Gender Roles and Culture

Gender as a Dimension of Culture Gender is certainly a dimension of culture because through the perception of gender roles the culture can be perceived. Patriarchal (like ancient Athens) or matriarchal societies (like ancient Sparta) each have their own culture and gender roles are strong characteristics of those cultures. For example, women played a very dominant role in the political and social life of Sparta and understanding the way the Spartans thought of gender is very instructive when it comes to understanding the ancient Spartan culture (Christesen, 2012; Redfield, 1977).

The Athenian culture was much more patriarchal and male and female roles in that society were more uniquely defined (Figueira, 2010). Even in modern times, the role that gender plays in society tells us much about the type of society we have and the culture that we live in. Gender-fluidity is becoming increasingly popular in our own culture, which can be seen on television shows where LGBTQ characters are portrayed in positive lights.

On college campuses, gender is discussed with as much if not more weight than any other aspect traditionally associated with culture -- such as religion, ethnicity, politics, etc. Ideas about gender clearly define how people behave, think, and project themselves.

Thus, the pros of including gender as a dimension of culture are that 1) it gives the student of culture a better and deeper understanding of a society, its times, the way its people viewed themselves and their roles in life, etc.; 2) it allows for a better and richer comparison of cultures -- some may seem similar on the surface (such as the two ancient city-states of Greece mentioned above) but an examination into their gender norms can shed light on a world of differences if looked at closely; 3) gender is a gateway into a society's view of itself as a whole -- since gender is a social construct (unlike sex which is biological) (ACP, 2016), seeing how the society constructs its sense of gender is very revealing about how its culture is built, what it aims to achieve, where it comes from and where it is leading.

The cons of including gender as a dimension of culture are that 1) it may take away from time in which focus is given to other dimensions, such as religion, ethnicity, politics, etc.; and 2) really, gender ideology could be viewed as an extension of the culture stemming from the society's religious, social and political beliefs and thus if these are understood the gender subject will also be understood (in this sense, gender as a dimension could be called a redundancy).

However, in my view, examining gender as a dimension of culture can be a helpful exercise in that it provides a tangible example of a how culture is: in today's world especially gender does serve as a functional categorization of people for researchers to delineate because there are many people and groups who self-identify according to a specific gender.

These groups are not uncommon and examining these groups is a good way to open a window into the culture, its complexities, its ranges of behavior and ideas (whether acceptable, mainstream, counter-cultural, fringe or controversial). Researchers can and do delineate people according to gender, as many people in society already do this themselves (though perhaps.