment of a relationship


    between two phenomena e.g menstruation and
    good nurturing skills.
    What is a Social Construct?
     Creation of a society

    Relies heavily on shared meanings and understandings

    Meaning repeatedly reinforced by society so that they


    appear to be natural and not created (e.g through
    socialisation).

    Meaning dependent on socio-historical location i.e time


    The Institutionalising of Gender as Natural (Judith Butler, 1990)

     Social articulations (i.e language )of gender (e.g bodily


    movements, talk, dress and public sexual orientation).

    Through the repeated perfomance of these social articulations,


    gender appears to be an identity that exists prior to the
    articulations.

     The importance of gender as a necessity for the understanding


    of the function of sex.
    The Institutionalising of Gender as Natural (Judith Butler,
    1990)
    We make gender, and in our creation of gender, gender
    makes us as well:

     how we understand ourselves as men and women


    the rights and entitlements that are assigned to us
    the value assigned to men, women and their gendered
    characteristics.
    Socialisation to Gender
    Primary socialisation in the home : basic
    socialisation to gender as a system based on difference

    Secondary socialisation in institutions and agents


    such as school, church, peer groups, nations etc. from
    childhood through to adolescence learning : more
    specific socialisation to difference focusing on roles
    Socialisation to Gender
    Each institution and agent has its own official and
    unofficial discourses. ( Boy Scouts and badges -
    implicit; listing of students on school register by sex –
    implicit; separate bathrooms in public spaces for boys
    and girls-explicit; expectations of boys and girls in
    classes like Literature, Mathematics, discussions
    around boy friendly teaching methodologies-explicit.)
    Socialisation to Gender
    Having being exposed from early to this socialisation
    to gender, children are set upon a path of maintaining
    their gender identity , using the symbols of gender as a
    reference point.
    Identity itself is a social construct e.g race, sex/gender, age.
    So one is no more born woman, black or Christian but
    rather become any or all of these. People build
    characteristics ad expectations onto phenotypes and
    biological sex etc. whether these are appropriate or not.

    One is socialised into discharging the requirements of all of


    these identities.

    This is how stereotypes are developed.


    Gender issues are both personal and political : personal to
    so many that they reflect the systemic nature of gender
    built in , as it is, to so many structures of our lives.
    Gender affects the lives of so many individuals on the
    personal level that it requires much more than individual
    action to respond.
    Gender affects the lives of so many individuals on the
    personal level that it is impossible to ignore that it is
    caused by a society wide ‘problem’- HIV/AIDS, violence
    against women, male under-participation in the education
    system.
    People are impacted regardless of beliefs: so men who do
    not actively participate in sexism may benefit from a sexist
    society:
    So men may get better pay than women for the same
    work
    Men may get loans more easily than women because the
    society may believe that men are a better credit risk even
    when statistics do not support this.
    For some languages ‘man’ is the generic term for men and
    women and hence, seems to exclude women conceptually
    such as fireman, policeman.
    Inequality also is a social construct conveyed, for example,
    through language as in the metaphorical meanings of black
    and white to people of different races.
    Gender situates men and women not only as different but
    unequal and it is seen in the symbolic associations with the
    masculine and the feminine:
     Crying being feminine and, hence, weak
    Being stoic as a sign of strength and required masculinity
    Gossip being seen as feminine
    Allows us to question what is presented as natural and
    inevitable.

    Allows us to resist what is presented as natural and


    inevitable.
    Since gender relations are a social construct, they can be
    changed.

    It is, therefore, within our means and our responsibility as


    agents of development, policy makers and state planners,
    to support the transformation of communities towards
    more democratic and equitable societies.
    Applying a social construction approach to gender also
    facilitates our understanding of, and responding to, the
    ways in which our societies socially construct identities
    such that gender, class, race, age, sexual orientation
    combine to produce various outcomes for the persons who
    claim these identities. Some of these outcomes are very
    complex social configurations but all are determined by the
    ways in which the society assigns meaning and value to
    various identities.
    References
     Fenech-Selena, S. Motherhood .Retrieved from
    https://encrypted-
    tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSg7CCqQ674
    XDNzMyKQtvRJzbMqHQRUlWkFSbFIbOtX1kog37yb
    GQ
     Fox, Social Construction of Gender Parts 1, Retrieved
    from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iOrRT05uiA

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