Department of Political Science and Sociology

North South University

Summer Semester 2025
Contemporary Issues in Gender Relationships (SOC 201.1)
Faculty: Dr. Naseem Akhter Hussain (NAHI)

Lecture- 1: Gender Identity

“One is not born but rather becomes a woman … It is civilization as a whole that produces this
culture … which is described as feminine” Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex (1949)

This discussion establishes a foundation for thinking about sex and gender and the way men and
women are constructed both historically and currently. We need to ask certain questions that are
central to the study of gender inequality. What do we mean by the terms gender and sex? What
distinguishes the two terms and how can we define them? How has the construction of sex and
gender influenced the way we think and the way in which women and men are treated in society
?

Construction of sex and gender

Most often the following definition provided by the World Health Organization (WHO)is
followed.
Sex refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women.
Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behavior, activities and attributes that a given
society considers appropriate for men and women.
Gender is culturally and socially constructed differences between men and women that varies
from place to place and time to time. In comparison sex denotes biologically determined, thus
usually unchangeable difference between them.

Gender refers to socio-cultural phenomenon of the division of people into various categories
such as male and female, with each having associated roles, expectations and stereotypes etc.

Sex is either of two main divisions of female and male (there is also transgender category) into
which many organisms can be placed according to reproductive function or organs.

There is a tendency to perceive the biological sex of a person as their true sex as something
definite, sometimes referred to as the result of nature. The term gender is introduced when we are
considering the behavioral differences between males and females and is referred to as learnt or
constructed behavior. The social and cultural influences associated with what it is to be male or
female are considered to be processes of nurture. Whether sex and gender are the result of nature

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or nurture is an issue of debate. Although physical similarities between men and women are
more, dissimilarities are emphasized. There are some qualities of women which are better than
those of men. But these are neglected. Women have more stamina and they live longer than men.
Men suffer from some diseases more than women like, tuberculosis, nerve deficiency,
respiratory troubles, heart disease, stomach disorder. Rate of suicide by men is 4 times more than
women.

Sex Gender
Female Male Female Male
Reproduction Reproductive organs Weak Strong
Organs Beard Soft Brave
Menstruation Body hair Can work at Hard work
Pregnancy Strong voice home Work outside home
Child birth Extra muscle Look after Look after
Extra fat children Society, economy, state
Low voice
Breast milk

Sex is biological – Gender is socially constructed. It is said that women are soft, emotional,
docile shameful etc. Men are strong, logical, brave and aggressive. Thus male and female
characteristics are biologically determined. But a person’s sex identity as woman does not mean
that she has to spend all of her life in cooking, caring for children, and household work. A
person’s sex identity as man does not mean that he cannot do these works. It is seen that women
are working in offices and children’s hospitals.

Sex Gender
- Biological - Social, Cultural
- Got by birth therefore - It can be changed
- It cannot be changed usually
- (Medically can be changed) - For example men and women both
- For example only women can become teachers, laborer,
Can give birth to children engineers
- Only men can impregnate - Men and women can both take care
women of children, old and sick persons

The Difference between Men and Women : Biological Determinism

Surprisingly our understanding of the distinctiveness between male and female has historically
and culturally been rather inconsistent. Cultures construct sex in different ways. Look at how sex
has been constructed in European cultures. Biological definitions are commonly based on the

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chromosomes inherited by the fetus. It is assumed that the will have either XX chromosomes for
assigned females or XY chromosomes for assigned males , in addition to the corresponding
internal and external reproductive organs. In most cases it is the observable sex of a person
which society determines to be sex and the designated gender role that a person will be expected
to conform to throughout their life. Two binaries are created : XX=Female XY= Male. Birth
certificates demand that sex of the child is documented as male or female. Sex identity is
declared according to one of these two options. The origin of this binary view of male and
female is a relatively recent phenomenon. In Western culture for almost 2000 years male and
female physical forms were understood in terms of their similarities rather than their differences.
Until 18th and 19th centuries the female form was conceived to be the same as the male form ,
only that the reproductive organs were internal rather than external.

