Gender is a term that is not easily defined. It is a term that has great impact and is possibly one of the most debated issues in modern times. Gender has a different meaning in each society and also carries with it a time element. As time goes on, a society’s definition of gender will surely change. There are many other key elements which define gender throughout different cultures. Specifically, external forces play a key role in defining gender within a society. External factors can range from the economy within a society, to the geographical location of a society, to the environment that surrounds a society, and to the type of government that controls or rules over a society. Many of these element or external factors will determine, in some way, what gender means to a society and what roles will be given to males and females within a society. These external factors can influence internal factors within a society. The external factors can effect one’s beliefs, behaviors, and actions thus creating an ideal in which the rest of society attempts to follow.
Men and women have many gender related differences. In western culture, many of these differences are easily visible. Sports or athletic events are an area where gender differences are exaggerated to a visible extreme. Men generally compete in sports that require muscle and strength, while women generally compete in sports that require flexibility and finesse. Men play sports such as football, hockey, rugby, and basketball where physical strength is a requirement for nearly every player of each of the sports listed above. Most importantly, men compete in sports that garner a lot of attention, pay extremely high wages, and gain them fame and recognition, where as women compete in sports that are rarely watched, offer miniscule salaries, and garner very little, if any attention.
Women generally compete in sports such as ice skating, gymnastics, cheerleading, and tennis, where speed, flexibility, and grace can dominate the sport. Women who do not have the flexibility and grace to participate in these sports, but have the size and power to compete in other sports are generally looked at as “tomboys” or maybe even awkward. However, women do compete in sports that require strength and muscle such as soccer, basketball, volleyball and so on. Although both men and women can and do participate in both types of sporting events (physical events and finesse events) it is consistently viewed as not womanly or not manly to be an athlete in an event that men or women don’t generally compete in. Therefore, when a man pursues ice skating or gymnastics, he loses a lot of his manliness in the eyes of other. When a woman pursues a sport such as basketball or soccer, she loses a lot of her womanliness in the eyes of others.
The gender differences are greatly exaggerated in sports. Many men are extremely good at sports that are generally considered women sports. Many women are extremely good at sports that are generally considered men sports. The difference in ability between men and women may not even exist in many cases, yet we always say “oh they can’t do that as good as men”, or “men can’t do things like the women can.” Even though the above statements may be true sometimes, they are generally false claims. Gender differences will always be exaggerated in a situation such as this because it threatens the hold that one gender has on a particular sport. Men may feel that if women are viewed as great football player, they may soon lose their jobs. Likewise, women may feel that if men becoming gymnasts was an accepted norm by all males, then women may lose their dominance of the sport.
Sports are a specific cultural aspect in which gender differences are overly exaggerated. However, more general aspects of society also causes gender differences to be overly exaggerated. According to the article in the Gendered Society Reader titled, “A Social-Psychological Model of Gender” by Kay Deaux and Brenda Major gender based behavior can be broken down into nearly predictable elements. Deaux and Major believe that there are three main elements that determine why males and females act as they do when they are around members of the opposite sex. According to Deaux and Major, “Sex differences will be most likely, according to our analysis, when:
1.) The man and the woman have different conceptions of themselves as managers and different goals for their corporate experience.
2.) The supervisor holds strong stereotypic beliefs about women and men and is prone to act on those beliefs, creating different experiences for women and men.
3.) The situation is one in which men and women have traditionally assumed different roles and in which the organizational structure is based on a premise of different activities for women and men.
Although all three of Deaux and Major’s elements seem to hold ground in real life, numbers one and two seem to be more easily visible to most people and easier to relate to. In the corporate workplace, men and women generally do have different goals when attempting to manage a corporation or a business. For most women, customer service, likeability and delivering a respectable product would be a corporate image they would like to send out to others. Furthermore, a personal image of easily approachable, easy to talk to, sensitive to the needs of other, and caring are personal traits that they would like for the coworkers to see in them.
Male managers on the other hand have different goals and personality traits in mind. Their overarching concern for the corporation is that it is profitable and makes them look good. They like to put forth traits such as strictness, power, and authority, and be seen by coworkers and someone you don’t mess around with and someone that has control of any situation. This in turn makes the male manager gain respect and generally advances him much further than other women in a similar position.
