». Some of these genetic or hormone variations can cause the body to develop reproductive organs that are both male- and female-associated. According to historian and feminist Gerda Lerner there is not a single society known where women-as-a-group have decision-making power over men (as a group). Answer. Some analysts believe that in hunting and gathering societies, women and men were social equals and that agricultural societies also had less gender discrimination than is common today .In these societies, women may have contributed about 60 percent of the group's total food. Difference between sex and gender are defined as Sex refers to biological distinctions between males and females. But in a sense this too can be another means by which biology is discounted and biological science dismissed as merely a social discourse. A Dictionary of Sociology », Subjects: There were studies of the ways in which baby boys and girls are turned into adult men and women by the processes of socialization in child-rearing, education, youth culture, employment practices, and family ideology. Hormones - The Biological Cause of Gender Differences. Generally speaking, sex refers to the type of reproductive organs an individual has, while gender refers to the social construct associated with the individual’s particular set of reproductive organs. At the structural level, there were studies of the unequal division of labour in the household, even between women and men who both have full-time jobs outside, and of discrimination in employment, where sex (rather than individual skills and qualifications) plays a large part in determining types of job and chances of promotion.
For example, an individual with XXXY genotype might have both a penis and a uterus. Gender Theories in Sociology What is Gender? All Rights Reserved. In the 1970s, sociological and psychological interest was focused upon demonstrating that gender exists; that is to say, upon showing that the differences and divisions between men and women cannot be accounted for by biological difference, and that the culturally dominant ideas about masculinity and femininity are stereotypes which correspond only crudely to reality. From: Gender draws attention, therefore, to the socially constructed aspects of differences between women and men. It was shown that there are huge cross-cultural variations in ideas about gender and in the roles of men and women. Across history in most parts of the world, women have been denied access to economic independence and legal and political rights more often than men have.
So, for an individual, gender is an interaction between the social norms expected of their biological sex, and their innate feelings what they believe their gender actually is. Additionally, a person may have either an XX or XY genotype, but have a hormone disorder that causes their body to develop a different phenotype than the one associated with their genotype. Much of this literature is reviewed in Sara Delamont 's The Sociology of Women (1980). Consequently, sociologists classify females as a minority group. However, the way an individual performs gender is also strongly influenced by their internal sense of their gender. Elsewhere, men routinely wear make-up and it is seen as masculine. 2016. But the term gender has since become extended to refer not only to individual identity and personality but also, at the symbolic level, to cultural ideals and stereotypes of masculinity and femininity and, at the structural level, to the sexual division of labour in institutions and organizations. Around the world, gender is the primary division between people. Gender identity is the extent to which one identifies as being either masculine or feminine (Diamond 2002).
On the other hand, there is the criticism that would reassert biological difference as being extra-social, and argue against a view of gender that discounts the true significance of the body. ; Sex–How humans are identified based on the make-up of their reproductive organs.The most common categories used in the classification of people are male, female, or intersex. Typically, males are defined as having an XY 23rd chromosome and male-associated reproductive organs, while females are defined as having an XX 23rd chromosome and female-associated reproductive organs. Individuals who have a sex phenotype that defies categorization as either ‘male’ or ‘female’ are known as intersex. Much of this work has been interdisciplinary, drawing upon anthropology, history, art, literature, film, and cultural studies to explore issues such as the interconnections between ideas of racial purity, White women's sexual purity, and Black masculinity in the United States; or the myth of motherhood as natural and universal. Is this a question of sex, gender or simply sexism? Wiki User Answered . You could not be signed in, please check and try again. ", UN Summit on Non- UN Report on Domestic Violence, HIV/AIDS and Mobility in South Asia- UNDP Report 2010, India's Development Report Card vis-a-vis MDG, Sociological Perspectives on Health and Illness, Scientific Method in Sociological Research, Theories of Gender differences and identity. Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0. https://www.boundless.com/users/493555/textbooks/sociology-cochise-college/gender-stratification-and-inequality-11/gender-and-biology-85/the-role-of-biology-494-10210/, Define and differentiate between sex and gender, Though males and females have biological differences, they are.