Gender, Sex, and Gender Socialization

gender, sex, and gender socialization in the western world in the twentieth century and how public intervention may produce effective policies and practices with a focus on childcare

This work intends to define the terms 'sex', 'gender' and 'gender socialization' and how these three concepts are related to each other. This work will answer the questions of how these three concepts are related to one another and provide three specific examples. This work will further answer the question of 'what ways do traditional gender expectations facilitate personal development, and in what ways do they inhibit personal development. This work will further select four photographs of men and women from a newspaper or magazine that shows: (1) a woman performing traditional female activities; (2) a woman performing nontraditional female activities; (3) a man performing traditional male activities; and (4) a man performing nontraditional male activities. This work will provide an interpretation of each picture. This work will additionally answer the question of 'what has been the common characterization of family in the Western world in the twentieth century and why has it been idealized as a private world - that is, one where conflicts are supposed to be self-contained and without intervention from the state? This work will examine why feminists support the idea of public intervention in family policy and will analyze the history of childcare in the twentieth century and using child care as an example, discuss ways that public intervention can produce effective policies and practices.

DEFINITIONS & TERMS

1) Sex: The defining value that labels human beings either male or female based on physical/biological elements.

2) Gender: The work entitled: "Global Women Writers: Key Terms and Definitions" defines gender as: "A culturally shaped group of attributes and behaviors given to the female or to the male. Contemporary feminist theory is careful to distinguish between sex and gender." (2008)

3) Gender Socialization: societal formation developmental process of molding the individual into a prescribed gender specific role model through entrenchment in the psyche of American socialization historically and traditionally. (Married Women's Employment, Gender Socialization and Divorce Rates, nd)

I. HOW SEX, GENDER and GENDER SOCIALIZATION ARE RELATED

The work of Kryzanowski and Stewin (1985) published in the International Journal for the Advancement of Counseling in the work entitled: "Development implications in Youth Counseling: Gender Socialization" relates that research in the area of psychology "has generally supported the contention that the development of gender appropriate behavior is encouraged by socialization processes. Commencing from birth, male and female children are reared and socialized differently. In recent years there has been a trend toward the acceptance of less stereotyped roles (androgyny) in order that children may adapt more easily to the demands of the environments in which they live." Sex, gender and socialization can be clearly seen represented in the Chinese foot binding or the Western corset or as stated in the work of Hsieh (1996) entitled: "Putting the Sex Back into Gender" states: "Each device of beautification restricted her freedom and weakened her strength; each provided a feminine obstacle course through which she endeavored to move with artificial grace." Socialization is a process while not seemingly as severely restrictive as binding the foot or wearing a corset today's extremely high heels and dieting referred to as "yo-yo dieting" in the work of (Hsieh, 1996) is very much the same type of socialization of gender.

II. WHAT WAYS to TRADITIONAL GENDER EXPECTATIONS FACILITATE PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT?

The traditional gender expectations that have passed through many generations greatly facilitate personal development of the individual. For example, it is well-acknowledged among researchers that girls are less-often geared toward the mathematics and engineering fields by teachers, parents, and other's known to impact the life of the young individual in college and career choices. For instance, when viewing the following two figures labeled Figure 1-a and Figure 1-B, the general reaction of most Americans to the first picture is that something is out of place because here is the man in the kitchen however, the second picture appears more normal. This is due to gender socialization of the sexes.

Source: (iStockphoto, nd) http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview

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302073_man_cooking_food_in_a_kitchen.jpg

Source: (http://4hisglory.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/woman-cooking.JPG)

Again, in the following two pictures the first picture is one that has traditionally not been viewed as normal while the second picture is viewed as normal in relation to gender socialization expectations.

Source: (http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/3324163.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages k=2&d=86F19F6C94FCC84FBE8A1B99B35EFDC7A55A1E4F32AD3138)

Source: (http://images.jupiterimages.com/common/d etail/20/79/23277920.jpg)