Gender Interview Assignment

Gender Interview Assignment: The Meaning of Gender as a Social Construct

In this assignment two different people were interviewed and their responses are compared to help answer how gender is a social construct. I will also reflect on them by my own experiences. A series of questions were asked and a conversation grew from them, Some more question where added that I thought would fit in. I interview two girls around the same age, but one is American raised where the other is raised in another country and also is Muslim, I wanted to see how those factors affect their views. To begin I interview a 23-year-old American female who grew up in Vancouver WA, with her first gen American parents. I started by asking her about gender and the interview, she seemed okay and open about the topic. I asked about her growing up as a female and she said she felt equal because she grew up as a tom boy, played with both cars and dolls. She had evenly balanced play time and responsibility time but, very strict parents. I asked about expectations of her growing up as a girl and she felt her parents where open to her doing what she wanted, sports, games, activities, etc... Played more sports than her brothers did.
Then I asked about her brothers and how they grew up compared to her. Her brothers were free to do anything they wanted, they never felt doing something was girly, they did guy stuff, never expressed a need to doing something else. She told me most of the time she dressed girly (pink cloths, skirts, hair done in pig tails). At this moment she was aware of the reasons for the interview, so she started to respond with deeper answers. I transitioned into challenges that her gender posed on her and she said because she was the only girl she has stricter protective rules, especially on dating and friends. I asked about how being a female affected her dreams and goals, and she felt affected a little but, when she was younger she let that happen but now she stopped caring, when she was little she thought math and science was only for boys, but now she will peruse in it and ignore the stereotypes. After discussing off topic on women in stem I asked about the role of gender in religion, she didn’t grow up religious, believed in God but didn’t go to church. So I asked about economics and she feels generally guys need less money than women do because they don’t but make up or expensive clothing. She feels guys make more money. So she wants to have a job that can support herself so she doesn’t have to rely on a guy for support. I then thought up a question and asked her if her parents pushed her to achieve the goals she wanted to and they pushed for education, and any carrier option she felt was good for her. So her parents would be supportive regardless the career option. I helped move her in to a new topic by asking how she feels about boys and girls growing up equally and she said they should grow up the same in terms of feeling free to do what they want. Because having the same opportunities on sports and the way they are treated by their parents. Boys shouldn’t be relied on to fix things. She was raised the way she thinks boys and girls should be treated. It was more that her brothers where treated differently from her, she was babied (lone sister). Her parents payed more attention to her as if she need more help. Then I asked how she would raise her kids and she wouldn’t try to raise then with a prominent gender difference, but instead let them chose what they want for themselves gender wise.

After wards I interviewed the next girl, she is 19, Muslim, and from Sudan. I chose her to compare to someone with a similar age but different culture and religion to understand how big of a factor religion plays on gender as a social construction. When I first started talking, she seemed not ready, and not ready to open up too much. In a similar format as the first question I asked about her growing up as a female and she responded that is different from boys, her parents are over protective, she couldn’t do sleep overs, brothers could do whatever they wanted to do. She Could play a lot, but had a lot of chores also, more than her brothers. I disused about expectations of her growing up female and her parents expect her to be clean, preserved, protected, and her brother was not as much looked after for staying clean and polite. Her brother got to do less chores and more freedom of distance on where he goes, how far, what he does. She said that is because parents are always stricter with the older siblings. I asked the biggest challenges in her life as a girl and she responded of how when guests would come over she was expected to cook and clean and she just watched the guys talk and socialize and never help. I asked about how gender played a role in her life religiously. Her parents didn’t want her to dorm at college, she sees it as a bonus to save money, she can’t dorm so her educational options are very limited. Then I asked what role has your gender played in your life, in relation to religion: She said to be Expected to cover up, girls and boys should be equal in tasks, Culture: Very much like girls are reserved for cooking and cleaning and not expected to go out alone without a male family member protecting them. On economics and working she feels that she would make the same amount as a boy, and if she would have kids she would make less. I then went on to a different topic because she wasn’t so open so I asked about boys and girls being raised differently. She had a standing opinion that they shouldn’t. because boys need to clean and cook as well they should learn to survive without the “women” caring for them, but she does enjoy when she is in trouble like a car breaks down, boys will go out of their way just to help her and not expect anything in return. So things shouldn’t be different between the genders. I asked about her ideology compared to how she grew up. She grew up differently, she had different manners and ways to act, but education was the same for her and her brother. So I asked my own question to get one last good answer and opinion from her, I asked: Religiously should boys and girls be different? No, they are all equal, no difference. In my religion one isn’t superior to another, it’s just my culture that has parents so over protective of their girls. The two girls are both WSUV students in the STEM field, and they do have many similarities on how they want to be treated as females in today’s society. The first major similarity I noticed was how they both wish to grow up the same as boys, and boys as girls, with freedom of chose on what to do and an equal balance between chores and play time compared to their brothers. Another similarity was that both don’t feel that their gender affects how they will advance in their carriers. And finally they both want raise their children equally with the options of what they want to do, also with an equal balance of expectations. They both also said they might still be over protective of their daughters just because they understand what it is like growing up and they want to help them more. I can see from this that gender as a social construct was not made on bad intentions, it is an old ideology that is changing today, for example I remember when I was around 6 and my aunts where arguing about how they get paid less than their male coworkers, and today that isn’t as prevalent as it was over a decade ago. They both feel that sexes should grow up equally and with freedom of choices to make about their lives. Now they also had differences too, some are more noticed than others and some are not. The reasons why I choose them was because one grew up in a liberal Portland Vancouver family, and the other was raised in a Muslim conservatory republican family. The biggest difference I heard was the limitations they had as females, The American said her scope of schooling and education was very open, but the other girl was limited to local schools because her parents wouldn’t allow for her to be in dorms because of their protective cultural beliefs. Another difference was that the American girl felt that she didn’t grow up that different from her brothers, just that they had a bit more ‘wiggle’ room in a sense, but the other girl said she did a lot of cooking and cleaning as her brother just played and talked with other guys while the girls would do household work. I saw a large difference between them when the American girl said her parents are strict on her because she is the only daughter and it wasn’t too bad, but the other girl said her parents limited her a lot such as no sleep overs, and certain friends, because she was the oldest while her younger brother was more open to choices. She doesn’t feel that her gender is the reason for the strict rules she has compared to her brother, just because she is the oldest girl. So the two girls differ because the American girl feels some injustice because she is a girl, but the other girl who has much more limitations due to her gender feels that her parents just want the oldest to be like that. It is interesting how the two very different cultures see things especially when the one that is treated worse sees it as something that just happens. Now enough information was collected finally answer the question; How is gender as a social construct?
Gender is a social contruct because we all grew up with this knowlage passed down from our parents that boys fix thing and protect whereas girls clean, cook, and care. I do notice that in the western society that is starting to die down because there is more awareness and parents are starting to be more open to allowing their children the option of doing what they feel is best. Even tough in a Muslim religion gender is equal, the culture is what effects how boys and girls are raised, and culture is a social construct the same as culture. One similarity between many cultures is how they have a social construct of expectations of how girls are raised and how boys are
raised.