Module 2 Social Construct with St. Scho..ppt

Gender and Development

1. MODULE 2
Session 2
GENDER as a Social Construct

2. GENDER as a Social Construct
We have defined GENDER as a socially learned behavior.
We shall look further into the
DIFFERENT SOCIAL STRUCTURES
that influence our GENDER
BELIEFS and PRACTICES
This session will aim at deepening our
understanding and appreciation of GENDER.

3. Gender roles are highly
resistant to change.
Why?
Due to continuous
•exposure
•reinforcement
of Gender Differentiation

4. Once internalized,
Gender Roles are:
•Further reinforced
•Maintained
•Sanctioned
through the pervasive
mechanism of social/
control.

5. •Family
•Language
•School
•Church
•Media
Mechanisms of
SOCIAL CONTROL

6. Four Processes in A Child’s Learning of
Gender Bias
FAMILYsocialization starts when baby is born,
influential in formative years
Socialization-the process by which an individual
learns to conform to the norms of the group: one
-is born with
-internalizes these norms
-to acquire status
-to plan corresponding roles

7. MANIPULATION
First Stage-where people treat boys and girls
differently
Manifested in the ways infants are
handled differently
Female infants more delicately
handled than males.

8. CANALIZATION
SECONDStage -people direct children’s attention
to gender-appropriate objects -
exemplified by choice of TOYS
Association -teach them prescribed
roles in life in the future

9. VERBAL APPELLATION
THIRD PROCESS -Words used to tell children
what they are:
-“brave boy”
-“pretty girl”
-Words used in what are
expected of them:
-“boys don’t cry”
-“girls do not climb trees”

10. ACTIVITY EXPOSURE
FOURTH-children familiarized with gender
appropriate TASKS:
-Girlsexpected and encouraged to:
-help mother in household tasks
-taking care of younger siblings
-Boysare allowed and encourage to
play or work outside the home

11. The Family
•The primary social
context for human
development
•Defines gender through
its child rearing practices
•Initial expectations and
role assignments of boys
and girls
•Games and toys we
played

12. The Family
•Patriarchal family
system: male
headship, task as
provider placed on
men, preference for
sons,
•Domestic role of
women: maternal,
housework [devalued]
•Love, marriage, family
and relationship as
women’s sphere

13. Educational System
•The most organized
and systematic
institution
•Transmits culture and
tradition –including
gender definitions
•Potential to create new
knowledge and
transform traditions

14. Educational System
•From its inception,
formal education was
meant for men
•It was only at beginning
of the 19
th
century that
women gained
entrance to higher
education –mostly in
teaching, nursing and
secretarial courses

15. Classroom and
Gender
•Gender tracking of
subjects –math,
science and sports for
boys
•arts, literature and
home arts for girls
•Different sets of
“appropriate”
behaviours for girls and
boys
•Boys assigned to
leadership and active
roles

16. Texts and
Books
•Teaching materials
remain sexist,
stereotypical, male-
centered
•Language not gender
sensitive –policeman,
fireman, lady dentist,
lady doctor...
•Generic male...
•Teachers pay more
attention to boys –both
positive and negative
attention

17. Images of Girls and Boys

18. Images of Women and
Men

19. ‘Hidden Curriculum’
Subtle and
unintended
messages can
create the idea
among girls
and boys that
there are fields
they cannot be
successful
because of
their sex.
It impairs boys
and girls efforts
to find their
voices,
discipline their
minds and
prepare
themselves for
their futures.

20. •The illiterate of the 21
st
century
will not be those who cannot
read and write but those who
cannot learn, unlearn, and
relearn.
•-Alvin Toffler-

21. Religion
•A personal and
basic life
orientation
•Based on a
religious
experience
•A social institution
that forms and
informs the belief
system of a group or
organization
•A meaning-giving
system that sets
standards, norms,
directions

22. Religion
•Forms and informs
our core psychic
structure
•Provides meaning to
our life
•Sets the orientation
and direction to our
actions
•Sets the norm and
standards of human
behaviour and lifestyle

23. Institutional
Religion
•Stereotyped roles for women –
as mothers, wives, sisters
•Traditional views on women –
good women to be submissive,
dutiful and loving
•High moral expectations on
women –virgin when unmarried
and faithful when married
•Women’s sexual sins are seen
as worse than men’s

24. Institutional Religion
•Leadership roles expected
from men: priest, king,
prophet, ruler, messiah,
father, head, elder
•Lower moral expectation:
sexual sins excused
•Value of physical strength,
virility and manliness

25. Media
•Most powerful and
influential institution
•Source of information,
entertainment and tool of
communication
•Ubiquitous, 24/7,
invasive
•Multimedia technologies

26. Media
•Representation of women
as young, fair, thin & sexy
•Women in mostly domestic
•roles
•Women’s spaces confined
•in the home
•Women’s activities mostly
•domestic chores
•Women in subordinate
•position to men

27. GENDER ISSUES
Problems that women and men
experience as a result of
societies definitions and expectations
about
feminine and masculine
Roles rights and capacities

28. GENDER ISSUES
problems that stem from the way women and men
have been socially constructed
commonly shared experiences brought about by
structural/societal causes
recognized as undesirable and unjust
have to do withgender inequality, with practices that
marginalize, discriminate and violate women’s rights.

29. However,
the good news is
Gender Roles
do change.

30. What is
so good about Gender
Roles
changing?

31. Gender Roles and Housekeeping
Childbearing will always fall on
the female.
However, child rearing
and house keeping
need not.
In reality, there is a female
monopoly of the housekeeping role.

32. Gender differentiation keeps women in
occupations deemed culturally appropriate.
Filipino women are…
*nurses *nutritionists
*teachers *accountants
Gender trackingof professions
continue the:
household socialization
assignment of nurturant
tasks to women.

33. Eveninhigher professions….
Areas of medical specialization
more open to women are:
Pediatrics
Obstetrics
Gynecology

34. Occupational ghettoes:
Semi-profession -where
we find large clusters of
women
As a consequence, these
jobs receive:
Less recognition
Are assigned lower value
Commonly lower wages

35. At lower levels, women work not from
choice but from necessity.
Women are found in
households that are not their
own.

36. Traditional gender roles divide men and women from each
other.
Deny women access to the
public world of:
*Work *Power
*Achievement *Independence
Deny men access to:
*Emotive
*The Nurturant
Other oriented world
of domestic life.

37. Therefore,
traditional gender
roles limit the
psychological and
social potentials of
human beings.

38. Gender roles are deep-seated in the
culture as well as belief and value
systems of the society. Pervasive social
control further reinforce, maintain and
sanction the gender roles.
GENDER as a
Social Construct

39. THEREFORE….
All of us need to be conscious of our
BELIEFS and ASSUMPTIONS
as these often impede the attainment of
of our full potential as human beings
and of those for which we are
responsible.

40. GENDERSENSITIVITY
It is the ability to recognize
gender issues
women’s and men’s different
perceptions and interests arising from
their social location and different role

41. To be gender responsive is:
•To realize that social norms have led to
differences in the roles and expectations of
women and men, resulting in discriminatory
practices against women and men, especially
women.
•To believe that human relationships should be
guided by the principles of equality, equity and
active non-discrimination in all spheres of
interaction.
•To work for the eventual elimination of these
sources of discrimination in the home, the
workplace , the community and the society as a
whole.