In ancient Greece rather than being divided by their reproductive anatomies< the sexes were
linked by a common one. Actually it was the male form that was considered the norm and the
female form a diversion from the norm. Men were considered to be the perfect form while
women in possession of exactly the same organs, were in the wrong place, imperfect and inferior
variation of it. Western conception of sexual identity from its inception in the 2nd century CE
until the time of the enlightenment asserted that women were essentially imperfect men. There
was normalization of the masculine form. The body of the female sex was considered not a
different sex but a lesser, imperfect version of the male sex.

At the beginning of the 18th century the male and female bodies began to be conceived of as two
distinct sexes. By the 19th century medical scientists began to focus their attention towards
defining the female body as separate from the male body. Thus women’s bodies became medical
objects.The differences between male and female forms were no longer seen to be limited to
reproductive organs but the whole body including the brain. The female was then seen to be
wholly separate to the males not just physically but in relation to function and
capability—physically, intellectually and psychologically< all of which were perceived to be
biologically determined. Women’s distinctiveness from men in 18th century was located in the
uterus, by the mid 19th century this was relocated to the ovaries. By the end of the 19th century
brain became popular to create differences between men and women.

Biological determinism as a dominant approach in the 19th and early 20th century played a major
role in establishing a culture in which women were perceived to be inferior to men and laid the
foundation for the subordination of women. With reference to brain it was thought that women
were intellectually inferior to men. At the same time similar efforts were made in Anthropology
to analyse different races in an attempt to find scientific justification for race theory and social
evolution. It was proposed that there was a connection between a more full and intricate system

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of brain cells and fibres and a higher intellectual power in the White races which have risen in
the scale of civilization. The link between skull size , brain size and intelligence can be seen to
be more accepted cultural perspectives than it was by scientific evidence.. The notion that
women were weak and subordinate was set within the historical context of the expansion of the
colonial empires and was used to legitimize both male domination of women and the colonial
domination of one ethnic race over another.

The theories of biological determinism may seem to be ideas from distant pas, yet it is precisely
these ideas which influence construction of gender identity. In the first decade of the 20th century
sex hormones were seen to be responsible for the behavior, characteristics and functions of the
male and female The paradigm of the hormone as the root of femininity or masculinity has been
a contributing element in the persistence of the binary model. In Western scientific epistemology
sex has been given biological status as opposed to cultural status It has meant that sex has been
fixed in the more recent categorization of two binary opposites and has influenced ideas of what
male and female are.

Recent studies mention that there are places, times and cultures where the distinctions between
male and female are more fluid and less defined. Gender variance is possible with cultural
expressions of multiple genders and the opportunity for individuals to change gender roles and
identities over the course of their lifetimes. Ethnographic literature has highlighted the
prevalence of different multiple sexes and genders but also the importance of social processes in
definitions of sex categories and gender expression. People who do not conform to either of the
binary configurations of sex or gender are categorized as the ‘third gender. In Thailand several
different sexes are recognized with different gender roles and identities and with many diverse
forms of what constitutes masculinity and femininity. In the Philippines the third gender is
referred to as Bakla. The Hijras are a group of people in India and Bangladesh who are referred
to as the third gender. In Canada the manly hearted woman is known as Ninauposkitzipxpe and
in Mexico as Muxe. In Navajo culture ( Ethnic group in the USA) there are four recognized
genders—Women, Men, Third Gender, Masculine Female , Feminine Male. Knowledge of the
existence of multiple sexes and genders in Asian and Native American cultures and across
Middle East and Europe has always existed. But people whose sex and gender expression does
not conform to the binary model has not been recognized. Thus people who fall outside of the
binary categorization live without basic human rights and the right to define one’s own identity.
Sex and gender identity is not personal , rather it is institutional, political, ideological and an
issue of human rights. Biological identity is not only physical as it is also socially constructed.

Gender is socially constructed

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One way to interpret Simone de Beauvoir’s claim that ‘one is not born but rather becomes a
women’ is to take it as a claim about gender socialization. Females become women through a
process whereby they acquire feminine traits and learn feminine behavior. Masculinity and
femininity are thought to be products of nurture or how individuals are brought up. The
mechanism of construction is social learning.

Gender is sum total of the parents’, peers’ and the culture’s notions of what is appropriate to each
gender – by way of temperament, character, interests, status, worth, gesture and expression.
Gendered behavior reinforces women’s subordination so that women are socialized into
subordinate social roles. They learn to be passive, ignorant, docile, emotional helpmeets for men.
However since these roles are simply learned, we can create more equal societies by unlearning
these social roles.

