How gender roles are constructed by society by giving different identity of masculinity and feminity.

1. Topic :
social
Construction of gender
roles
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Social
Conctruction of
Gender
Roles

2. Introduction
 In this presentation, I make an attempt in discussing the
. It is in this regard
that I have highlighted how society shapes masculine and
feminine in relation to men and women roles respectively.
 Such an endeavor helps us in understanding how men and
women adopt their appropriate roles in society. This
presentation is designed to raise the consciousness of
students to the nature of gender as a social construct.
Rather than understanding gender in terms of fixed
dichotomies (e.g. Male/female, masculinity/femininity).
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3. Introduction
 In order, to help better understand social life and our
participation in it, the course will explore the social
construction of gender from both macro and micro-level of
analysis.
 In addition, the course will introduce mechanisms and
technologies of gender construction and representation.
Then the course will move on to explore how gender relates
to process of socialization to analyze its impact on the
formation of the expected gender roles in society.
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4. Research questions:
In this study the researcher has focused on following
questions
 Based on the social constructionist theory, how society
shapes the male character’s masculinity?
 How society construct the female character’s femininity in
terms of her perception and response towards their
appropriate roles?
 what are the various theories that attempt to explain
gender socialization ?
 what are the various agencies of gender socialization
through which the child learns the roles, and seeks to
behave in a particular way?
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5. Literature review
 This study focuses on gender in terms of masculinity and
femininity. And how society shapes different roles to male
and female character will be analyzed based on the social
constructionist theory. I will also provide clarification on
how social factors effect and moulds their behavior in
different ways. I shall begin by defining gender roles. then
explain the social constructionist theory and the aspects
involved such as social constructs. Besides, details on the
emergence of gender issues, defining sex and gender,
gender socialization and its agencies, theories of gender
socialization and social construction of masculinity and
femininity will be given. I will also collect data from
primary and secondary sources on the social construction
of gender roles in order to make my study more effective. 5