In a corporate atmosphere, women and men couldn’t be more different. In regards to managers, the gender difference is dramatic and is certainly overly exaggerated when you compare gender differences in other facets of society. Women have the power in the managerial position of a corporation. This power is something that most women are not used to having in other aspects of everyday life. However, they tend not to become the authority figure and attempt to display their power as males do when they become managers. They instead, try to be consistent with how women are supposed to be in their society. This generally keeps them in the same position and does not help them move up the “corporate ladder.”
In situation two by Deaux and Major above, a supervisor is prone to act upon his or her stereotypic beliefs of men and women. The supervisor would, under this assumption, assign different tasks to men and women based upon his or her belief as to how capable they are of doing the assigned task. However, since the supervisor holds strong stereotypes regarding men and women, he assigns task accordingly.
As an example, a principal at a local school may have two new teachers that he or she hired. One a woman, and the other a man. Both are just as well qualified as the other. When the principal discovers that there are two openings in his or her school, he or she must choose who to assign to what position. Position 1, a 5th grade class that is predominantly male and has a history of disobedient children. Position 2, a 1st grade class, split 50/50 between boy and girls and is considered to be an average class, with no known problem children. The principal assigns the male teacher to the 5th grade class because the principal feels that men are stricter and could do a better job with the disobedient children. The principal assigns the female teacher to position 2, under the assumption that she would be better suited in handling younger kids and their sensitive issues they may have.
Throughout elementary school, this seems to occur on a regular basis. Most male teacher generally teach 4th and 5th grade: while most female teachers generally teach Kindergarten through 3rd grade. Although it may not always be the principal’s decision in this matter, it seems to be a likely influence over the gender differences for teachers. Furthermore, male teachers may desire the upper elementary grades because the likely had male teachers when they were in 4th or 5th grade and choose to teach those grades to follow the other male teacher they knew in the past. By teaching the higher elementary grades, the male teacher generally is viewed as more capable at his profession. He is teaching more advanced material to children at a much faster rate than is taught in kindergarten or first grade. Although this view is not consistent with the actual difficulty of teaching children, it is generally assumed that the more advanced the material you teach, the better the teacher must be. Example, a college professor teaching a doctorate course would likely be regarded as one of the best teachers in the area: or teaching a college course would be considered more difficult and more advanced than teaching a 2nd grade class at a local elementary school.
Up to this point, this paper has focused on two main social and environmental issues in Western society that overly exaggerate gender differences, but what about demographic issues that overly exaggerate gender differences. Gender differences appear to be amplified in areas where women generally assume the housewife role. In most northern states, both the male and female of the household have jobs. They typically both work full time and their income provides something for the family. Women in this type of culture hold more power because they provide a monetary fund that the family needs to survive. However, women typically do not work as much in most southern states. They typically have more children and are viewed as the caregiver for their children. Most southern women are still “stay at home moms.” This image holds little truth in more advanced, industry driven states. However, jobs are scarce in the south, most southern states simply couldn’t supply enough jobs to all the women if they chose to leave their homes and work full time.
The text refers to many societies that differ tremendously from the western society in which we live in. In some societies, such as the Ju/hoansi. The Ju/hoansi men do many things that are generally considered the women jobs. They do the chores with no loss of respect or feeling of guilt. Tasks such as childrearing are shared among the males and females. In other societies, such as the Aka virtually all tasks are a collective group effort and not assigned to either males or females. In this situation, gender differences are almost non-existent.
There are very few examples in Western society where gender differences are minimized. Public schools attempt to teach boys and girls in the same manner. However, teachers are generally unsuccessful at doing so. This can not be blamed on the curriculum, as the curriculum is identical for both boys and girls. This can be blamed on the stereotypes of the teacher and the expectation of the child. Gender differences are minimized in many workplace settings. Men and women work side by side in fields such as journalism. They cover the same beats, write articles of identical length, and even become editors on a normal basis. In the workplace, it can be costly to be stereotypical or gender biased. Therefore, most managers, owners, CEOs, etc… attempt to treat each and every employee in the same manner. They are aware of gender differences, but they try to conceal it as best as possible.
Western society is based upon gender differences and gender separation. Therefore, you would be more likely to find instances when the gender differences are overly exaggerated, than to find situations where gender differences are minimized. Most men and women are aware of what is expected of them in a given situation. The gender stereotypes have told them what they are supposed to do. More often than not, they follow these stereotypes, and in the same process, create the gender differences or further reinforce the gender differences that exist in our society.