Social learning theorists hold that parents often unconsciously treat their female and male
children differently. For instance when parents have been asked to describe their 24 hour – old
infants – they do so by using gender stereotypic language. Boys are described as strong, alert and
coordinated. Girls are described as tiny, soft and delicate. Some socialization is more overt –
children are often dressed in gender stereotypical clothes and colors (boys in blue, girls in pink).
Parents tend to buy their children gender stereotypical toys. Girls are discouraged from playing
sports like football, rough and tumble games. Similarly boys are not given dolls or cooking toys
to play with. Boys are told not to cry like a baby. Boys are given masculine toys like trucks and
guns.

Social learning theorists also mention that children are influenced by what they observe in the
world around them. Children’s books portray males and females in stereotypical ways. For
instance males as adventurers and leaders – Females as helpers and followers. One way to
address gender stereotyping in children’s books is to portray females in independent roles and
males in non-aggressive and nurturing roles or to create gender neutral or genderless imaginary
creatures.

Psychoanalytic theorists explain that feminine and masculine personalities develop in early
infancy as response to prevalent parenting practices. Because mothers tend to care for infants
male and female psychic development differs. Mother – daughter relationship differs from
mother – son relationship as mothers identify with their daughters than sons. This unconsciously
prompts the mother to encourage her son to psychologically individuate himself from her and
develop well defined ego boundaries. The mother unconsciously discourages the daughter from
individuating herself. Because of the emotion and confused ego boundary women find it hard to
distinguish their own needs. By contrast men are emotionally detached and have clear ego

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boundaries which enable them to prioritize their own needs. In order to correct the situation both
male and female parents should be equally involved in parenting.

Gender Socialization
Socialization, as a process of transmitting culture, has been defined as consisting of “complex
process of interaction through which the individual learns the habits, beliefs, skills and standards
of judgment that are necessary for effective participation in social groups and communities.”
Socialization is a process, which not only allows the baby to know about the basic norms of the
society, but also helps in the gradual development of one’s self. Development of ‘the self’ or the
‘the ego’ comes with the help of role playing, where a child puts himself/herself in somebody’s
else’s shoe and tries to get his/her self-image through others’ perception. Coming to know about
the ‘other’, he/she knows about the ‘self’. Thus the child comes to learn about the norms,
expectations and different roles to be played in the group through the process of socialization. A
child learns about his/her gender identity by learning what is s/he expected to do by others. An
individual learns about his or her gender identity by knowing what s/he is not, or in other words,
by learning about the other which helps in the emergence of one’s self. For instance, a male child
learns to confirm to his own gender group by neglecting all activities that a girl child does. Thus,
a male child becomes violent and plays hazardous games keeps way from dolls and kitchen set or
else he would be branded a girl.
Socialization is a continuous process that helps one to learn the normative behavior, which
mostly happens to be stereotypical behavior. The very first thing the child is socialized into is the
views regarding his/her gender identity.

Socially constituted gender roles form stereotypes. A stereotype, is an “unvarying pattern,

specifically a fixed or conventional notion or concept of a person, group, idea etc. held by a
number of people and allow for no individuality or crucial judgment”. However, social
psychologists define a stereotype as being a cognitive structure containing the perceiver’s
knowledge, belief, and expectancies about human social group. Stereotypic behavior can be
linked to the way the stereotype is learned, transmitted and changed and this is part of has
socialization process. The process of the stereo typification of gender, has a sort of biological
determinism, which starts with the reproductive ability of woman. Some say for women
‘anatomy is destiny’. Thus they are incomplete. They stand inferior to man biologically; even
physically, they are weaker. This sort of biological determinism has been used, to justify the
submissive position of women. (Bhasin 2000: 10).

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Individuals are converted from biological male and biological female into man and woman
respectively with the process of socialization, which takes up the task of gendering
individuals.Socialization takes place through four processes, namely, manipulation, canalization,
verbal appellation and activity exposure.

Manipulation refers to how a child is handed. Boys are taken to be strong and girls are given
more feminine designation of being pretty. Such experiences on one’s physique matters in
shaping the self-image and personality of boys and girls.

