Gender role

In the social sciences and humanities, a gender role is a set of behavioral norms associated with males and with females, respectively, in a given social group or system. Gender is one component of the gender/sex system, which refers to "the set of arrangements by which a society transforms biological sexuality into products of human activity, and in which these transformed needs are satisfied" (Reiter 1975: 159). Every known society has a gender/sex system, although the components and workings of this system vary widely from society to society.

Criticism of biologism

Gender roles have long been a staple of the Nature/Nurture debate: traditional theories of gender usually assume that one's gender identity, and hence one's gender role, is a natural given. For example, it is often claimed in Western societies that women are naturally more fit to look after children. The idea that differences in gender roles originate in differences in biology has found support in parts of the scientific community. 19th-century anthropology sometimes used descriptions of the imagined life of paleolithic hunter-gatherer societies for evolutionary explanations for gender differences. For example, those accounts maintain that the need to take care of offspring may have limited the females' freedom to hunt and assume positions of power.

Related Topics:
Anthropology - Paleolithic - Hunter-gatherer

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

More recently, sociobiology and evolutionary psychology have explained those differences in social roles by treating them as adaptations. This approach, too, is controversial.

Related Topics:
Sociobiology - Evolutionary psychology - Adaptations

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Due to the influence of (among others) Simone de Beauvoir's feminist works and Michel Foucault's reflections on sexuality, the idea that gender was unrelated to sex gained ground during the 1980s, especially in sociology and cultural anthropology. In some circles, it was believed that a person could therefore be born with male genitals but still be of feminine gender. In 1987, R.W. Connell did extensive research on whether there are any connections between biology and gender role{{fn|4}} and concluded that there were none. Most scientists reject Connell's research because concrete evidence exists proving the effect of hormones on behavior. The debate continues to rage on. Simon Baron-Cohen, a Cambridge Univ. professor of psychology and psychiatry, has said that "the female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy, while the male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems."

Related Topics:
Simone de Beauvoir - Michel Foucault - Gender - 1980s - R.W. Connell - Simon Baron-Cohen

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The current trend in Western societies toward men and women sharing similar occupations, responsibilities and jobs suggests that the sex one is born with does not directly determine one's abilities. While there are differences in average capabilities of various kinds (e.g., physical strength) between the sexes, the capabilities of some members of one sex will fall within the range of capabilities needed for tasks conventionally assigned to the other sex.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Women choose to be housewives more often than do men. It has been suggested by scientists that biology plays a role in this, and it has been suggested by feminists that it is the result of gender roles. Many scientists and feminists believe that gender behavioural differences occur because of both factors. However, some have argued that gender roles themselves are abstractions of overall differences between men and women, introducing the idea of circularity and the idea of the social reinforcement of natural tendencies leading to a factitious separation between the activites of males and the activities of females.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~