6. If gender is a social construct;
 How does it function?
 Who benefits from the way of gender construction?
 Why do some people continue to teach children and adults
beliefs human anatomy?
 Why did we create two names for the same genital organ, and
why does it matter to people which name we use for which
person?
 Why do we promote an inaccurate version of human biological
variation in our classrooms and research centres?
 By the same token, why do people – even many trained in critical
inquiry and scientific traditions – believe in these social
constructs and use them to explain so much of our world?
 And finally, what consequences we face in giving the gender roles
of men as a masculine and women as a feminine?
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7. The emergence of gender issues
 Gender has been a central ‘issue’ in India since the colonial
period. An overwhelming woman’s question arose from the
19th century social reform movement, crucially informed
and remains a point of crisis
in India’ s cultural, social, and political space.
 The recognition of gender as an issue forms the basis for
India’s women’s movement.
 One important gender concern was a status that is, the
rewards and benefits to women on India’ s journey to self-
determination, statehood, democracy, progress, modernity,
and development.
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8. The emergence of gender issues
 Women’ s issues radically entered in the fields of culture,
religion, and law; of family and community structures; of
the problems of an official responses to population,
poverty, illiteracy, and labor and of the new social
movements of Dalits, environmentalists, tribal’s, anti-dam
activists, peasants, and trade unions.
 In feminist writings and in discourses on Gender Studies,
these concepts are basic to our understanding of social
differences between men and women in the society. A
study of these concepts is useful as analytical categories.
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9. Sex and Gender
sex;
 Sex refers to the with which we
are born.
 In a very broad way ‘‘sex’’ refers to the biological and
physiological differences between male and female sex.
Gender:
 gender is a analytical category that is socially constructed
to differentiate the biological difference between men and
women.
 The term gender is also used to describe the differences in
behavior between men and women, which are described as
masculine and feminine.
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10. Gender and socialization
 Socialization is the process, through which the child
becomes an individual respecting his or her environment
laws, norms and customs.
 Gender socialization as the learning of behavior and
attitudes considered appropriate for a given sex.
 The gender socialization process occurs in multiple social
institutions, including the family, religious and educational
institutions, mass media and peer networks.
 Gender socialization is a more focused form of
socialization, it is how children of different sexes are
socialized into their gender roles and taught what it means
to be male or female.
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11. Agents of gender socialization
 The family is considered as the institution that has the
greatest impact on gender socialization.
 The parents usually hold a number of gender
stereotypes, which are ideas about how a girl and a boy
should ideally act and think.
 the choice of toys for the children seem to an image of
what is expected of them in their future.
 Talking and communication pattern.
 Setting expectations.
 Providing opportunities.
 Toys tend to be sex typed.
 Female athletes still face institutional barriers.
 Young children prefer same sex play partners.
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12. Agents of gender socialization
 The next environment that children are entering is the
school, where a conscious socialization is happening. Schools
are major contexts for gender socialization.
 In elementary and middle school, boys usually get more time
to talk, are called on more often, and receive more positive
feedback.
 Advertising
 Newspapers and Magazines
 Television and other Screen Media
 Music Videos
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13. Theoretical Approaches to Gender
Socialization
 Several theories that attempt to explain gender
socialization – social learning theory, and gender schema
theory, for example - fall within the category of learning
theories more broadly (Wharton, 2005). Such theorists
understand the processes by which children learn gender
appropriate behavior in the same way children learn in
general. Other theories focus on gender and sexuality
exclusively. Psychoanalytic theory, for example, emphasizes
the unconscious processes involved in developing gender
identity. Stockard (1999) suggests that all three theories
help explain the process of gender socialization.
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14. Social Learning Theory :
 This theory suggests that learning occurs through
reinforcement or imitation and modeling.
 People learn attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors through
social interaction.
Psychoanalytic theory :
 it isn’t a learning theory, it suggests that some aspects of
gender identity result from unconscious psychological
processes, rather than more conscious processes.
Cognitive Development theory :
 Cognitive theories of gender socialization offer a different
perspective, emphasizing the developmental nature of the
socialization process, as well as the active role the child
plays in the construction of his or her gender identity.
Gender schema theory:
 Gender schema theory suggests people have mental
organization systems (schemas) to help them identify as
male or female.
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15. Social Constructionist Approach
 A social construct is something that does not exist
independently in natural world but is instead an
 Cultural practices and norms give rise to the existence
of social constructs and govern the practices ,customs,
and rules governing the way we use/view/understand
them.
 In other words, we all act as if they exist, and because
of our intersubjective agreement, they do.
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16. Social construction of masculinity
 Masculinity consists of those behaviors, languages and
practices, existing in specific cultural and organizational
locations, which are commonly associated with males and
thus culturally defined as not feminine.
 As socially constructed identities, boys and men learn
“appropriate” gender roles in accordance to the masculine
expectations of their given society.
 Another way to explain masculine is construction through
what is known as the Inside the box is a list of
socially valued roles and expectations that constitute
conventional masculinity.
 All men are influenced by their upbringing, experience,
and social environment which play a big role in
determining one’s view of masculinity and manhood.16

17. Social construction of femininity
 Simone de Beauvoir's quote,
 The notion of womanhood or femininity is accomplished
through an active process of creating gender through
interacting with others in a particular social context.
 given a choice to decide their own identity through toys,
dresses etc.
 build characteristics and expectations.
 Based on the characteristics of physical, emotional etc
which are particularly appropriate with femininity.
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18. conclusion
 To conclude, gender and gender roles are neither only innate nor
only socially constructed.
 The notions “gender” is both biological and cultural,
so gender roles are resulted from both of the two factors. People’s
daily life , family life,
parental guidance, parental selection of toys and clothes, role
modeling creates a constructed perception of gender.
 However, culture and society are not the only; people’s biology,
genes, hormones, brain and the way their brain functions have a
huge influence on people’s gender as well as their sex. To
understand the secrets of gender and gender roles attached to
both men and women, it is necessary to focus on both biological
and social factors. We cannot understand one without
understanding the other. Gender and gender roles are socially
constructed as well as they are innate.
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Thank You…