The second phase canalization involves the familiarization of boys and girls with certain objects,
which later shapes their perceptions, aspirations and dreams. Well, we all know that anything
that is pleasurable in the childhood becomes a memory to be cherished throughout one’s life.

“Verbal appellation” likes “strong” for boys and “beautiful” for girls help them construct
different identities. It is always strength versus beauty.

The fourth processof activity exposure pertains to different kinds activities, boys and girls are
exposed to. Girls are asked for help by their mothers and boys usually accompany their fathers
outside the house.

This is how the idea of gender is constructed and slowly permeates into the psyche of the
individual. As mentioned earlier, gender is socially constructed and, so does one’s personality. It
is important to note here that the basic difference between a man and a woman does not seem to
have any genetic foundation. It is the result of one’s culture, which is injected into an individual
through socialization process. Let us have a look at the basic differences between a man and a
woman in most societies and from where this difference springs from a psychoanalytic
perspective.

Gender Stereotypes
Gender stereotypes can be a result of gender socialization. Girls and boys are expected to act in
certain ways and these ways are socialized from birth by many parents and society. For example
girls are expected to be clean and quiet – while boys are messy and loud. As children get older,
gender stereotype becomes more apparent in styles of dress and choice of leisure activities. Boys
and girls who do not conform to gender stereotypes are usually ostracized by same-age peers for
being different. This can lead to negative effects – such as lower self-esteem.

Gender stereotyping is defined as overgeneralization of characteristics, differences and attributes

of a certain group based on their gender. If a man or a woman act differently from how their
gender is assumed to behave they are criticized. For example assertive women are called

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‘bitches’ and ‘whores’. While men who do not appear or act masculine are called ‘sissies’ or
assumed to be a gay. When gender inequality occurs on the background of gender stereotyping,
this is called sexism.

Gender stereotypes in the work place emerge from the assumption that women belong to home.
So women cannot have any job they would like to. This results in women drawing lower wages
than men, holding low status jobs, few senior positions in prestigious firms where they take up
equally huge responsibilities. Women are under-represented in higher status occupations such as
university teaching, law, and medicine. Female gender stereotypes in the work place are called
‘women’s ghettos’ which are supervised by men. There is also the issue of trust. Many people do
not trust a female doctor or a female plumber. Gender stereotypes imprison humans in the “fact”
that every person should either act as male or female, disregarding those who identity as neither
of the two or identify to both of these categories.

There are four basic examples of gender stereotypes

1. Personality traits – Women are supposed to be shy, passive and submissive. Women are
organized and clean. Men are expected to be tough, aggressive, dominant, and self-
confident. Men are lazy and messy.
2. Domestic behavior – Women are supposed to cook and do housework. Women are better
at raising children. Stay-at home mothers are better than working mothers. Men are better
at household repairs. Men cannot cook, sew or care for children. Men tell their wives
what to do.
3. Occupations – Women are supposed to have clean jobs like teachers, nurses, secretaries
and librarians. Women are not good at Mathematics. Women are supposed to make less
money than men. Women are not good politicians. Men are supposed to have dirty jobs
like mechanics, construction workers, plumbers, engineers. Men are good at
Mathematics. Men are better doctors, better politicians. Men should make more money
than women.
4. Physical appearance – Women are expected to be short and slender, small and delicate.
Men are supposed to be tall with broad shoulders. Men are supposed to be acting macho.
Acting macho for men means getting involved in fighting, drinking alcohol, smoking
cigarettes. Women who smoke, drink and swear often are considered ‘masculine’.

An androgynous person is one who does not conform to a particular male or female gender role
and become gender-neutral.

Consequences of gender stereotyping

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People who are threatened by gender stereotyping feel insecure and exaggerate the stereotyped
behavior through hyper femininity or hyper masculinity. Hyper feminine women want to boost
men’s egos and please them by acting too naive, too pious, too passive, too domestic, too
flirtatious and too nurturing. Hyper masculine men want to be dominant to impress women by
being too aggressive, too sexually active, too physically imposing, too macho, too obscene, too
violent sometimes. The internalized belief that men and women are essentially different is what
makes men and women behave in ways that appear essentially different. Gender is maintained as
a category through socially constructed displays of gender.